A press conference to present the Committee of wise men established by the European bishops to prepare for the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome (25 March 1957-25 March 2007) will be held at the headquarters of COMECE (Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community) in Brussels on 11 September. The Committee has been given the task of drawing up a report on the significance of ethical values for European unification. The bishops, says a statement, “hope that this document may give a new impulse to the development of a civic sense in Europe”. The Committee of wise men, which will meet for the first time on 11 September, will be represented at the press conference by Philippe de Schoutheete and Stephen Wall, formerly permanent representatives, respectively of Belgium and Great Britain, to the EU. The conclusions of the report will be presented by the Committee itself to the congress that COMECE will hold in Rome from 23 to 25 March 2007, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty instituting the EEC. Simultaneously in Berlin (under the German Presidency of the Union) European leaders will adopt a political declaration on the values and ambitions of Europe. In preparation for the congress in Rome, COMECE and the network “Initiative of Christians for Europe” will promote a seminar on “the Treaty of Rome fifty years after. What values for the European Union?”, to be held in Clermont-Ferrand from 9 to 11 October.
