Finally a Europe ” “with two lungs” “

Save for some dramatic last-minute hitch, ten new countries will enter the common European home on 1st May 2002: namely, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia. In all, over 73 million people, who will raise the total number of European citizens to roughly half a billion. With the entry into the EU of no less than 8 states that suffered at first hand half a century of “real socialism”, every residue of the Iron Curtain will finally disappear. But the membership of 4 Slav peoples is even more important. Thanks to them, the united part of Europe will finally begin to breathe with both the great cultural lungs of the Old Continent, given that hitherto the Slav presence was reduced to the Slovene and Croat minorities in Italy and Austria, and the small Sorb-Lusatian community (some 50,000 inhabitants) in the eastern part of Germany. The dream enunciated by John Paul II in his encyclical “Slavorum Apostoli” of seeing the Europe of St. Benedict united with that of Saints Cyril and Methodius will thus become a reality. Of course, there’s still a lot to do. The governments of the candidate countries, some more, some less, still have to conclude various chapters of negotiation with Brussels. Then they will have to put the final decision to their own citizens, called to say yes or no in special referendums (and here some nasty surprise may be lying in store). However, the bulk of the negotiations have been completed and the appointment with History (with a capital h) is firmly on the horizon. A further source for satisfaction is the recent announcement by EU Commissioner for enlargement, Guenther Verheugen, that Croatia too, a Catholic and Central European country, could enter the Union in 2007, together with Bulgaria and Romania, without having to wait for the other Balkan countries, as hitherto envisaged. An appointment with history, as we said. It must not fail. Alojz Peterle, former prime minister of Slovenia and now member of the presidium of the European Convention representing the candidate countries, does not let slip an occasion to stress that enlargement must go hand in hand with unification. “Enlargement – explains Peterle – is completed by governments and parliaments with formal acts, whereas unification can only take place with people’s assent: through greater understanding, mutual knowledge, communication, cultural exchanges”. The time has come, therefore, to be far-sighted. That also means giving the United Europe a constitution worthy of its history and tradition. The work of the Convention is of fundamental importance, but one has the impression that it is taking place amid the indifference of public opinion. The charge has been made by its president, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing himself, in summing up the results of these last few months of debate. “It’s important – he remarked – that citizens don’t lose interest in what’s happening. For their personal future is at stake”. For his part, the president of the Commission, Romano Prodi, has indicated four fundamental tasks for the EU: responsibility at the world level in the service of peace and development; defence of a balanced model of society, capable of reconciling economic prosperity with solidarity; guarantee of freedom in full respect for the principles of security; and being a pole of intelligence. These are commendable tasks, but they need to be founded on firm terrain. What better than the Christian values that represent the roots and the unifying force of a continent so rich in cultures, languages and identities?