| ECI receives endorsement from Vice-president of the European Commission |
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Full support for the goals of the European Coalition for Israel Brussels, February 2, 2006 – The European Commissioner for Security and Freedom is a friend of Israel. On Tuesday a delegation from the European Coalition for Israel met with Italian Commissioner and vice-president of the European Commission, Franco Frattini, in connection with the International Holocaust Day in Brussels. At the meeting Commissioner Frattini expressed his deep commitment to Israel as the Jewish homeland and his full support for the goals of the European Coalition for Israel. - “During my time as a foreign minister in the Italian government I expressed my deep concern when an EU-survey revealed that the citizens of Europe considered Israel the greatest threat to world peace”, he said in his meeting with the delegation. “How could anyone even suggest that the only democracy in the Middle East would be a threat to anyone”, he asked himself? In the meeting Mr Frattini highlighted various threats which Jews are living under in Europe and Israel today. Frattini was alarmed over the growing anti-Semitism in Europe. He had become aware of the problems not only from reading media reports which are indicating a rise of anti-Semitic violence in Europe but also from concrete incidents in his own country Italy. - "Only last week the fans of the Italian football team Lazio displayed Nazi symbols during a game resulting in a thorough investigation by the Italian police and possible prosecution for the perpetrators", he said. He agreed with the Coalition that there is a new generation growing up in Europe today who does not know their history, and hence, does not know the truth about the Holocaust nor the history of the Jewish state. -"There is a tremendous need for information right now, the Commissioner stressed, and therefore the work of the Coalition is of great importance. Media is full of negative reports and we need to balance this with factual and positive information about Israel", he said. During the meeting the Coalition also discussed the work of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE, which in 2004 adopted a Berlin declaration calling on the member states to implement stricter legislation to avoid the spread of anti-Semitism by agreeing on a common definition on anti-Semitism for use by justice ministers and law enforcement agencies. Also his head of cabinet agreed that such meetings should also continue in the framework of the European Commission and could become an important part of the strategies of the Commission to fight anti-Semitism by an exchange of best practices and developing benchmarking methods in this campaign. Mr Frattini had just got back from a Council meeting in Vienna where he had convinced todays and the next four EU-presidencies to make the fight against racism and anti-Semitism a top priority for the coming two years. Much to Frattini's delight there is a large conference planned in Vienna already in June where also anti-Semitism will be on the agenda. Though the EU has been criticized for being soft on terrorism and tough on Israel the Commissioner saw several signs of a change of attitude in recent months because of the developments in the Middle East. - "The new Commission has been very firm on their commitment not to work with Hamas unless they transform their self in to a political party which renounces violence and fully accept the Israel’s right to existence", he said. Also the general attitude towards Iran has changed in recent months and the same day as the meeting took place in the European Union headquarter in Brussels the five permanent members of the Security Council had agreed to take Iran to the UN. The delegation expressed its opposition to the planned conference on Holocaust, which has been initiated by the Iranian president Ahmadinejad which would clearly advocate a revisionist view and promote Holocaust denial. The Coalition urged the Commission to boycot such a conference and challenged the EU to counter any such effort by organising their own seminar in Brussels which would give clear scientific evidence on the Holocaust and promote the fight against anti-Semitism and revisionism. The delegation which met with vice-president Frattini consisted of Rijk van Dam, Tomas Sandell, Helmut Speecht and Perrine Dufoix. |