Europarliament Takes Stand for Same-Sex Unions

[cmotherofpirl]

Europarliament Takes Stand for Same-Sex Unions


STRASBOURG, France, JAN. 20, 2006 (Zenit.org).- European countries that do not recognize same-sex unions have been condemned as "homophobic" by a resolution of the European Parliament.

The nonbinding resolution passed Thursday by a vote of 468-149. There were 41 abstentions.

Mario Mauro, vice president of the European Parliament, said in statements to ZENIT that "an ideological document has been approved that has very little to do with the concrete protection of people's fundamental rights."

Mauro said that the document, which refers to religious freedom as a "source of discrimination," is "in open contradiction with treaties and even common sense."

Riccardo Cascioli, president of the European Center of Studies on Population, Environment and Development, told ZENIT that "for the umpteenth time, a European institution pronounces itself on a topic -- such as the family -- which is the strict domain of each of the member states."

"It is obvious," Cascioli said, "that human rights have become a pretext to affirm an ideology that not only has nothing to do with the good of the person, but that is even a source of violence against individuals, communities and peoples."

[God the Father]

Europe has a parliament now? Why don't all the countries just band together and become the United States of Europe for God's sake.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='God the Father' date='Jan 21 2006, 04:34 PM']Europe has a parliament now? Why don't all the countries just band together and become the United States of Europe for God's sake.
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You didn't hear about the European Union?

[God the Father]

[quote name='Raphael' date='Jan 21 2006, 04:00 PM']You didn't hear about the European Union?
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Oh. I just knew it as the European Union. I thought all they did was print Euros. I didn't know they actually made laws.

[Quietfire]

[RandomProddy]

[quote name='God the Father' date='Jan 21 2006, 09:34 PM']Why don't all the countries just band together and become the United States of Europe for God's sake.
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No central armed forces yet, and those that want one are third-rate powers with neutral armies, or centralist powers that hate America.

Luckily the decent countries are generally against it.

Edited January 22, 2006 by RandomProddy

[God the Father]

[quote name='RandomProddy' date='Jan 22 2006, 08:15 AM']No central armed forces yet, and those that want one are third-rate powers with neutral armies, or centralist powers that hate America.

Luckily the decent countries are generally against it.
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Understandable.

[dandy777]

The EU has no army and is not military-oriented. It is an economical union that unites the countries that have acquired the membership to join the Union. Obviously it has its own parliament which discusses several political issues and draws legislative laws.

[dandy777]

The European Union (EU) is not a federation like the United States. Nor is it simply an organisation for co-operation between governments, like the United Nations. It is, in fact, unique. The countries that make up the EU (its ‘member states’) remain independent sovereign nations but they pool their sovereignty in order to gain a strength and world influence none of them could have on their own.

Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the member states delegate some of their decision-making powers to shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.

Maybe you should take a look at the official website of the EU .... [url="http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm"]Gateway to the European Union[/url]

Edited January 22, 2006 by dandy777

[RandomProddy]

[quote name='dandy777' date='Jan 22 2006, 04:44 PM']Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the member states delegate some of their decision-making powers to shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.

Maybe you should take a look at the official website of the EU .... [url="http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm"]Gateway to the European Union[/url]
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To a certain extent most international organisations have pooled sovereigenty, like NATO for example.

The problem with the EU is that you can't really integrate more that at present without running into fundamental obstacles. What common foreign policy do all europeans agree on? Of those, which can offer a military responce?

[Socrates]

[quote name='dandy777' date='Jan 22 2006, 09:44 AM']The European Union (EU) is not a federation like the United States. Nor is it simply an organisation for co-operation between governments, like the United Nations. It is, in fact, unique. The countries that make up the EU (its ‘member states’) remain independent sovereign nations but they pool their sovereignty in order to gain a strength and world influence none of them could have on their own.

Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the member states delegate some of their decision-making powers to shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.

Maybe you should take a look at the official website of the EU .... [url="http://europa.eu.int/index_en.htm"]Gateway to the European Union[/url]
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Are you a supporter of the EU?

