The Michalski Group was set up in the second half of 2002 on the mandate of the President of the Commission, Romano Prodi, with a view to discussing the fundamental values of Europe. The Group named after its Polish chairman Krzysztof Michalski, professor of philosophy at Warsaw and Boston, and Rector of the Institute for the Human Sciences in Vienna is called in particular to reflect on spiritual, religious and cultural values and on the contribution such values can make to the process of European construction: the basic assumption of discussions within the Group is the consciousness that the European Union is not merely “an alliance of States with limited common interests, but a significant political entity”. One of its activities will consist in the organization of public debates on the question, whose proceedings and conclusions will be presented in a report. Some of the most significant issues addressed by the Group are: the promotion of a community of shared values through political measures; the choice of a Constitution as the foundation of a community of shared values; the challenges of social cohesion and solidarity in the EU; the reconciliation between the promotion of shared values and the maintenance of European diversities; the ways in which religion, culture and tradition can promote social cohesion; and the possible factors for the promotion of social cohesion in the enlarged Europe. The members of the Michalski Group are: K.Michalski; Kurt Biedenkopf, German, professor of law, former Premier of Saxony; Silvio Ferrari, Italian, professor of constitutional law at the State University of Milan; Bronislav Geremek, Polish, professor of European history, former Prime Minister of Poland; Will Hutton, British, President of the Foundation of Work; Quadro Curzio, Italian, professor of political economy at the Catholic University of Milan; Michel Rocard, French, President of the Commission for culture of the European Parliament, former Prime Minister of France; Simone Veil, French, judge of the Constitutional Court, former President of the European Parliament; Arpad Goncz, Hungarian, writer and translator, former President of the Republic of Hungary; John Gray, British, professor of European thought at the London School of Economics; Jutta Limbach, German, professor of law and President of the Goethe Institut, former President of the German Constitutional Court; and Ioannis Petrou, Greek, professor of theology at the Aristotle University in Salonika.
