“Globalization is an opportunity if we succeed in channelling the efforts aimed at a better world order, the protection of the environment and aid to the poor and the disadvantaged”, affirmed Michel Camdessus, former director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on recently presenting, in Brussels, the Report of COMECE (Commission of the Episcopal Conferences of the European Community) “Global Governance: our responsibility to turn globalization into an opportunity for everyone” (cf. SirEurope, no. 4/2001, p. 2). The former IMF director emphasized that “solidarity, a shared value that transcends cultural and religious barriers, is the necessary prerequisite to combat poverty, the last great systemic risk of our planet”. With regard to the need expressed in the document to establish a high-level political coordination of the international institutions able to take decisions, called “3G”, Camdessus explained that “no international organization is really and fully competent today. There are no adequate responses, for example, for trade, the environment or the management of water resources. The G7/G8 does good where it can, but is not legitimate to decide for everyone and on everything. The idea, proposed by the work group of COMECE, to set up the 3G reflects precisely the need to have at our disposal guidelines and strategies at the global level”. Michel Hansenne, member of the ad hoc group for the drafting of the Report, MEP and former director of the International Labour Organization, declared that this proposal must not be modified following the attacks in America: “On the contrary he said the 3G is even more actual now, as a political body that indicates guidelines both to the international community and to the international organizations”. COMECE secretary general, Msgr. Noël Treanor explained that the Report aims at opening a debate inside the Churches and expressed the hope that “your Bishops will act as spokesmen in bringing the content of the Report to the attention of governments”.
