EU’s Foreign Affairs ministers take up freedom of religion role

COPENHAGEN – The European Union needs to be more active in defending threatened and oppressed religious minorities elsewhere in the world. That is the conclusion of EU’s council of ministers of Foreign Affairs (FA). Dutch FA minister Uri Rosenthal concurred with his Austrian colleague Michael Spindelegger the EU needs an early warning system to raise alarm when freedom of religion is becoming endangered somewhere. The need is more relevant since Islamic extremists have been emboldened in the turbulences caused by the so-called Arabian Spring. However, the calls for action are much older and have been issued for some years in the European Parliament by its Dutch members representing the ChristianUnion and Reformed Political Party SGP.