BRUSSELS (EJP)--- Belgian Vice Prime Minister and Interior Minister Joelle Milquet and the Ambassador of Bahrain to the United States, Houda Noono, the first Jewish ambassador of an Arab country, will  address the General Assembly of the European Jewish Parliament,  "the voice representing and empowering the Jewish community in Europe,” on May 15-16 in Brussels.

The main topic of the two-day plenary session of the 120-member Parliament will be the impact of the economic crisis on the rise of extremism, populism and anti-Semitism in Europe.

"We are witnessing in some countries of Europe the emergence of forces whose objective is the rehabilitation of Nazism, like in Greece or in Latvia but also elsewhere. This growing phenomenom, which is linked to the economic crisis, is of utmost concern for the European Jewry. Policymakers must act now to ensure that trivialization of Nazism of the anti-Semitic speech does not threaten the whole of Europe," says Joel Rubinfeld, Vice-Chairman of the European Jewish Parliament.

In Belgium last week, an unknown person made the following announcement on the microphone of a train: "Welcome to this train for Auschwitz. All Jews are asked to get off at Buchenwald."

The elected members of the European Jewish Parliament, represent some 50 countries from East, Central and Western Europe.

Inaugurated last February in the European Parliament building in Brussels, the European Jewish Parliament "brings together and coordinate the voices of Jewish communities across the European continent to address the main challenges facing Jews in Europe and elsewhere."

The General Assembly will prepare a Constitution and establish Parliament Committees.