EU
Foreign Minister Contact Information (as of Dec 2007)
Please
write to EU foreign ministers, urging them to protect the human rights of the
monks of Esphigmenou monastery who are all EU citizens. We have attached
the contact information of the ministers of the EU member states, together with
a suggested text of the letter. Please keep your letters polite, friendly,
and persuasive. Thank you.
Austria
Dr.Ursula Plassnik
Foreign Minister
Minoritenplatz 8
A-1014 Wien
Tel: +43 50 11 50-0
Fax: +43 50 11 59-0
Send an e-mail through their website:
http://www.aussenministerium.at/view.php3?f_id=1438&LNG=en&version=
Belgium
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Karel De Gucht
Karmelietenstraat 15
B-1000 Brussels
e-mail: kab.bz@diplobel.fed.be
Tel: +32 (0)2.501.85.91
Fax: +32 (0)2.511.63.85
Cyprus
Foreign Minister--Mrs Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Presidential Palace Avenue
1447, Nicosia Cyprus
Tel: +357 22 401200
Fax: +357 22 661881
Czech
Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel Schwarzenberg
Ministerstvo zahranicních vecí
Loretánské námestí 5
118 00 Praha 1, The Czech Republic
tel: +420-224 181 111
e-mail: info@mzv.cz
Denmark
Foreign Minister: Per Stig Moeller
Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Asiatisk Plads 2
DK-1448 Copenhagen K.
Denmark
Tel. +45 33 92 00 00
Fax +45 32 54 05 33
e-mail: um@um.dk
Estonia
Foreign Minister: Urmas Paet
Tel: +372 6 377 092
Fax: +372 6 377 099
VälisministeeriumIslandi väljak 1,
15049
Finland
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ilkka Kanerva
Ministry of Foreign Affiars
PO Box 176
00161 Helsinki, Finland
Fax: 358-9-1605 5002
France
Mr Bernard Kouchner, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs
Send an e-mail through their website http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/courrier/default.asp?lang=gb
37, quai d’Orsay
75351 Paris Cedex 07
Tel: 01 43 17 53 53
Germany
Minister of Foreign Affairs Frank-Walter Steinmeier
The Federal Foreign Office
11013 Berlin
Tel: +49-30-5000-0
Fax: +49-30-5000-3402
http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/diplo/en/service/AllgemeinesKontaktformular.jsp
Hungary
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Kinga Goncz
Prime Minister
+36-441-2112
e-mail at: https://secure.meh.hu/english/lettertoprimeminister.html
Ireland
Dermot Ahern T.D.
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
80
St. Stephen's Green,
Dublin 2
Tel: + 353 1 408 2000
Fax: + 353 1 408 2400
e-mail at: http://foreignaffairs.gov.ie/home/index.aspx?id=8797
Italy
Foreign Minister--Massimo D'Alema
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Piazzale della Farnesina, 1
00194 Roma
e-mail: gabinetto@cert.esteri.it
Tel: +39 06.36911
Fax: +39 06.3236210
Latvia
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Maris Riekstins
Brivibas bulv. 36
Riga LV -1395
Phone: (+371) 7-016-210
Fax: (+371) 7 828 121
Email: mfa.cha@mfa.gov.lv
Post an e-mail through their website
http://www.am.gov.lv/en/contact/
Lithuania
Minister of Foreign Affairs-- Petras Vaitiekunas
Foreign Minister’s e-mail: Petras.Vaitiekunas@urm.lt
J. Tumo-Vaižganto str. 2, LT-01511
Vilnius, Lithuania
tel. +370 5 2362444,
fax +370 5 2313090,
Ministry email: urm@urm.lt
Luxembourg
Vice Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration--Jean Asselborn
5, rue Notre-Dame
L-2240 Luxembourg
Tél: +352 2478 23 00
Fax: +352 22 31 44
E-mail: info@sip.etat.lu
Malta
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Michael Frendo
Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Palazzo Parisio
Merchant Street
Valletta
Malta VLT 1171
Tel: +356-2124 2191
Fax: +356-2124 2853
send an e-mail to via their website:
http://www.foreign.gov.mt/pages.aspx?page=5
The
Foreign Minister--Maxime Verhagen
PO Box 20061,
2500 EB The Hague,
The Netherlands
Tel: +31 70 3486486
Fax: + 31 70 3484848
Post a message via their website:
http://www.minbuza.nl/en/contact,reactieformulier___publieksinformatie.html
Poland
Minister of Foreign Affairs--
Minister Spraw Zagranicznych
Rzecznik Prasowy rzecznik@msz.gov.pl
tel. +48-22-523-9356
fax +48-22-523-9099
Portugal
Minister of State and for Foreign Affairs: Luís Amado
Address: Palácio das Necessidades,
Largo do Rilvas
1399-030 Lisboa
Tel: +351-213 946 000
Fax: +351-213 946 070
E-mail: Minister@mne.gov.pt
Website: www.min-nestrangeiros.pt
Post a message to the Primer Minister (Primeiro-Ministro) and/or to the Foreign minister (Negocios Estrangeiros) at:
http://www.portugal.gov.pt/Portal/EN/Geral/Contactos
Slovak
Hlboká cesta 2, 833 36
Bratislava 37
Ján Kubiš
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Phone: +421-2 5978 1111
Phone: +421-2 5978 3001
Fax: +421-2 5978 3009
