Twenty senior representatives from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim religions as well as from the Buddhist communities met in Brussels on the invitation of European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.
The meeting, which was co-chaired by Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament and Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, gathered faith leaders from thirteen EU Members States (United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, Hungary, France, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Romania, Greece, Cyprus, Poland, the Netherlands) and from third countries (Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina).
They discussed effective ways of rights and liberties with a view to build a Partnership for democracy and shared prosperity between Europe and its neighbourhood.
They expressed their readiness to work side by side with the European institutions to promote democracy, human rights and fundamental freedoms which, they said, “are indispensable in the building of pluralist and democratic societies.”
It was the seventh in a series of annual meetings launched by President Barroso in 2005. This is the second time that the meeting takes place in the context of the Lisbon Treaty which foresees that the Union maintains an "open, transparent and regular dialogue" with religion, churches and communities of conviction. Today's meeting testifies once again of the importance that European institutions give to this dialogue.
"Our task and ambition is to promote democracy, pluralism, the rule of law, human rights and social justice not only in Europe but also in our neighbourhood. I strongly believe these challenges cannot be met without the active contribution of the religious communities. Today's discussion confirmed our common commitment to the promotion of democratic rights and liberties, including freedom of religion and of belief,” Barroso told a press conference.
Ahead of the meeting, Jewish and Muslim leaders from several European countries presented a joint declaration to the heads of the three main EU institutions in which they raised concern about "increasing manifestations of Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in countries across Europe."
"Bigotry against any Jew or any Muslim is an attack on all Muslims and all Jews. We are united in our belief in the dignity of all peoples" and urge "all Europeans of conscience to put a stop to any group that espouses racist or xenophobic ideologies long before they are in a position to gain legislative or other power,” the declaration said.
“We must never allow anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, xenophobia or racism to become respectable in today's Europe. In that regard, we call upon all political leaders not to pander to these groups by echoing their rhetoric."
The religious leaders also stated: "We remember together the horrors that took place on this continent in the 1940s - a campaign of mass murder, unique in history, which resulted in the annihilation of one third of world Jewry in the Holocaust. That atrocity and others, such as the mass killing of Muslim civilians in Bosnia-Herzegovina during the 1990s, resulted from
the triumph of racist and xenophobic ideologies that demonized those that they targeted."
This Europe-wide interfaith initiative was set in motion last December with the first gathering of European Muslim and Jewish leaders in Brussels. It is modeled on a similar cooperative effort in the United States organized by the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding.
Co-sponsors of the initiative are the European Jewish Congress, the FFEU, the Muslim Jewish Conference, the World Council of Muslims for Interfaith Relations and the World Jewish Congress.