News Release
Romano Prodi
No.
1/04
January 6, 2004
EU COMMISSION
PRESIDENT PRODI SETS RECORD STRAIGHT
ON ANTI-SEMITISM
European
Commission President
Romano Prodi has written to the Presidents of the World and European Jewish
Congress Chiefs
setting the record straight on the Commission’s stance
on
Anti-Semitism, and responding to unfounded allegations and inaccuracies contained
in the op-ed they signed in yesterday’s Financial Times. The text of Mr.
Prodi’s January 5 letter to Mr. Cobi Benatoff (Chairman, European Jewish Congress)
and Mr. Edgar Bronfman (World Jewish Congress) follows:
Dear
Mr. Benatoff, Dear Mr. Bronfman,
When
reading, in today's "Financial Times," an article on "Europe's
moral treachery over anti-semitism," I was both surprised and shocked. I
couldn't believe you were signing such an article.
I
couldn't believe you had written that the European Commission "censored a
study commissioned by its own Monitoring Centre that reported on the involvement
of Muslim minorities in incidents of mounting European anti-Semitism" as
you know perfectly well that the Vienna Centre is an independent institution and
that the European Commission has no power at all to interfere in its decisions.
I
couldn't believe you had accused the European Commission of having been "politically
motivated" in releasing a recent Eurobarometer poll naming Israel as the
greatest threat to world peace after what I had told you in a meeting we had in
New York the very same day the poll was published and after what I myself had
written on this very same subject in an article published by the “European
Voice."
I
couldn't believe you had blamed the European Commission for "demonstrating
a failure of will and decency" in tackling the issue of anti-Semitism a few
days after the meeting on this very same topic I had convened in my office in
Brussels and which was attended by the highest-ranking representatives of both
religious and secular European jewish organisations.
By
the way, I vividly remember you, Mr. Benatoff, on that occasion conveying to me
Mr. Bronfman's personal regards and thanks for my commitment and dedication on
issues relating to the Jewish cause and to the fight against anti-Semitism. And
I equally remember you, Mr. Benatoff, publicly expressing to the media, on behalf
of all other participants to the two-hour long meeting, the appreciation for the
efforts displayed by the European Commission and the full backing of the European
Commission project of a jointly organised seminar.
The
seminar we had jointly agreed to organise so as to discuss the issue of anti-Semitism
in the broader perspective of the role of the Jewish communities in a Europe we
want to build as a "Union of minorities" was a good example of the actions
we can together put in place so as to intelligently react and respond to the threat
of anti-Semitism.
The
attitude you have shown in your letter and that forces me to suspend the preparations
of the above mentioned seminar, goes against our best and mutual interests. I
sincerely hope you will lay the conditions for resuming as soon as possible a
fruitful and indispensible dialogue between our institutions.
Best
regards,
Romano Prodi
President of the European Commission
