Citizens of Europe” “

The editorial of the October number of “Europe infos”, the monthly of the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community (COMECE) and the Catholic Office for Information and Initiative for Europe (OCIPE), is dedicated to the importance of “developing European citizenship”. In his editorial NOËL TREANOR , general secretary of COMECE and editor in chief of the review, underlines the need for “Christian responsibility for the future of Europe”, already the “leitmotiv of the Apostolic Exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Europa’”. “Christians – says Treanor – have a vital role to play in giving a soul to the concept of European citizenship, which, ten years after it was introduced by the Treaty of Maastricht, “is understood in its significance only by 33% of EU citizens”, as has emerged from a recent Eurobarometer survey. Apart from Treanor’s reflections, we also present some of the other issues treated in the bulletin, in the run up to the autumn plenary session of COMECE, due to be held in Brussels on 18-19 November. BEING EUROPEAN CITIZENS. The free circulation of citizens and the right to vote and stand as candidate in the States of residence are among “the most significant steps” in the process aimed at laying the foundations of “European citizenship”, says Treanor in his editorial. Yet “the Eurobarometer survey underlines the need to take complementary measures to foster the feeling of being citizens of Europe”. In Treanor’s view, “a course in civic education in all secondary schools of the Union would be extremely useful to familiarise children with the origins, objectives, institutions and political achievements of the EU”. Apart from that, “each citizen, and in a special way each Christian, as stressed by Ecclesia in Europa, is called to assume his/her own responsibilities for the future” of the continent. These responsibilities include in particular, specifies Treanor, “the effort to inform oneself, to take part in elections and to promote in citizens an interest in their own heritage and in that of the other member states, especially the new EU countries”. TURKEY’S PROGRESS. Following the positive opinion, albeit accompanied by various recommendations, expressed by the Commission on 6 October on the start of negotiations for Turkey’s membership of the European Union, and pending the final decision of the European Council on 17 December, the “political” debate on Turkey’s possible EU entry continues in the European Parliament and in the Commission itself. Yet, as CLARE COFFEY points out in her article, “the Executive’s wish that discussion on this dossier maintain an ‘internal’ character has been thwarted”. In the meantime “Turkey continues to make progress in reforms by presenting a range of proposals aimed at promoting civil liberties and prohibiting the use of torture” but, according to Coffey, “although the question is no longer that of knowing whether Turkey will become a member of the Union, but rather on what time scale that might take place”, “the last challenge for Turkey, and perhaps the most difficult one, will be that of converting public opinion to its own cause and transforming political will in this sense”. “It is becoming more than ever imperative – concludes the journalist – for the EU to take the Turkish question into serious consideration”. CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS. How should the relations between Church and State be constructed and what characteristics do they present in the ten countries that entered the EU on 1st May? That’s the question posed by ANNA ECHTERHOFF who distinguishes the cases of Cyprus and Malta from those of the States of the former Soviet bloc. In the latter, characterized in the past “by a system of repression of the Church based on the Communist ideology”, “significant juridical transformations have taken place over the last fifteen years; they have involved “the adoption of new constitutions or the reform of those in force”, and the signing of accords with the Holy See”. At the present time, observes Echteroff, “the new member states attach a lot of importance to cooperation between the Church or the religious community and the State”. A tangible expression of this cooperation is “the new marriage law that recognises the civil validity of religious marriage”. In general, freedom of religion and conscience is protected by all the constitutions in the former Soviet bloc, although in different ways; “freedom of worship is also guaranteed – points out the author of the article – so long as it does not infringe the rights of others”. The teaching of religion in most of the countries of Eastern Europe “is not compulsory in schools, but a common religious education exists in the form of courses in ethics”. In Malta, vice versa, “where Catholicism is the state religion, the teaching of religion – notes Echterhoff – is obligatory in schools and religious marriage is regulated according to canon law”. A similar situation exists in Cyprus. In this island with an Orthodox majority “the relations between Church and State may be defined as ‘a system of coordination'”.