” “"It will be an interesting debate": José Manuel Liberato, spokesman of the EU Parliament, made just a brief comment as he announced the agenda of the plenary meeting that opened this afternoon in Strasbourg, during which "father Andrea Santoro’s sacrifice" was also commemorated. The EU Parliament, which will gather until Thursday, will also have to cover the Service Directive, relations between Europe and Iran, air traffic controllers’ licences, rural development and renewable energy sources. Wednesday morning, the meeting will address the "Right to the freedom of expression and respect of religious faith". All the party heads are supposed to take part in the debate, and the EU commission and the EU Council will give their contributions. The subject will also be in the agenda of the Euro-Mediterranean parliamentary meeting (Empa), due on March 26th and 27th in Brussels. Josep Borrell, president of the EU Parliament and current president of Empa (240 members: EU MPs, European national MPs and their counterparts from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Palestinian Authority, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey), made a statement in which he "strongly deplores the offence to the religious feeling of the Muslim community" and of religious freedom in general, he invites "to a responsible use of the freedom of expression"; he did not fail to recall the importance of the freedom of the press, while he condemned "the use of violence against the European diplomatic offices", wishing "an atmosphere of peaceful and proactive dialogue" will soon be restored.” “
