Existential importance of fundamental rights

We return to the fundamental rights colloquium I mentioned yesterday, with links to the press release and the fact sheet.

- The topic is of, I would almost say, existential importance to the future of Europe, said the first vice-president Frans Timmmermans in his forceful opening of the European Commission's first annual colloquium on fundamental rights (press release and video).

- Europe is going through a period of crisis and turmoil, which is challenging the very values on which it was built. It is challenging the very fabric of European society and therefore the very fabric of European cooperation. The rise of antisemitism, the rise of Islamophobia, each in their own way are symptoms, Timmermans stated.

Today

You can follow the livestream, when the colloquium continues today, 2 October 2015, at 9 am local time, but you have to go no farther than to the live Twitter stream under #NoPlace4Hate to see the challenge, with various fundamentalists at loggerheads over past atrocities and current animosity.

Ralf Grahn