In a letter to the 99 German Members of the European Parliament on Friday, Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the Humanist Association of Germany and former Member of the European Parliament, spoke out against the appointment of Maltese Foreign Minister Tonio Borg to the post of EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection.
Wolf pointed out that there were serious doubts as to whether the candidate nominated by Commission President José Barroso could actually embody important European values. Wolf: “The European Union has always been strongly committed to the promotion of human rights, especially the rights of minorities, and to common European principles such as equality between men and women and non-discrimination.”
During his time in office as a minister and politician, Borg repeatedly and emphatically fought against the sexual and reproductive rights of women and in 2004 actively campaigned for the ban on abortion in his home country and vehemently fought against the legalization of divorce in Malta. In the past, he has also expressed clear contempt for homosexual and transsexual people and opposed equality and equal rights plans. As Malta’s Home Affairs Minister, instead of protecting the rights of illegal migrants, he supported the deportation of more than 200 Eritreans back to Eritrea in 2001 against the massive protest of human rights organizations, where some of them were eventually tortured and killed.
Wolf therefore expressed to Members of the European Parliament the clear concern of humanists about the candidacy of Tonio Borg, who is soon to be heard by the EU Parliament, as EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. Wolf: “We believe this candidacy is damaging to the European Parliament and firmly believe that Malta could put forward candidates who demonstrably stand for European values.”
Further information:
diesseits.de: Sharp criticism of conservative EU Commission candidate
