News
25 February 2011
2012 EPPSP meeting on the influence of religious and secular lobbies in the EU, 25 September EHF past President David Pollock addressed the European Parliament Platform for Secularism in Politics (EPPSP) chaired by Sophie In’t Veld (MEP) on the influence of religious and secular lobbies in the EU. Read David Pollock’s talk EPPSP Meeting with new EP President Martin Schulz, 27 March The second meeting of the year was held on 27 March with the new… read more »
(2004-2009 Parliament) The EHF was deeply involved in the work of the European Parliament’s Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics which was chaired by Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld. EHF representatives attended and contributed to all their meetings. Their “mission statement” (adopted on 25 April 2005) was: The “All Party Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics”, is an informal grouping of European parliamentarians, meeting regularly with members of civil society, with… read more »
The EHF takes a full part in the civil society Platform of the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency (which was created in February 2007 out of the former European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia). 19-20 April 2012: A report on the meeting of the Fundamental Rights Platform can be found here. At the meeting the EHF, represented again by Hans Christian Cars, issued a leaflet refuting scurrilous criticism of the EHF by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination… read more »
The EU Council of Ministers or European Council is the gathering of the heads of government of all EU member states (and also refers to similar meetings of ministers concerned with any particular topic – finance, trade, etc). It is the political sovereign body of the EU, alongside the Commission (the civil service) and the Parliament. (It is not to be confused with the Council of Europe, which is not an EU body at all.) The Presidency… read more »
Support to the European Parliament Platform for Secularism in Politics The EHF is an active supporter of the European Parliamentary Platform for Secularism in Politics which is chaired by Dutch MEP Sophie in’t Veld. EHF representatives attend and contribute to all their meetings, and we serve on the Advisory Board to the Platform along with other NGOs, including religious ones, that support secularism. The Platform is the successor to the All Party Working Group on Separation of Religion… read more »
2012 Annual Summit on Intergenerational Solidarity , 27 November 2012 2011 Annual Summit on the role of the EU as a partnership for democracy and shared prosperity , 30 November 2011 2010 Annual Summit on Poverty and Social Exclusion, 15 October 2010 2009 : EHF protests at exclusion from top-level meeting For the fifth year running, the EU has organised a top-level consultation with representatives of various religions but has excluded organisations representing non-religious lifestances. In 2007 and 2008 the EHF asked to be invited and… read more »
The EHF is recognised by the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (as also to its predecessor body the Group of Policy Advisers) as representing humanists and secularists in the European community. BEPA is a small Directorate General of the European Commission, reporting directly to the President whose role is “to provide timely, informed, policy and political advice to the President.” It is BEPA that organises the dialogue with the churches etc and with the EHF and through which we have had… read more »
20 February 2011
The Committee on Culture, Science and Education of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is undertaking a study on “The Religious Dimension of Intercultural Dialogue”. The EHF submitted a memorandum to the Committee and as a result was invited to attend a hearing on 18 February 2011 held in the building of the Assemblée Nationale in Paris. Keynote speakers representing the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches, Judaism and Islam had already been invited… read more »
1 February 2011
Meeting of the EP Platform for Secularism in Politics At the meeting of the European Parliament Platform for Secularism in Politics on 1 February 2011 there were two speakers on the subject of religion, Fundamental Rights and the draft anti-discrimination Directive. Introducing the discussion, Sophie in’t Veld said that in 2001 the EU had approved a directive against employment-related discrimination related to religion or belief, disability, age or sexual orientation (the “strands” of sex and racial or… read more »
11 January 2011
German summary below On 11 January 2011 the EHF met the Belgian President of the Council. This was the first time the EHF had been accorded a meeting with the Council presidency, although meetings with the two bodies of European bishops (COMECE and CEC) have been standard for some years. David Pollock, EHF President, was accompanied by vice-president Pierre Galand (also president of the Belgian Centre d’Action Laïque), Sonja Eggerickx (president of IHEU and of… read more »