“Democracy is and never stops being put to the test of bridging a gap,” the French Minister in charge of European Affairs, Bernard Cazeneuve, said at the opening of the World Forum for Democracy. Democracy cannot be dissociated from fundamental principles like freedom of expression and assembly, freedom of the press, and equal rights. “The idea of universality is what unites us and urges humility and tolerance upon us,” he added.

 

 

By its aspiration to freedom and democracy, the youth of the Arab Spring showed the way, the Minister emphasised.

 

 

Mr Cazeneuve also commended the role performed by the European Court of Human Rights in the observance of the same rights for all 800 million European citizens, and said he was convinced that the system would be followed elsewhere in the world.

 

 

He also recalled the strong symbolism of peace and reconciliation embodied by the city of Strasbourg, the spearhead of the European democratic design and Europe’s parliamentary capital.