Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-12-15-Speech-2-359"

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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, on 3 November 2009, the European Court of Human Rights approved an application from an Italo-Finnish citizen seeking to remove crucifixes from classrooms. Similar episodes had occurred in the past in Spain, Germany, France and also in Italy where, in 1988, the Council of State established that the crucifix is not just a Christian symbol but that it also has a value unrelated to that specific religion. The Italian Council of State, expressing its opinion again in 2006, specified that the principle of secularity of the state cannot disregard a people’s cultural identity and its civilisation. With our question, we wanted to highlight the most secular aspect of this matter, not least by pointing out that the next step could even be to take before the Strasbourg Court Catholic symbols which are part of the common traditions of the Member States, as well as the artistic and cultural portrayals found throughout our cities. Even the flag of the European Union, created for the Council of Europe, was inspired by Marian iconography according to its designer. The decision of the Court of Human Rights seeks to impose from above – so much for subsidiarity – a secular model which many Member States cannot identify with or, worse still, seeks to lead us to nihilism: there you have the empty wall which Mr Borghezio just mentioned. The ruling calls into question our very identity, our European values of peace, love and civil harmony, of equality and freedom, and the ruling therefore undermines freedom and equal rights. The EU institutions are champions of the prerogatives of freedom. Displaying religious and cultural symbols with which peoples identity is an expression of the freedom of thought – and the Sakharov Prize will be awarded in this very Chamber tomorrow – and should be safeguarded as such by the EU institutions themselves and by international organisations founded on democratic principles."@en1
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