The European Evangelical Alliance (EEA) has welcomed the European Union's adoption of guidelines on the promotion and protection of freedom of religion. The guidelines were adopted by the foreign ministers of all 27 EU member states at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. They were developed in consultation with the European Platform on Religious Intolerance and Discrimination (EPRID), founded in 2006 by the EEA, Open Doors International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide. The focus of the guidelines is on the external policy of the European Union related to understanding, monitoring and promoting freedom of religion or belief and raising awareness of this right in non-EU countries. The EEA said the guidelines would strengthen the EU's capacity to defend religious freedom by addressing the causes of violations and formulating responses. Victims of religious freedom violations will also be in a stronger position to ask EU delegations and member state embassies to intervene on their behalf.

Pray: that the adoption of these new guidelines will strengthen the EU’s capacity to defend religious freedom. (Jam.2:12)

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