The members of the Social Affairs Commission of COMECE held a meeting on “Reflections from the viewpoint of social ethics on solidarity in the European Union and the debate on the future financial prospects of the EU” on 4-5 October. We present a memorandum issued at the end of the meeting. The issue discussed over the last two days is of great actuality for various reasons. It is actual, in the first place, due to the very nature of the process of European integration: it would be difficult to think of contemporary Europe, if the need for stable relations aimed at preventing economic disparities between states that have just emerged from so bellicose a dawn of a new century were not present from the outset. To further express this aspect connate with the construction of a more united Europe, there is the explicit reference in the European treaties and in the draft constitutional treaty prepared by the Convention and presented to the IGC in Rome. On the basis of these elements, the issue also presents itself as a criterion useful for reflecting on the fidelity of the European Union to what historical events propose to the attention of its decisions. Just this year, in fact, the European Commission is drawing up the new principles for the financial framework that will be adopted for the period subsequent to 2006. And the entry of the new member states is presented in all its actuality in close reference to this socio-political datum. Undoubtedly this new stage that marks the enlargement of the European Community requires the capacity to combine various factors: apart from determining the quantity of funding, there is also a responsibility to ensure its “quality”. In this sense solidarity cannot be expressed other than by reciprocal responsibility between the subjects concerned. The work of this meeting can be summed up by what was affirmed at its beginning by the Belgian ambassador to the EU, Philippe De Schoutheete: namely that “solidarity too has its cost”.
