In search of identity ” “

The summit of the heads of state and of government of the EU, held in Brussels on 16-17 June, represented one of the most critical phases of the process towards continental unity: the heated debate on the Constitutional Treaty intersected with that on the Financial Plans of the 25 and the two questions became, in effect, the only ones at the centre of the negotiations that ended in stalemate. Europe in crisis? And what needs to be done to overcome it? We asked Archbishop HIPPOLYTE SIMON of Clermont (France) and Vice-President of COMECE. What’s your impression after the failure of the European summit in Brussels? “I hope it’s a temporary crisis and that the political leaders may find a solution. We also said so in a statement put out by COMECE: a crisis can always bring something new if the ways of overcoming it are found. It reveals a problem and as such may stimulate an analysis, a reflection and a search for the best possible solution”. A crisis that reveals a problem: what problem, in your view? “The decision-making mechanisms: having passed from 15 to 25, it is certainly more difficult today for the EU to reach an agreement. This crisis reveals that a political identity does not yet exist in Europe and that today agreement needs to be reached by 25 different countries. Of course it is not the first crisis that Europe has experienced. Similar questions have emerged over the last forty years”. Is confidence in the European project faltering? “Yes, because the perception of the primary objective of Europe has changed. In the past it was first and foremost peace, and in the years 1960-1980 the threats to peace were stronger. Now the threat is that of terrorism, but the European peoples have overcome the terrible fear that, in the aftermath of the Second World War, had been generated by the cold war between the two blocs. So the perception of the primary goal of the European Union is now less sharp. And this makes Europe today weaker in the conception it has of itself. People think that peace is no longer a problem. But peace is vulnerable. Let us consider for example what happened in Yugoslavia, presented for years as a model of self-management but where the situation deteriorated in the space of a few years. This shows how precarious peace is”. Why is the Church so attentive to Europe? “Because the message of the Church is peace and the most christianised continent was Europe. The Church wishes Europe to be exemplary from the viewpoint of peace and the promotion of the development of other peoples. We in the Church expect a great deal from Europe on these two fronts. Europe, besides, is one of the richest and most developed continents. The task of the Church is to proclaim the Risen Christ and serve peace among men. Our hope is that the European Community method, which has demonstrated its strengths for 60 years, since the end of the Second World War, may, with the unification of the two blocs and the fall of the Berlin Wall in a peaceful way, still bear abundant fruits for everyone. So we have great expectations of this continent which has received so much and which still has so much to give”. Don’t you think that there is a deep economic crisis that is causing nations to isolate themselves rather than open themselves to European commitments? “I am convinced that it is not the task of Europe to do everything. There is also a principle of subsidiarity which appeals to the responsibility of each country. In the 25-member Europe, there are very different economic situations. The situation of unemployment, for instance, is not the same in Sweden, or in England, as it is France. So we must never forget that there is a national responsibility for tackling these questions”. After the “no” of France and Holland and the failure of the summit in Brussels one has the impression that Europe has difficulty in believing in itself. What role may the Church play? “One of the fundamental questions is that the peoples of Europe have different histories. And this diversity requires that each country should learn about the history of others. The Church, from this point of view, can play a decisive role, precisely due to her universal Christian vocation that unites different peoples in the same faith in Christ. We may think, for example, of pilgrimages, of exchanges, or meetings like WYD. They are religious and spiritual events, but they also represent valuable occasions for getting to know different histories, cultures and peoples. We may also think of the Church’s commitment in the ecumenical field and in dialogue between the Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Anglican worlds. We may think of all the Church has done in the Balkans by helping to extirpate the germs of the conflict by fostering dialogue with Muslims, Orthodox and Catholics. Europe is more than a great single market: it is first and foremost a space of spiritual will”.