NSS in exchange with the EU President

The President of the European Parliament was challenged last week (June 5th 2007) to explain the disproportionate amount of consultation that the Parliament has with religious groups as opposed to non-religious groups. President Hans Gert Pöttering was a guest of the EU Parliament’s All Party Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics, at which the NSS was represented.

Herr Pöttering assured the meeting that he was keen on dialogue with everyone, including the non-religious, and backed a version of Article 52 of the failed European Constitution. However, secular groups around Europe – including the NSS – are deeply opposed to any inclusion of Article 52 or any variation of it in the proposed new version of the treaty.

(Catholics for a Free Choice has an excellent explanation of Article 52 here).

The President was criticised for inviting the pope to address the EU Parliament. Sophie in ’t Veld MEP, chair of the meeting and an NSS Honorary Associate, had already written to him expressing the group’s displeasure at the invitation.

Herr Pöttering bridled at any suggestion that “the Holy Father” (as he significantly referred to him), should be expected to answer questions from the elected representatives he was invited to address. To do so, Herr Pöttering maintained, would be to discriminate against the pope, given that others addressing the Parliament (mainly heads of state, which the pope supposedly is) were not expected to be questioned.

The European Humanist Federation suggested that consideration should be given to suspending Poland’s membership of the EU before it significantly undermined the EU's own commitment to equality.

NSS Executive Director Keith Porteous Wood made the following remarks to the President at the meeting: “It is clear from research that the majority of EU citizens do not practise any religion and a steadily increasing number of people do not subscribe to religious bodies. There are 60 missions to the EU – but, crucially, only one, the European Humanist Federation, represents the non-religious viewpoint. And even this solitary body is accorded a lower status than its religious counterparts. Even many of those that are religiously affiliated do not follow the religious teachings on sexuality or issues concerning the beginning and end of life. The non-religious citizens are therefore becoming partially disenfranchised in these sensitive areas, yet will themselves be affected by the regressive changes in policy that religious groups increasingly seek to implement.

“At present, this privileged religious influence is overwhelmingly Christian, but the precedent it sets allows for other religions – particularly Islam, which is a growing force in Europe – to make conflicting and divisive demands.

“Therefore, as part of the obligation for transparency, we call for the European Humanist Federation to be invited on an equal status to all religious dialogue, including to the six-monthly meetings with the Catholic and Protestant churches.”

Herr Pöttering acknowledged Mr Wood’s intervention but emphasised the need for open dialogue with Islam.

Human rights must always trump religion says Council of Europe.
Following the resolution we reported last week about blasphemy and free speech, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has passed another resolution recommending that religion and the state be kept separate. It also says that if there is a conflict between human rights and religious rights, human rights must always take precedence.

The resolution was greeted with enthusiasm by the National Secular Society.

The Council’s resolution says that although the religions should be accepted and respected as “institutions set up by and involving citizens who have the right to freedom of religion” it reaffirms “that one of Europe’s shared values, transcending national differences, is the separation of church and state” and that “each person’s religion, including the option of having no religion, is a strictly personal matter.”

The Council accepts that individual nations have the right to enact legislation regarding the relationship between church and state, so long as it is done in compliance with the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The Council says: “Over the past twenty years, religious worship has declined markedly in Europe. Fewer than one European in five attends a religious service at least once a week, whereas twenty years ago the figure was more than twice that. At the same time, we are witnessing the growing strength of the Muslim communities in virtually all Council of Europe member states.”

However, the Council categorically states: “Governance and religion should not mix.” And it tells religious leaders that if there is any restriction on their activities by the state because those activities violate the human rights of others, then the religious leaders must “take an unambiguous stand in favour of the precedence of human rights as set forth in the European Convention, over any religious principle.”

On freedom of expression, once again the Council is firm. There must be no restriction placed on such a freedom for religious considerations. “Freedom of expression is as protected under Article 12 of the European Convention should not be further restricted to meet the increasing sensitivities of certain religious groups. While we have an acknowledged duty to respect others and must discourage gratuitous insults, freedom of expression cannot, needless to say, be restricted out of difference to certain dogmas or beliefs of a particular religious community.”

NSS Executive Director, Keith Porteous Wood, has been working hard over the past year both formally and behind the scenes for this forthright restatement of secularism in the Council of Europe, said: “I don’t think we could have asked for anything more plainly-worded or more pleasing. The Council of Europe has made this unambiguous statement of its secular nature and has told religion that although it has a role to play, it is not a special role that outranks everyone else in civil society. This resolution is good news indeed.”

The Council of Europe is an advisory body promoting democracy, human rights and the rule of law. With 47 member states (including Russia), it has a far wider reach than the EU.

Read the resolution

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