Majority in favour of article 37″ “

The plenary session of the Convention on the future of Europe of 15-16 May will discuss the chapters dedicated to institutional reforms, with particular attention aroused by the controversial issue of a permanent Presidency of the European Council. Little more than a month remains before the official closing of the Convention’s work: the handing over of the draft Constitution to the Heads of State and of Government is scheduled to take place during the European Council in Salonika on 20-21 June. Yet despite this impending deadline, the debate still continues on whether moral or legislative references to God, to religions and to the Churches should be contained in the text of the future Constitution for the enlarged Europe. The question still remains open. Two opposing “fronts” have been opened in the debate of this issue, and the opposition between them is at times fierce. The first regards the drafting of the Preamble. It has now been decided that art. 2 of the draft Constitution relating to the values of the Union will not contain any mention of the heritage of the Christian roots of Europe or that of other religions, nor will it contain the by now famous formulation in the Polish Constitution. In spite of that, the positions adopted by various sides – most recently yet another intervention by the Holy Father, followed by a declaration of support by Romano Prodi, President of the Commission – have induced the President of the Convention Valery Giscard d’Estaing to “pledge himself” to ensuring that a reference to God and to the contribution of Christianity and other religions to the process of European integration be included in the Preamble to the future constitutional Treaty, probably on the basis of the formula in force in Poland. The second aspect of the debate – which sees a coalition between the People’s Party group and the right-wing parties ranged in opposition against the Socialists, Greens and Communists supported by those who see in a reference to religious values an attack on the secular institutions of the state – concerns the wording of art. 37 of the draft Constitution, entitled “Status of the churches and of the non-confessional organizations”: “1. The European Union shall respect and not prejudice the status provided by national legislations for the churches and religious associations or communities of member states. 2. The European Union shall also respect the status of the philosophical and non-confessional organizations. 3. The Union shall maintain regular dialogue with these churches and organizations, and recognize their identity and specific contribution”. The article cites verbatim Declaration XI (not compulsory) annexed to the Treaty of Amsterdam. The members of the Convention have presented 35 amendments to art. 37, many of them aimed at its suppression. The reasons adduced are many. First, it is argued that the status, dialogue and contribution of the organizations of civil society are already disciplined by art. 34, more general in character. Second, some have argued that the “freedom of religion” guaranteed in art. 10 of the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the EU (which will almost certainly be incorporated in the body of the Constitution) makes art. 37 superfluous, an “unnecessary duplicate”. Third, a cross-party amendment declares in its motivation that “it is hard to understand why what was inserted in a non-binding declaration in the Treaty of Amsterdam should now be inserted in the Constitution”. Fourth, it is a widely held opinion that the Union “has no jurisdiction in matters of theology and philosophy”, nor on the relations between State and Church which are regulated in different ways in the various member states. As things stand today, the majority view within the Convention (repeatedly confirmed by the Presidium itself) is favourable to the adoption of art. 37 just in the way it has been formulated and proposed, including paragraph 3 on the “regular dialogue” with and the “specific contribution” of the Churches.