European bishops` stand on EU

The Commission of the Bishops` Conferences of the European Community said the Catholic Church had supported the process of European integration since its inception.

In a declaration issued on Tuesday, aimed as a contribution to the debate on the future of the EU in the European Convention, the commission said it supported this process for the purpose of the EU "is first and foremost to serve the common good of all in order to guarantee justice and harmony."

The Bishops` Conferences of Malta, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland are associate members.

In its declaration, the commission said the values and principles that had guided the integration process, such as human dignity, solidarity and subsidiarity, were recognised and promoted by the social teaching of the Church.

With this initial document and the proposals contained in it, commission had offered its first contribution to the European Convention.

It said that it was doing so "in the hope that the work of the convention will result in a balanced set of proposals capable of guiding the EU; a Union not merely based on realities and givens of the past, but on the needs for governance of the future."

When contacted, a spokesman for the commission, John Coughlan, said its members, including the Maltese representative, had been consulted before the position was issued.

"In the second half of last year, we conducted a consultation of all the Catholic Bishops` Conferences that belong to or are associated to the commission. We asked them to tell us what they wanted from the reform of the European Union. The Maltese Bishops` Conference, along with many others, gave a detailed response to this consultation.

"These responses were put together in a statement approved by the bishops of commission at their plenary meeting in November, 2001, and sent to the Laeken summit in December, where this current process of EU reform was launched. This statement then provided the basis for the contribution that has just been published and sent to the European Convention. The document which has been released now is, of course, more specifically focused on the questions that are likely to arise in the context of that Convention."

On the declaration itself, Mr Coughlan said the contribution of the commission secretariat had addressed four principal themes: human dignity and fundamental rights, solidarity and the common good, subsidiarity and participation, and Churches in the European Union.

"The aim of our contribution is to offer a reflection on the challenges facing the European Convention and to put forward recommendations for the future of the EU based on the social teaching of the Church.

"We believe that in order to be able to work effectively together for the common good in a globalised world, it is essential for the European Union`s actions in every field to be rooted in a set of clearly defined values. Europe`s Judeo-Christian heritage, articulated through the Church`s social teaching, provides a rich and living source of such values.

Asked what was the commission`s position on enlargement and whether it had an opinion on Malta`s bid for EU membership, Mr Coughlan said: "In 1997, the bishops of the commission published a statement on the enlargement process, which they described as `building a spiritual bridge of unity between peoples`. That document, which argued in favour of the enlargement of the EU as a matter of the unification of the people of Europe, still stands five years later.

"Our position is very much guided by the position of the Pope, who says that `the expansion of the European Union should continue to be a priority` and sees the unification of Europe through enlargement as a historically essential step to allow Europe to `breathe with two lungs`.

"Malta occupies a key place in what we might call the `Mediterranean branch` of the European family - what (European Commission president) Romano Prodi described on Europe Day this year as `a family of countries committed to peace, democracy and fundamental human rights, united by common values and a common cultural heritage, building and sharing prosperity together`".

Will Malta`s EU membership have an impact on the values of the Maltese?

Mr Coughlan said that belonging to the European Union was about living together with your neighbours in a spirit of solidarity, but always observant of the principle of subsidiarity.

"We are constantly influenced and changed by our relationships with others (Malta is perhaps a greater witness to that than any other European country).

"However, the Maltese will not be compelled to change their values because of EU membership. The other side of the question is: will Malta`s EU membership have an impact on the values of the European Union?"