Another attempt to censor freedom of thought and speech in the European Union: 8 left-wing MEPs called for denying access to the EU spaces of all pro-life NGOs

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· On 28 June 2022, eight Renew Europe MEPs wrote a letter to the President of the European Parliament demanding the immediate withdrawal of the accreditation of all conservative NGOs from EU premises.

· The request constitutes an unprecedent attempt to censor the freedom of thought and speech of many registered prolife NGOs present in the European Parliament.

· Ordo Iuris Institute of Legal Culture prepared a letter pointing out the lack of any legal basis basis for the claims and the illegality of the leftists arguments.

· The letter was signed by 24 MEPs from different parties, as an expression of their opposition to the request made to the President of the European Parliament and the attempts to censor the voice of the conservatives.

READ THE LETTER - LINK

On 28 June 2022, eight left-wing MEPs from Renew Europe have requested to the President of the European Parliament to withdraw the access from European Parliament premises to all prolife and conservative NGO as they constitute a danger for the protection of ‘human rights’ such as ‘body integrity, self-determination and access to health-care’. The letter has been signed after the United States Supreme Court recognized the right of each U.S. state to decide its own laws on abortion. In light of this ruling, the MEPs of Renew Europe stated that in order to prevent the ‘spreading of propaganda and false, toxic narratives’ in the European Union, those standing against abortion should be barred from European Parliament premises since ‘ideology curtailing fundamental rights does not belong in the realm of free speech’.

The arguments used to support this request recalled the Code of Conduct Annex I –  regulating the access to the European Parliament – which states that registrants shall ‘not damage the reputation of the register or cause prejudice to the Union institutions’. In short, the parliamentarians stated that stand for the protection of human life and conservative values damage to the reputation of the European Union. However, on the topic, it is necessary to remind that any European Union law grants anyone the right to abortion, while many provisions grant everyone the right to life (Article 2 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, Article 2 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights).

No legal basis, therefore, supports the request to revoke the accreditation of conservative NGOs just because their aim of defending life and human dignity is contrary to the leftist agenda. In this sense, it is also necessary to point out that non-governmental organizations have no legal obligation – as the authors of the letter seem to suggest – to support the introduction of abortion on request throughout the European Union.

For all these reasons, Ordo Iuris has mobilized writing a letter addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Ms. Roberta Metsola, calling on her for refraining from actions aimed at annihilating pluralism among non-governmental organizations operating in the forum of the European Parliament. 24 MEPs belonging to different Union parties have signed the letter, strongly supporting the commitment of these organizations in the public debate.