A fresh start for the 25″ “

Europe is also, and perhaps especially, a question of awareness. It’s not the simple product of an institutional system, but the patient work of construction through people’s consciousness. That’s the view of Cardinal ATTILIO NICORA , who sees the completion of the enlargement of the European Union as a “long term” process. A native of Varese, born in 1937, appointed auxiliary bishop of Milan in 1977, Nicora later became bishop of Verona and then assumed responsibility for legal questions within the Italian Episcopal Conference. He was appointed President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See in 2002. Created Cardinal in 2003, a convinced believer in Europe, he has also served as vice-president of the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community (COMECE). Should the 1st May be considered a point of arrival or one of departure? “It’s first of all a great achievement, a result that could not have been hoped for until just a few years ago. The fall of the Berlin Wall marked the dawn of a new era, and enlargement was one of its consequences. On the other hand, especially in terms of immediate responsibilities, the 1st May was also a point of departure. The growth of EU member states requires serious reforms at the institutional level and the ability to extend to these countries too the policies and regulations that preside over the Community. We have to assume a lengthy period of adjustment and settling in”. Can the text of the Constitution be defined at the next European Council in June? Are the two processes interlinked? “Of course. The construction of united Europe demands a strong awareness, a mutual recognition and a real common consciousness. The old and new members of the Union must seek and identify together the shared values that peoples and states have in common. The definition of the Constitutional Treaty mainly has this objective. I also believe that it is a fertile terrain in which the Churches can work for the good of the continent. Europe, to be sure, cannot be a dogma of faith, but it is a privileged sphere for the witness of Christians. It’s a field in which there is much to be done, as the Pope reminded us in Ecclesia in Europa“. Enlargement to the countries of the former Soviet bloc is being viewed with some concern: economic, social and legal disparities suggest that the costs of enlargement will be excessive. Are these fears justified? “We need first of all to draw distinctions, because each of the ten new member countries has its own history, character and traditions – also at the religious level. For example, Hungary is closer to the Western tradition due to its not too distant past as part of the Habsburg Empire. The tradition of the Baltic States is obviously different… In this sense the first thing we need to do is to get to know each other better in order to understand each other better. Nor should we forget that these nations, with the exception of Cyprus and Malta, suffered a kind of fifty-year interruption to their presence in Europe, with a recent past marked by communism, with all that this involved. Fortunately, however, today the opportunities for contacts, exchanges and mutual knowledge are rapid and wide-ranging. This could favour rapprochement”. You mentioned a European “common consciousness”: what does that mean? “It means that the European home has a need for solid and deep foundations. It must touch the hearts of citizens. It cannot be an artificial construction. The bishops of COMECE have repeatedly said so: we must open our hearts and trust in the hope of which the Pope reminds us. A strong common feeling, of peace and solidarity, is needed, if we are to continue the work of forging a Community begun a half century ago”. The EU has extended its frontiers beyond the Iron Curtain and into the Mediterranean: other new EU member countries are already in the pipeline. It is justified to ask what are, if any, the extreme frontiers of Europe? “The membership of Romania and Bulgaria is just a matter of time. As for the thorny question of the other Balkan countries, I think it can be tackled in the framework of a rapprochement of these countries to the EU, as a way of achieving the process of development and peace so ardently yearned for. The decisions on any new enlargement are of essentially political nature, yet we cannot fail to acknowledge that there is also a problem of cultural identity of Europe itself. I hope that each decision in this sense may be based on the deepest common values of Europe, not just on purely contingent motives of a political or economic nature”.