Too controversial and not really in the European Parliament’s powers, the vote on religious symbols in schools was postponed at the last minute in Strasbourg. An initiative from the Socialists, a majority of MEPs wanted to give themselves more time to find out if they have jurisdiction on this topic.

It was a parliamentarian from the Italian Northern League (Europe of Freedom and Democracy Group), Mario Borghezio, who started the debate. He wanted to reject a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (non-Community institution) condemning the presence of crucifixes in Italian schools. Borghezio therefore put forward his draft resolution saying: “The issue of crucifixes in schools remains the exclusive responsibility of member states and their regions”. Then the Conservative EPP fell in behind him with another draft defending “the freedom of member states [of the EU] to put up religious symbols in public places when these symbols belong to tradition and form the identity of their people”.

It is this second text that has been put off until later. MEPs of the French right (UMP) were preparing to abstain, in the name of secularity and also so as not to add to the controversy aroused by the debate on ‘national identity’ in France.