This was the internal guide for inclusive communication for use by Commission officials.
Helena Dalli, European Commissioner for Equality
Newsroom (30/11/2021 15:25, Gaudium Press) In the end, and after the scandal raised, the European Commission has just announced that it is withdrawing its questionable instruction on inclusive language.
No, it was not fantasy: an internal communication from the European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, containing ‘inclusive communication’ guidelines for its employees, openly revealed its hostility towards the Christian faith, beyond the well-known ‘inclusive’ discourse.
For example, the document asked, in the chapter dedicated to “Culture, lifestyle or belief”, to “avoid considering anyone to be Christian”, since “not everyone celebrates the Christmas holidays (…) one must be sensitive to the fact that people have different religious traditions”.
It also invited not to use phrases like “the Christmas period can be stressful”, but rather “the holidays can be stressful”. The right of Christians who, for example, work there does not matter.
This instruction manual from the European Commission recommends using generic names instead of “Christian names”, for example, instead of saying “Mary and John are an international couple”, say “Malika and Giulio are an international couple”: the name “Mary” is very much associated with Christianity.
But the Commission’s instruction has turned into a dictum, ridiculous and meaningless, when it asks you to avoid words with negative connotations like “colonisation”, in sentences like “colonisation of Mars”, or “human settlement on Mars”, to better say, according to them, “sending humans to Mars.” Men, those former explorers, would have no vexatious rights over the Martian mother earth.
“Concern has been raised about some of the examples provided in the Guidelines on Inclusive Communication” – noted Helena Dalli, European Commissioner for Equality – “which, as usual with such guidelines, is ongoing. We are examining these issues with a view to addressing them in an updated version of the guidelines, she said via twitter:
Helena Dalli (@helenadalli) 30 November 2021
It was a fancy way of saying that they don’t have absolute validity, although in their official communication there is no doubt that they have been withdrawn… while they are still studying.