PARLIAMENT INSISTS ON RESPECT FOR EU'S COMMON VALUES.

There should be scope for sanctions where the European Union's common values are flouted in order to avoid giving the impression that the EU has neither the will nor the means to defend its values. This is one of the central conclusions of the report by Johannes Voggenhuber (Greens/EFA, Germany) adopted by the European Parliament on April 20 on the Commission Communication on Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union concerning respect for and promotion of the values on which the Union is based. This Communication, adopted by the Commission on October 15, 2003, outlines the sanctions that EU Member States may face for flouting these values, such as the suspension of their voting rights in the Council of Ministers. The paper also emphasises prevention and outlines a series of measures to this end, notably enhancing the role of the independent experts group set up in 2002 (see issue 2812 for details of the Communication). This is a relatively delicate subject since, at the time, MEPs considered that Italy might be at odds with some of the EU's common values given Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's stranglehold on the Italian media.

Parliament insists in its report on the need for sanctions. MEPs...