EU/POLAND:The president of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, yesterday formally reprimanded a right-wing Polish MEP for publishing a controversial booklet carrying the parliament's logo which has been labelled as anti-Semitic, writes John Downes in Strasbourg.
It is the first time that a president of the parliament has invoked a relatively new procedural rule to discipline a member in this way.
However, the MEP in question, Maciej Giertych, told The Irish Times yesterday that he planned to appeal the decision and said he would be asking the president to highlight which aspects of the text he was being punished for.
Mr Giertych, who is an influential member of the right-wing Catholic party the League of Polish Families, said he had two weeks to lodge his appeal.
Mr Pöttering met the MEP on Tuesday, after which he took the decision to reprimand him for the publication of the 32-page booklet, entitled Civilisations at war in Europe.
It includes a section on Jewish civilisation, in which it is claimed that it was only Hitler's Germany "that created the concept of forced separation, of a closed ghetto from which Jews were not allowed to leave".
" [ Jewish civilisation] is a civilisation of programmed separateness, of programmed differentiation from the surrounding communities," it says. "By their own will, they prefer to live a separate life, in apartheid from the surrounding communities . . ."
It was initially thought that Mr Giertych might have received EU funding for the booklet, which carries an official parliament logo on the cover. But it has since been established that this was not the case.
Addressing the parliament yesterday, Mr Pöttering said the publication of the brochure had provoked worldwide reaction. He also read out extracts of a letter he had written to Mr Gietrych informing him of his decision.
"On this occasion I deeply regretted what is objectively a serious breach of the fundamental rights, and in particular the dignity, of human beings to which our institution so strongly adheres," he said.
"During my presidency, I intend to safeguard both the freedom of expression and the standard of conduct of members, as well as the honour of this house . . .
"I trust you will understand that the European Parliament, which thrives on lively political debate and unfailingly condemns all forms of xenophobia, should under no circumstances be associated with the views published in your brochure."
The formal reprimand handed out to Mr Giertych yesterday is the first in a range of sanctions open to Mr Pöttering, up to and including temporary suspension and removal from one or more of the offices he holds.
Mr Giertych yesterday defended the content of the booklet, which he said was an attempt to identify different civilisations. "These accusations are simply nonsense," he said. "I tried to summarise as shortly as possible the teachings of a Polish philosopher [ Feliks Koneczny] . . . I entirely share his opinions."
Mr Giertych was also embroiled in controversy last year, when he made a speech supporting Gen Franco's overthrow of democracy in Spain.
Civilisations at war: No middle ground
Extracts from Civilisations at war in Europeby Maciej Giertych MEP, in a section entitled "The Jewish Civilisation":
"It is a civilisation of programmed separateness, of programmed differentiation from the surrounding communities . . . By their own will, they prefer to live a separate life, in apartheid from the surrounding communities . . . They form the ghettos themselves, as districts in which they live together."
"It was only Hitler's Germany that created the concept of forced separation, of a closed ghetto from which Jews were not allowed to leave."
"Jews are not pioneers. They do not go conquering the wild world or overpowering the hazards of nature. They settle among other civilisations, preferably among the rich."
"It is a great misunderstanding to consider anti-Semitism as racism. The Jews of Poland are racially indistinguishable from the Poles . . . However, the fact that they stick to their own community, their own civilisation, their own separateness, results in biological differences developing."
"Regardless of the tradition pertaining to books that interpret the Torah, all Jews form a single family united by the Messianic consciousness of being the chosen people."
"Both our position and the Jewish position make sense, but only within the context of our respective civilisations . . . no middle ground is possible on issues differentiating civilisations."