Integration is not absorption

Almost 50 years since the signing of the Treaty of Rome (25 March 1957) instituting the European Economic Community (Eec), the European Union is about to experience its fifth enlargement (from 25 to 27 countries) with the entry of Bulgaria and Romania. In October 2005 the Eu began membership negotiations with Turkey and Croatia, while the countries of the Balkan area have made significant progress in their bid to join the Eu. To mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty, Comece (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) will promote an international conference in Rome (23-25 March 2007). A report on European values and prospects drawn up by a committee of “wise men” will be presented at the start of this congress. “The congress – explains the general secretary of Comece, NOËL TREANOR , in a briefing to Sir – will also draft a message for citizens and Eu leaders with a view to promoting active citizenship and mobilizing strong Christian witness”. With Treanor we reviewed the progress of European integration on the eve of the Comece plenary, which opens in Brussels today (until 24 November). With its fifth enlargement, Europe is undergoing a further phase of transition. Do the doubts outweigh the hopes? “On 8 November the European Commission presented a Communication on Eu enlargement and the strategies for the integration of the candidate countries. In the strategy of the Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, the original concept of the Union’s capacity of absorption has now given way to the more significant concept of capacity of integration , which provides for the entry of the candidate countries in full respect for their identity, history and culture. Comece shares and encourages this willingness of the Union to constitute a factor of political, economic and cultural development of these countries. In the 25-member Europe, however, there are many doubts about this process. For proof of these misgivings we need look no further than the negative results of the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty in France and Holland, and a certain tendency at the level of heads of state and of government not to realise the Community model but to think and enact policy in terms of the nation state. Moreover, the fear of globalization, of the threat of the transfer of labour to the countries in which manpower is cheap, of migration and of Islam, is at the root of the fears and uncertainties about the future that are rife in European society and influencing policy”. How do you assess the process of unification? “It might be said that Europe, fifty years after the Treaty of Rome, is a unique historical project that has been a great success in terms of peace and solidarity not only at the financial level with the structural and cohesion funds, but also as a political method of integration between states. Paradoxically, today, 50 years later, citizens are not really conscious of this success. There’s a need for a grassroots work of civic education and awareness-raising to dispel the fears described above and make sure they do not slow down a process which many countries regard with hope, hoping one day to form part of the Eu or at least establish close relations with it”. With regard to the heritage of Christian tradition and values, what is the role of Catholics in the process of European construction? “Participation in politics is a task for all Catholics. We take peace for granted, whereas the last five decades constitute an extraordinary condition, the result of the commitment of everyone, politicians and ordinary citizens alike. If this situation is to last, it is essential Christians devote themselves to the promotion of this project by voting for the members of the European Parliament, by taking part in the processes of consultation launched by the Commission, by actively pursuing European citizenship at the individual level and that of the lay movements and, as Catholics, by promoting mutual understanding between different Christian communities and traditions, to help foster a cultural and religious richness that may continue to inspire the European ideal”. At times various forms of euro-scepticism seem to be rife among young people. Why? “The young are the protagonists of the future European identity, but they did not directly experience its genesis. That’s why it’s so important to keep alive its memory. The young need to be educated in a civic sense. They need to be imbued with the consciousness of the European horizon as dimension of their own national identity. Faced, moreover, by the great challenges of the present time: terrorism, environment, energy, unemployment, it’s not hard to make the young understand that these problems cannot be tackled exclusively at the national level, and that the European project contains in its DNA the political will to cooperate together in the consciousness that rights must be matched by corresponding duties”.