mr president i will be voting against this report and this proposed directive for three reasons
first of all i dissent from the belief that the eu rather than national governments should be legislating on these issues believing every member state is best placed to decide if it needs to strengthen such legislation
if ever there was a subsidiarity issue this should be it
my second reason is that the new offence of harassment has the alarming prospect of in fact curbing the rights in respect of freedom of speech and freedom of religion particularly for those who proclaim a christian message
christians preaching the gospel particularly in a public place to people of other faiths who take offence and who claim it is an assault on their dignity could be breaching this law
likewise defending and promoting a biblical approach to heterosexual marriage could allow litigious gay rights activists to claim harassment
the third reason is that the measures within the directive are disproportionate and inadequately balanced
it compels the christian printer for example to accept an order to print material which offends his religious beliefs whereas he should be free to conduct his business according to his conscience
without essential balancing mechanisms this directive will become an instrument which in fact creates discrimination
thus to me it is an unnecessary directive infringing basic rights particularly of people of faith and conscience and illustrates all that is over-reaching meddling and wrong-headed within the eu
