Depopulation and impoverishment of rural areas, loss of identity of its inhabitants and diffusion of a generalised feeling of impotence towards a system of ever more aggressive intensive farming: these are some of the dangers that the inhabitants of rural areas in Europe feel with particular anxiety. The impact that the process of European integration may have on rural regions was studied at a seminar held at Altenkirchen from 9 to 13 May. The meeting was promoted by the “Rural Network of European Churches” (CERN) and the “Church and Society” Commission of the CEC/KEK. In a final resolution signed by the 40 participants in the seminar, the Churches express the hope that the construction of a common European identity would also contemplate an appeal to “ethical and social values”, guarantee “a variety of cultures and landscapes” and encourage “solidarity between peoples and generations, and between urban and rural environments”. With regard to the economic improvement of the rural environment, the Churches ask for “recognition of and respect for biological farming”, and measures of support for rural communities. The Churches fear in fact that the European process of the centralization of the economy may further damage and depopulate rural areas and that the process of integration may lead “to a Europe not of persons but of consumers”.
