The three challenges

Following the end of the six months’ German Presidency, Portugal assumed the chairmanship of the European Council on 1st July. The July/August number of “Europe infos”, monthly of COMECE (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community) and OCIPE (Catholic Office of Information and Initiative for Europe), focuses its attention on this change of guard at the top of the EU. “Angela Merkel succeeded in finding a way out of the crisis caused by the rejection of the Constitutional Treaty by the French and Dutch – points out STEFAN LUNTE -; however, due to the strained relations between Germany and Poland, it will be necessary to count on the aid”, among others, “of Nicolas Sarkozy and José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero”. The Portuguese Presidency, observes MARIA LYRA TRAVERSA, “will revolve around three axes. On the internal level, the priority is “to reinforce economic integration and stimulate competitiveness by rapidly overcoming the international impasse”; at the external level, “the perspectives are extremely wide-ranging: from east to west, from north to south, Lisbon intends to promote relations with third countries and, at the same time, to reinforce the role of Europe on the world scene”. The third challenge, “but no less important than the others”, is “the achievement of an accord on a new constitutional treaty” that “the Portuguese Presidency hopes will be signed by December”. RELIGIOUS FREEDOM AND ADOPTION. If the United Kingdom was a country in the vanguard in the application of EU directives on equality and non-discrimination”, the Equality Act 2006 against any form of discrimination in the provision of goods and services based on sexual orientation, “creates serious difficulties for the 12 Catholic adoption agencies [in the UK] that currently cover 4% of services in this field”, and that cannot under any circumstance “accept applications for adoption from same-sex couples”. The question, on which bishops in England and Wales pronounced in recent months, is revived by CHARLES WOOKEY , according to whom “the Church considers that this regulation should not be applied to adoption”. Clarifying the “Church’s distinction between people’s sexual orientation and activity”, Wookey concludes: “The government [of the UK] cannot claim that Catholic agencies, no matter what their means of funding are, should abandon their own moral and religious convictions”. ETHICAL PRINCIPLES IN RESEARCH. “The policy of European research ought to be deeply rooted in European society” and take into account “the framework of fundamental ethical principles held in common”. Recalling this assertion of the Green Paper of the European Commission on the “European research space” published in 2000, KATHARINA SCHAUER asks whether these principles “are a common denominator” and “how the rights of member states to establish ethical limits can be protected”. According to the expert, “the protection of human life and the principle of the non-commercialization of the human body” are essential. In this regard, she underlines: “In the debate on the utilization of human embryonic stem cells, one has the impression that the member states that are endowed with more restrictive ethical norms are considered as a brake on research”. Consultations between researchers and non-researchers in this field are underway: a conference on stem cell research is planned for the end of 2007. “Based on its results – concludes Schauer – the European Commission will propose new initiatives in favour of the European research space in 2008”. CITIES WITH A HUMAN FACE. The project of “European cities with a human face” is at the centre of the interview with J EAN-MARIE BEAUPUY , chairman of the Urban and Housing Intergroup of the European Parliament, following the launch of “a new urban policy in Europe” in May. “Urban and housing policy is not a direct competence of the European Union – explains Beaupuy -; nonetheless the EU intervenes indirectly through regulations on building materials and the allocation of regional funds. But other European policies too have repercussions on cities… I am thinking of the environment, transport and, in general, social policies”. Over 80% of EU citizens – some 400 million people – live in cities -. “Therefore – he concludes – the added value of Europe is in direct proportion to its sharing of experiences and exchange of good practices”. CATHOLIC CHURCH AND G8 . After the letter sent by Benedict XVI in December 2006 to Angela Merkel, who chaired the G8 in 2007, and the appeals of the Presidents of some European Bishops’ Conferences to their respective heads of state in preparation for the G8 (held in June), JOHANNA TOUZEL underlines “the need to establish a permanent secretariat for the G8”, and achieve “its greater transparency and efficiency” which would also permit the Church to monitor more closely the process that should lead to world governance” and enable the G8 “to respond to the great challenges of globalization”.