“Let us assume our responsibilities for a new era of European integration”. With these words Hans Joachim Meyer opened the European Colloquium organized by the ZdK (Central Committee of German Catholics) at the Catholic Academy in Berlin on 28 February. The Colloquium ended on 2 March. It was attended by over 120 personalities from 19 European countries. In their opening speeches Hans Joachim Meyer, president of the Catholic Academy, and Michel Camdessus, president of the French Social Weeks, stressed the importance of the role Catholics can play in the construction of the new Europe. The decision was taken to set up a work group with the task of preparing a meeting at the European level in the autumn of 2004. Europe, it was emphasized in the final document, must be “guided by the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, respect differences in the political history, traditions and cultures of its inhabitants, and strengthen “its foundations through the formulation of an open and flexible European constitution”.
