EJC President Pierre Besnainou and Secretary-General Serge Cwajgenbaum met on Thursday May 3rd with Prof. Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament to discuss EU-Israeli relations and to salute the European Parliament leadership for its firm stance against an anti-Semitic pamphlet published earlier this year by MEP Maciej Giertych.
MEP Giertych’s book “Civilisations at War in Europe” was published with the logo of the European Parliament on the cover in February 2006 – President Pöttering issued strong condemnations of the antisemitic racial theories expressed in the book, and took steps towards sanctioning the Polish lawmaker for violating parliamentary rules.
During Thursday’s meeting, the EJC delegation congratulated the action of President Pöttering, hoping that the Parliament will strengthen its monitoring system so that any future racist and inflammatory publications could be stopped before they are released with the Parliamentary logo.
The discussion focused as well on EU-Hamas relations. President Pöttering confirmed that he would be following EU guidelines on meetings with Hamas ministers and affirmed that he would only meet with Fatah Ministers on his upcoming visit to the Middle East.
The EJC delegation met as well with Joseph Daul, Chair of the EPP-ED group (replacing Hans-Gert Pöttering) and met as well with Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Commission.
