Freedom or security?” “

The struggle against international terrorism could lead to “a dilemma between freedom and security”, whose solution “is placed in a delicate balance that must, in a democratic society, be the result of a wide public debate”. So says the editorial in the April number of “Europe infos”, monthly newsletter of the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Union (COMECE) and the Catholic Office of Information and Initiative for Europe (OCIPE), signed by NOËL TREANOR, COMECE general secretary and director of the bulletin, and editor in chief JAN KERKHOFS . We present some of the issues discussed in the bulletin below. AFTER Madrid. After the terrorist attacks of 12 March in Madrid “we need to welcome the decision of the governments of the European Union to collaborate more closely in the struggle against terrorism – says the editorial -. The appointment of Gijs de Vries to coordinate the policy of member states on the matter and the support of European leaders for a ‘solidarity clause’ in the draft Constitution ought to lead to a more effective response to terrorism”, but, ask the two journalists, “what ought to guide this response?”. The violence of terrorism generates two possible attitudes: “the challenge to re-establish normality, to not let the terrorists believe they have won” or the “defensive attitude” that “leads to the dilemma between freedom and security”? “We must accept in a spirit of solidarity the fact that the level of security needs to be increased – is the conclusion of the editorial –, but it won’t be worth protecting our values – defined in the draft European Constitution as ‘values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law, and respect for human rights – if we ourselves are unable to defend them in person, also in moments of major difficulty”. EUROPEAN CONSTITUTION AND CHRISTIAN ROOTS. “The leaders of the Union fixed 17 June 2004 – date of their next ordinary summit – as the deadline for concluding the Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) on the draft Constitution”, explains JOHN COUGHLAN, of the COMECE press office. Recalling that Bertie Ahern, Irish Prime Minister and current president of the European Council, has announced the willingness of all member states, as emerged at the last summit in Brussels (25-26 March), to accept some kind of compromise, Coughlan stresses how important it is that “on the resumption of negotiations on the draft Treaty”, when the debate will be re-opened on the explicit reference to the Christian roots of Europe to be inserted in the Preamble”, European leaders, “in the effort to find a suitable constitutional formula for 450 million citizens, “take into account not just the common heritage of the continent, but also the diversity of the constitutional traditions in the various member states”. Except for the United Kingdom, all the member states have a written constitution; thirteen of these have a preamble; only the Polish Constitution explicitly cites the Christian heritage, but many others contain references, with various nuances, to the Christian faith or, more generally, to the religious tradition. According to Coughlan, the crux of the matter consists in defining “the type of reference: what ‘tradition’ should be recalled in the Preamble?”. INTEGRATED PROGRAMME OF EDUCATION. Two recent measures of the European Commission suggest the guidelines of future EU policy in the field of education: a field in which the EU can only act as a complement to national policies. In spite of the fact that “only 0.5% of the EU budget” is currently allocated to the “Youth”, “Socrates” and “Leonardo” programmes, – notes GEORG DÜCHS – “progress towards the ‘space of European education’ seems well defined: thanks to the Bologna and Copenhagen process, university teaching and professional training ought to become more coherent and comparable at the European level”. “Ongoing training” and “education in citizenship”: these are the two hinges round which the recent proposals of the Commission revolve: The Commission intends to restructure the above-cited programmes of exchange and education, as well as “Erasmus” and “Europass”, “reuniting them into a single integrated programme aimed at promoting school, higher education, professional training and adult education”. The objective is the participation in exchange programmes of at least 10% of students: “it is expected that by 2010 three million young people will have benefited from ‘Erasmus'”. European cooperation between the national organizations and promotion of mobility are further features of the integrated programme. Since “the Churches in Europe are everywhere investing in education, youth, the media and culture, and the character of the Churches is intrinsically transnational, – concludes Düchs -, this cross-border cooperation ought to be of particular interest to the ecclesiastical institutions; a form of cooperation that the new programmes of the Union are able effectively to support”. ———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1295 N.ro relativo : 35 Data pubblicazione : 13/05/2004