By NNN-KUNA
Cairo : European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering invited Egypt’s top lawmaker to attend Euro-Mediterranean Parliament meetings.
In a phone conversation Friday, Poettering asked Ahmed Fatehi Sorour, speaker of the Egyptian People’s Assembly, lower house of parliament, to set aside a resolution adopted by the European Parliament, criticizing the status of human rights in Egypt, an Egyptian parliamentary source was quoted by Egypt’s state-owned Middle East News Agency (KUNA).
Neither Sorour nor any other Egyptian member of parliament is expected to attend the coming meeting of the Euro-Mediterranean Parliament on February 28 unless a European Parliament deputy comes to Cairo to have dialogue with Egyptian members of parliament on the resolution, the source added.
“The Egyptian People’s Assembly rejects the language of dictations and orders,” it affirmed.
“Egypt needs no lessons from anybody,” the source said, emphasizing that Poettering vowed to come to Egypt shortly to reflect on the issue.
Earlier on Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a resolution, condemning Egypt’s status of human rights.
But, the resolution was toned down in a phone conversation by Poettering with Euro-Mediterranean Parliament Mohamed Abul Enein, head of the Industry Committee at the Egyptian People’s Assembly.
The text criticizes Egypt over the status of religious minorities, alleged torture practices and Egypt’s decades-long state of emergency.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of European Union countries in Cairo to express its “complete rejection” of the European Parliament resolution.