The hindrance of filters

The agenda of the Portuguese presidency is evidence of the progress made by the building of Europe. The Portuguese presidency and the French and Slovenian presidencies that will follow it will work at a number of important issues. We can mention, for instance, the intergovernmental conference, the amending treaty and its ratification, the revision of the common agricultural policy, the future funding of the European Union, the single market, its identity and the principle of communitarian preference, the strengthening of the political and institutional dimensions of the euro-zone, the frontiers of Europe, migration and the possibility of a common European system for asylum seekers, not to mention the bilateral summits with Brazil, Ukraine, Russia, Asean, China, India and Africa, due between September and December this year.The European agenda is really very tight. Its goal is still to improve the governance of the market and society, in order to guarantee peace, stability and living conditions that promote the dignity of the human person. The communitarian method, based on the principle of solidarity, remains the key factor to achieve such a goal. It implies the sharing of the national sovereignty according to shared rules, in order to boost the common good of the member states and their citizens and the use of the EU’s resources to help the weaker members to develop and to promote the development of the third countries.Despite this ambitious roadmap and despite the remarkable success of the European Union in strengthening peace and a secure lifestyle for its populations, the public opinion about the European project is often hindered by the filters of a perception that biases the historical experience: an experience that must not be denied, but must not be transformed either. At any rate, its negative points must not spoil the development of all the new and promising things that the European project contains. Such factors as the national identity anchored to the past, the perception of politics through the prism of the corruption of the Communist system, the extreme claim for national neutrality in a complex and increasingly interdependent world or the feeling of a national and cultural superiority are some of the factors that require a public debate in our member states, if we want the new aspects of the European project, its communitarian method and its potentials to be fully deployed.In this respect, the Christian Church leaders too must take responsibility for raising the awareness of the Christian public in Europe. The ratification of the amending treaty, which will probably take place in 2008, is a context in which such responsibility can be deployed. It is not because the European Union and its institutions do not achieve perfection in some political areas and fail to or are unable to fulfil the short-term expectations that its important social and ethical achievements must be undermined or its future potentials must be questioned. The eschatological experience that builds the Christian commitment around the search for justice and peace within society enables us to recognise what is new in the European project. In addition, it allows us to creatively and warily support the strengthening of Europe as an ethical power, working in a world that increasingly needs a redeeming grace, acting through the men and the institutions they create.