ecumenism" "
Values such as freedom, solidarity, democracy and human rights “must constitute the basis of the European project” and the “Churches play an important role in their promotion in society and with governments”, declared Dutch deputy prime minister Gerrit Zalm, on concluding a meeting with European church representatives in The Hague in recent days. The meeting had been called to discuss the values of Europe in view of the final consultation on European citizenship that will be held, again in The Hague, on 4 December. News of the meeting is given in a statement issued by the Conference of European Churches (CEC). Noel Treanor, general secretary of the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (COMECE), and Rüdiger Noll, chairman of the CEC’s Church and Society Commission, emphasised during the meeting the need for “a closer link between common values and EU policies”. In particular, they asked: “How are the values of human dignity, justice and non-discrimination considered in the Lisbon Strategy, which has the objective of turning the EU into the most competitive economy in the world? How do they influence the budget forecasts for 2006-2012?” Further issues discussed with Zalm, delegate of Dutch premier Jan Peter Balkenende, currently in hospital, were the enlargement of the Union, with particular reference to the membership of Turkey, security and interreligious dialogue, migrations and the process of ratification of the Constitutional Treaty. As far as Turkey is concerned, the COMECE and CEC representatives declared that “the fact of being a country with a Moslem majority does not per se constitute an obstacle to the opening of negotiations, but various questions still remain outstanding, such as “the promotion of human rights, in particular those of minorities, and religious liberty”.
