The European Parliament today held a hearing entitled "Unity in Diversity", one of the EU's more hypocritical slogans, on the role that religious belief should play in society after ratification of the Lisbon Treaty.
"Unity in diversity" is one of those wishy washy terms that often become rather meaningless. But wouldn't the EU be a much better place if this maxim, rather than that of "ever close union", was the one that prevailed, be it the EU's respect for religious differences to respect for the existing member states' differing legal systems, cultures and social and employment practices?
Guess that's not what the EU really meant though is it..
I agree, EU's history is full of episodes of hypocrisy. One is of towards Turkey. A country which has been made to wait on the door steps for more than 50 years. There is certain animosity towards Turks living in Europe and this is a reflection of that, among other things. Even though the Turkish Governments have been pressing for so long to declare PKK a terrorist organisation the EU governments are refusing to do so and their simple answer is one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. I have vitnessed it in the Netherlands when a terrorist organisation (PKK) was allowed to collect money which was supposidly going to go towards freeing Ocalan, but everyone knew in fact it was going directly into PKK's coffers. One thing is certain, Turkish people's patience is coming to an end, the number of people in support of Turkish involvement in the EU is for the first time in history less than those opposing it and the number of opposers is growing alarmingly. An Italian diplomat has seen this and he also warned EU on this, by refusing Turkey EU membership they are only pushing this Secular country towards an Islamic republic. Another Iran? Definetely that is where it will end, we just witnessed it with the Mavi Marmara Flotila incident.
ReplyDeleteEU can deny that it is a Christian Club all they want, but it is definetly what it seems like from where I stand.
They made a lot of mistakes one of whch was excepting Southern Cyprus to EU membership without tying the problem between them and the North as a barrier to their EU membership. Another hypocrisy because it is one of the barriers to Turkish membership.
I think EU needs to take a good hard look at themselves and think, what's in their best interest and what's not.