“At the political level, Europe could play a valuable role in the continent and in the world; at the juridical level, EU law is destined increasingly to have an impact on national laws”. The point is made by Msgr. Attilio Nicora, emeritus bishop of Verona and vice-president of COMECE, summarizing the contribution of the Italian Episcopal Conference (CEI) to COMECE (Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community) in view of the forthcoming “Laeken Declaration” (14-15 December 2001), one of the questions on the agenda of the permanent Council of the CEI, held in Pisa from 24 to 27 September. The Catholic Church, Nicora continued, “cannot fail to follow with great attention and participation” the process of European unification, “that was begun fifty years ago and that is now going through a difficult moment, pregnant with consequences, and characterized especially by two factors: first, “the future membership of the Union of new countries (12, that will bring the total of member states to 27), especially in the area of Central and Eastern Europe, but also of the Mediterranean; and second, the reform of the fundamental norms and institutional structures of EU government”. Therefore the COMECE, Nicora explained, has asked the Episcopal Conferences to reflect and to offer suggestions and recommendations with a view to any declaration prior to the European summit in Laeken and the role that the Commission itself might play in the subsequent period, in view of the conclusion of the “constituent process” in 2004. The Holy See too, as Nicora pointed out, “emphasizes the importance of a more continuous and concrete attention of the national Episcopal Conferences to European problems and of an effort of dialogue and promotion to be conducted not so much vis-à-vis the Commission in Brussels as vis-à-vis the members of the national governments and of the European Parliament, whose role is and will be absolutely decisive”. The themes of the contribution that the Italian bishops should forward to COMECE not later than 30 October – informs Msgr. Nicora – should include reflections of “what institutional role should be recognized to the Church and to the religious communities in the Union; what method should be defined to favour reciprocal relations; and how to act in concert between COMECE and national episcopates in such a way as to ensure that our demands be always kept present in the reform process”.
