A resolution insisting that EU member states protect freedom of conscience and religion has been adopted by EU foreign ministers, according to a report in the Irish Catholic.
The resolution calls for States to “ensure that their legislative systems provide adequate and effective guarantees of freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief to all without distinction.”
European Church leaders welcomed the move, which is being interpreted by many as a rebuke to the European Court of Human Rights and its decision to ban crucifixes in Italian schools.
At a meeting of the European Bishops’ Conference, COMECE, last week, the Conference welcomed “this priority given to religious freedom”.
The resolution reaffirmed “the strong commitnemt of the European Union to the promotion of freedom of religion or belief. It emphasised that freedom of religion was “intrinsically linked to freedom of opinion and expression”. This freedom, it added, was necessary “to create pluralist, tolerant, broad-minded and democratic societies”.
The resolution also stressed “the strategic importance of freedom of religion or belief and of countering religious intolerance, and reaffirms its intention to continue to give priority to the issues as part of the European Union’s human rights policy”.