It is clear that those in the EU desire to be much more than just an economic union of sovereign nations (as shown by the moves to ban "homophobia" and guarantee abortion as a universal "women's right.")
Forcing such immoral principles on all member nations hardly respects the soveriegnity of the individual countries involved, and ought to be vigorously opposed by anyone interested in his country remaining an independent sovereign nation!

May the EU rot in hell!

[RandomProddy]

[quote name='Socrates' date='Jan 22 2006, 08:23 PM']It is clear that those in the EU desire to be much more than just an economic union of sovereign nations (as shown by the moves to ban "homophobia" and guarantee abortion as a universal "women's right.")
Forcing such immoral principles on all member nations hardly respects the soveriegnity of the individual countries involved, and ought to be vigorously opposed by anyone interested in his country remaining an independent sovereign nation!

May the EU rot in hell!
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It won't happen now thanks to the new members. Moves to force the right to abort? Vetoed by Ireland and Malta. The list goes on....

[Socrates]

[quote name='RandomProddy' date='Jan 22 2006, 02:11 PM']It won't happen now thanks to the new members. Moves to force the right to abort? Vetoed by Ireland and Malta. The list goes on....
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Good for Ireland and Malta!

However, why should such legislative matters (unrelated to trade) be decided by the EU anyway?
Why should sovereign states give up their sovereignty to have a multi-national parliament decide what the law of their lands is to be??

What happened to the principle of subsidiarity??

The whole idea of this EU parliament is disturbing to an extreme.

[Myles Domini]

[quote name='Socrates' date='Jan 22 2006, 08:44 PM']Good for Ireland and Malta!

However, why should such legislative matters (unrelated to trade) be decided by the EU anyway?
Why should sovereign states give up their sovereignty to have a multi-national parliament decide what the law of their lands is to be??

What happened to the principle of subsidiarity??

The whole idea of this EU parliament is disturbing to an extreme.
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:applause:

The EU does not pool sovreignty the EU takes sovreignty from member states and member states are loosing control of their vetoes on an increasing number of issues (and will loose more if the EU constitution is ever ratified). When your country doesn't want to do something and other country's do and you are not allowed to exercise your independence as a nation-state but must go along with the pack thats not pooling sovreignty. When domestic law finds itself superseded by EU law thats not pooling sovreignty. When the EU decides to have its own foreign secretary (which under the new constitution it would) thus interfering with domestic foreign policy thats not pooling soverignty. Its taking away the rights of the nation-state to govern itself according to the wishes of its democractically elected represenatives.

The EU commission, the EU's executive, are a bunch of beureacratics silhouettes who are generally unknown to the EU citizens and The EU parliament is a weak talking shop and EU elections are generally ignored by Europeans anyway. I was ecstatic when the French people turned down the constitution because French politicians seem to believe that you can ignore the desires of your people and just move along with integration. Getting a slap in the face from their own populous was marvellous. The EU should be nothing more than a free trade area with agreements placed in national law to defend and support that ideal. We should not be making laws about other peoples countries.

I dont mind the free movements of people and goods, I dont even mind taxes being sent to poorer European states so that our labour markets benefit in the long run. What I do mind about is the arrogance of the EU to attempt plans like tax harmonisation, a common defence policy, a European army--which is on the cards to replace the European rapid response unit of 60,000 British, French and German troops. This is undue federalism and moreover its a federalism that the majority of Europeans are NOT interested in.

People love to blame the Brits for not being pro-EU enough but the fact is we didnt reject the referendum on the EU constitution and people are just diverting attention onto us so that the EU poster children e.g. France and Holland aren't completely embarrassed by the reaction of their own citizens to the patronising leadership of their governments who continually REFUSE to acknowledge the feelings of their own people.

[son_of_angels]

This is why I've been saying the Holy Father needs form his own Pontifical Union of European States, for the protection of human rights and Catholic values, with him as President.

[dandy777]

[quote name='Socrates' date='Jan 22 2006, 09:23 PM']Are you a supporter of the EU?
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I posted that information to bring forward information to that poster who didn't even know about the EU. I am quite a standbyer who observes.

Obviously as anything else, full membership has its own advantages and disadvantages. We are still testing the ground over here though as there are many changes still going on so we don't actually know if the end result is going to be exactly what we expected. Obviously on a trade and economical level, it is quite beneficial to our country since our market was more targetted to Mediterranean and Arab countries rather than European ones. Apart from that, freedom of movement is most advantageous to us especially when you keep in mind our geographical position.

