Preventing a standstill

Follow ample excerpts of the introductory remarks delivered by Cardinal Reihnard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising, Vice-Chairman of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) for the presentation of the COMECE statement titled “A European Community of Solidarity and Responsibility” on January 12 in Brussels. In recent years the European Union has been through a period of the most intense internal trials since its foundation. Even today, there is still no end in sight. After the grave banking and financial crises, doubts began to accumulate over the solvency of some of the States in the Eurozone. The level of national debt had soared to unsustainable levels in relation to economic output, so that due repayment out of their own resources was no longer considered possible. What had initially only affected certain States in the Eurozone subsequently expanded to almost all the others. Therefore, to prevent damage to the very foundations of the European order of peace, decisive common action is necessary in the present. This will demand concessions and sacrifices from all. A collapse of the Eurozone would have profound effects on the European Union as a whole. One very important reason for the introduction of the euro was to prevent a spiral of devaluation of national currencies within the Common Market. Any break-up of the monetary union would therefore, in the long term, also undermine the achievements of the Common Market which, since the signing of the Treaty of Rome in 1957 has constituted the core of the integration process. This core must not be abandoned!In the past, the often-disparaged European Internal Market contributed decisively to enabling the nations of our war-ravaged continent to remain at peace and their citizens to enjoy freedom and prosperity. Today, however, the process of European unification cannot be allowed to come to in a standstill – the Common Market must develop further. And it should evolve according to the concept of a European social market economy, thus allowing the European Union itself to become a viable community of solidarity and responsibility. To this end it is of primary and utmost importance in the present European crisis to reaffirm the cultural bases of the concept of the social market economy. For it is much more than an economic model. It is based on the philosophical and juridical bases of Greco-Roman antiquity and grounded in Biblical theology. It binds freedom of the market with the principle of justice and the commandment to love of neighbour. Four essential characteristics of the European social market economy are then described. Emphasis is placed on the significance of free and voluntary initiatives to promote welfare for the process of social cohesion. Free initiatives with social objectives deserve more support and a legal framework, which do justice to their specificity. Secondly, it is asserted that a social market economy must be economically efficient, that is, competitive, in order to be able to levy the taxes and contributions for debt reduction and the financing of ongoing expenditure. However, the European market needs not only rules, particularly in the financial sector, but also virtue-based action on the part of all market participants, beginning with the entrepreneur and reaching to the consumer. This is a matter for regulatory politics (“Ordnungspolitik”), for institutional ethics, for morality and virtue. The third characteristic of the European social market economy is social policy. With reference to the principles of solidarity and subsidiarity, all those in need in the European Union must be given social protection and a guarantee of participatory justice. Our young people have the right to be offered high-quality training and education. The family needs to be cherished as the living source from which to promote the growth of solidarity and responsibility, and must be supported accordingly. In addition, at least for the States which have joined the monetary union and those that plan to take this step, there is, furthermore, today the concrete challenge of stronger alignment of their social services. Finally, the European social market economy must be ecological. For us Europeans, one prerequisite for considerate interaction with natural resources and combating the consequences of climate change is a redefinition of our relationship with nature and the constitution of a culture of “moderation”. In international committees, the European Union should maintain its role as a standard bearer for the integrity of Creation. As a matter of principle, it must not limit itself as a community of solidarity and responsibility to shaping policy within its own borders. It must also play an active role at global level and honour its obligations and the promises it has made.Moreover, Europe must be a “contribution to a better world” (Jean Monnet).