Getting people interested

Those in France who harboured great hopes after the ratification in Nice in 2000 of the EU Charter of Fundamental rights, a symbolic place where for the first time States were to proclaim their rights together, and those who suffered through the lies of politicians from all sides that surfaced during the debate on the ratification of the European Constitutional Treaty, finally lost all hope with the referendum’s negative result, which was due to internal factors and coincided with the end of the presidential mandate.Now, France is about to take on the EU presidency for the second semester of 2008 and there is great interest in the new, simplified Treaty. But there is still regret, for the French as for much of the new-born “European civil society”. Where is our dream of a political Europe, capable of shaping its own foreign policy choices and offering to others its own experience of democracy; its dramatic experience, never to be repeated, that marked the low point of european contemporary conscience?Debates on the European Constitution have been of great impact in France, although some lies have been said. Surely the issue of the “plombier polonais” (Polish plumber), symbolic of the people’s understandable uneasiness about the Bolkenstein directive on the free circulation of professions, is not a high point for our Country. But the liveliness of the debates had at least managed to get people interested in a dialogue based on political, social and religious ideas. This dialogue has been made impossible the moment the States agreed on a simplified treaty, removed from the citizen. This is why some in France have been calling for a new referendum. In the light of this recent history, my European dream would be to re-open a healthy debate, at the national and European level, a debate that could offer to social and political groups from all States the opportunity to gather ideas. In my view, one of the most important challenges facing the European Union is to shed light on the dialogue between believers and non-believers, which is creating a rift among peoples. Italy, France and Belgium are examples of that part of the European west which is incapable of facing a true dialogue. They are trapped in a rationalist illusion on one side, and desperately defending their identity on the other, fearful of a religion, Islam, that we must learn to listen to. The great ethical questions of the future must be understood and faced by all of us, wisely. It might be that the EU does not have much jurisdiction on these matters, but why not begin a debate within civil society? During the meetings on the Convention, the debates on the Christian roots of Europe had a great impact on member States, and in my view, this underscores the fact that when these questions are raised, citizens take notice and are keenly interested in them.