We were also lucky enough to get the abortion veto. So it's not that bad. Now everyone is a bit concerned about Euro currency.

[jezic]

i wonder how the EU can say these things. I wonder what will happen to it in the future ...

[cmotherofpirl]

[quote name='Myles' date='Jan 22 2006, 04:00 PM']:applause:

The EU does not pool sovreignty the EU takes sovreignty from member states and member states are loosing control of their vetoes on an increasing number of issues (and will loose more if the EU constitution is ever ratified). When your country doesn't want to do something and other country's do and you are not allowed to exercise your independence as a nation-state but must go along with the pack thats not pooling sovreignty. When domestic law finds itself superseded by EU law thats not pooling sovreignty. When the EU decides to have its own foreign secretary (which under the new constitution it would) thus interfering with domestic foreign policy thats not pooling soverignty. Its taking away the rights of the nation-state to govern itself according to the wishes of its democractically elected represenatives.

The EU commission, the EU's executive, are a bunch of beureacratics silhouettes who are generally unknown to the EU citizens and The EU parliament is a weak talking shop and EU elections are generally ignored by Europeans anyway. I was ecstatic when the French people turned down the constitution because French politicians seem to believe that you can ignore the desires of your people and just move along with integration. Getting a slap in the face from their own populous was marvellous. The EU should be nothing more than a free trade area with agreements placed in national law to defend and support that ideal. We should not be making laws about other peoples countries.

I dont mind the free movements of people and goods, I dont even mind taxes being sent to poorer European states so that our labour markets benefit in the long run. What I do mind about is the arrogance of the EU to attempt plans like tax harmonisation, a common defence policy, a European army--which is on the cards to replace the European rapid response unit of 60,000 British, French and German troops. This is undue federalism and moreover its a federalism that the majority of Europeans are NOT interested in.

People love to blame the Brits for not being pro-EU enough but the fact is we didnt reject the referendum on the EU constitution and people are just diverting attention onto us so that the EU poster children e.g. France and Holland aren't completely embarrassed by the reaction of their own citizens to the patronising leadership of their governments who continually REFUSE to acknowledge the feelings of their own people.
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I think the EU while possibly good for movement and trade, will do its best to push an extremely liberal agenda on its member nations, and your individual rights and freedoms will be eventually eroded by a police state.

[jezic]

i think Cmom is right and it is really kind of sad.

The EU seems to take the most liberal side of things and then force everyone to agree with it or be kicked out. Soon in Europe that would be like political suicide which would mean that they would have to go along with it. That does not look good.

[cmotherofpirl]

Polish Bishops: Defense of Marriage Isn't "Homophobia"
Reject Europarliament Resolution

WARSAW, Poland, FEB. 3, 2006 (Zenit.org ).- The bishops of Poland issued a statement against the European Parliament resolution that labels as "homophobic" countries that do not recognize same-sex unions.

The nonbinding resolution, passed Jan. 18, violates the autonomy of states and puts at risk the freedom of conscience of the citizenry, say the bishops of Poland at the end of the conference's plenary assembly.

The resolution, the bishops say in their statement, published Tuesday, "rightly rejects the attitudes of discrimination, ridicule and violence against persons with homosexual orientation."

"Concurrently, however, through an urge directed to the governments of member states to revise their legislation concerning same-sex couples, it infringes upon norms of social life in Europe," the statement says.

"By making use of the topic of discrimination of persons with homosexual orientation, this resolution indirectly promotes an idea of equal treatment of a relationship of man and woman and of homosexual relationships," the bishops say.

The bishops continue: "This way, it distorts the truth rooted in the nature of the person who was created as man and as woman. Consequently, the adopted resolution is a serious threat to marital and family life and to the entire order of social life in Europe.

"We join in with other European episcopates and Christian communities and with all people of good will who share the same anthropological truth as we do.

"This way, we express our objection to an attempt undermining not only the very foundations of the proper functioning of the EU but also human life itself."

The bishops call "on the European Parliament to abstain from activities which bear the stamp of dictatorship of relativism, putting at risk the freedom of conscience of the citizens of EU member states."
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