Post a message to the foreign minister at:
http://www.foreign.gov.sk/En/index.html
General e-mail: infopublic@foreign.gov.sk
Slovenia
Foreign Affairs--Dimitrij Rupel
e-mail: Dimitrij.Rupel@gov.si
Fax: +386 1 478 2340,
Fax: +386 1 478 2341
Spain
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Miguel Angel Moratinos
32 2 285 87 52
Sweden
Minister of Foreign Affairs--Laila Freivalds
Fax: 46 8 723 11 76
Post an e-mail to the Foreign Minister on her website:
http://www.sweden.gov.se/pub/road/Classic/article/117/jsp/Render.jsp?a=11677&m=popup&l=en
United Kingdom
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs--
The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw, MP
44 208 760 3127
Post a message to him on his website:
http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029390545
Here is one example of a letter. Please feel free to add, subtract, or write your own entirely.
Dear Foreign Minister _______,
I would like to bring to your attention the extremely serious violations of human rights of EU citizens taking place today which requires your immediate attention. A desperate situation has arisen on Mount Athos, Greece and assistance or intervention on your behalf is of paramount importance. The lives of over 100 peaceful monks in the monastery of Esphigmenou are at stake, because they are under siege by the Greek government.
The Greek police and port authority are imposing a land and sea blockade on the defenseless monks of Esphigmenou Monastery. Not even food, water, medicine or heating oil are being allowed in. Telephone lines to the monastery have been cut to prevent the outside world from learning what is occurring, and electricity has been cut as well.
So far 5 monks have died during the blockade, and the Greek Police have denied entry to doctors seeking to provide urgently needed medical care to sick monks.
You may ask how can this occur today, in an EU member state, to fellow EU citizens? Here is the situation in brief.
The Greek government is attempting to force the monks, to leave their monastery home of 1500 years. The government is enforcing this inhumane blockade even though it knows there are many elderly monks in the monastery who need medicine and who have great difficulty enduring the cold winter nights of Northern Greece without heating oil.
Why is this happening? The monks "crime" is they have a theological disagreement with Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople (Istanbul). The Greek government, as you may know, has no separation of church and state, and when the Patriarch wants to discipline anyone in the Orthodox Church, he just declares them "schismatic" and calls in the government to use the Greek police to enforce his beliefs by force. The use of force by government to enforce religious beliefs is unacceptable behavior from a European Union member.
Due to the fact that Mount Athos is a semi-autonomous religious enclave, the power of the state is vested in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, headed by Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis. She authorizes the use of Greek Police to blockade food, water, medicine and heating oil to the monks.
I urge you to please raise this issue at the highest levels of the Greek Government, and ask Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni to lift the inhumane embargo against Esphigmenou Monastery, and allow the Red Cross or some other neutral international organization to visit the monastery and assess the condition of the monks, and provide medical care. This is not the kind of behavior the European Union should tolerate or accept from a fellow member state.
Greece is a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, and its actions violate numerous provisions of this convention. Greece's violations have also been cited by the US State Department's Report on International Religious Freedom.
The peaceful monks of Esphigmenou Monastery have been there for 1500 years, and all they want is to be left alone, to pray in peace. They don't want anything from the government, just their rights as Greek and EU citizens to pray in peace in their monastic home, Esphigmenou monastery, and to have access to food, medicine, water and heating oil. Having forsaken all their worldly possessions, the monastery is the only home these monks have.
The plight of these monks has received media coverage by the BBC as well as US and European news outlets. (Please see www.Esphigmenou.com for more information and media coverage)
Please help these peaceful monks, and please help ensure that religious freedom continues to thrive in Greece and the EU, without infringement by the state. Thank you very much for your assistance
Sincerely,