ECLJ Representative to Meet Members of the Czech Parliament in Prague

October 17, 2005

(Strasbourg, France)-- ECLJ has organized meetings with several members of Czech Parliament to be held at the offices of the Civic Institute in Prague. The Civic Institute is a conservative Christian think tank representing several countries in Eastern Europe. The meetings would be to provide networking opportunities for ECLJ with the Czech government and to asses what assistance ECLJ can provide the MP's in matters pertaining to the legislation of anything within the realm of Christian ethics and religious freedoms.

The Czech Republic, one of the newest Member States of the European Union, has been one of the States involved in shaping the new Europe in regards to voting blocks in the European Parliament. This was seen is a March Resolution passed against the funding of embryonic stem cell research by the European Parliament. The resolution was passed on the strength of the new Member States. Such conservative legislation would have been unthinkable in the last Parliamentary Assembly.

ECLJ has already assisted religious freedoms think tank and news source SPONS in the Czech Republic with information regarding the new religious freedoms law in the Slovak Republic. SPONS wishes to put the process of lobbying for similar legislation in the Czech Republic in motion. ECLJ has provided the group with a copy of the draft law, its legislative history and key contact people in the Slovak Republic involved in sponsoring the law.