The KKE delegation in the EP asked a written question about the Commission's position in the anti-communist spree in Poland.
ICP, 8 August 2018
The delegation of the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) in the European Parliament asked a written question about the ongoing anti-communist campaign in Poland. In addition to the band of communist symbols in Poland and prosecutions and trials against the cadres and members of the Communist Party of Poland (KPP) for spreading their ideas through Brzask newspaper, a new prosecution was recently initiated by Polish authorities against a professor who held a conference on Marxism at the University of Szczecin. The conference was dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the birth of Karl Marx but was intruded by police invasion for "promoting totalitarianism".
Reminding all those facts about the anti-communist campaign in Poland, the KKE MEP Sotiris Zarianopoulos asked the European Commission the following question:
"What view does it [the Commission] take of the provocative prosecutions and trials on trumped up charges initiated by the Polish authorities which in effect deny the Polish Communist Party the right to exchange ideas and engage in political expression and action?"
The Commission replied as follows:
“Freedom of expression and freedom of assembly and association are fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. The Commission, within its competences, ensures that fundamental rights as provided by the Charter are respected. However, according to Article 51(1) of the Charter, its provisions are addressed to Member States only when they implement EC law. It does not appear that the provisions of the Charter are applicable in the case referred to by the Honourable Member."
On August 2, the KKE delegation in the EP issued a press release declaring that the Commission's cynical response has proven that the EU, together with its governments, is co-responsible and accomplice of the anti-communist spree not only in Poland but also in its other Member States. The KKE delegation criticized the Commission's brief response, which is generally written in a much more "talkative" mood in other cases, and considered it to be hypocritical to refer to the so-called "EU Charter of Fundamental Rights". At the end of the text, the KKE expressed its firm solidarity to the KPP and called on to the reinforcement of the struggle against the anti-communist prosecutions, the authoritarianism and the abolition of the right to spread the ideas, the political expression and the action of the communists.
See the link for the press release.