Brussels distances itself from crucifixes ruling

Malta could retain religious symbols in all public places and the EU would not interfere in the matter, a Commission spokesman said yesterday.

"The EU has nothing to do with this ruling of the Court of Human Rights and we respect the liberty of every member state to decide on such issues. Religious symbols are not within the competence of the EU, so Malta can decide for itself how it wants to conduct its own affairs where it comes to religion matters," the spokesman said.

Tuesday's controversial ruling by the Council of Europe's Court of Human Rights, banning crucifixes from Italian public schools on grounds that they might offend non-Christian students, was raised during the Commission's daily press briefing in Brussels yesterday.

Distancing itself from the ruling of the Strasbourg-based court, the Commission said the EU had absolutely nothing to do with the decision and the issue surrounding religious symbols in public places was solely the competence of individual member states. The EU did not have any legislation on the matter.

Some news reports yesterday attributed the controversial ruling to the EU. However, the court in question forms part of the Council of Europe, which has absolutely nothing to do with the EU and is a separate international organisation.

The Commission spokesman said: "The European Union adopts the principle of subsidiary and its member states have complete competence over the presence of religious symbols in public places. The issue is not even covered by Community (EU) law. This applies across the board and it is not even an issue of discrimination. In fact, religious symbols are specifically excluded from anti-discrimination laws as we believe that this is something to be decided by member states".

Pressed to state the Commission's position on the ruling of the Human Rights Court, the Commission spokesman said that "the ruling has nothing to do with the EU and, thus, we have no comment to make".