"To reconsider Europe, it is necessary to start over from the soul". By mentioning a sentence by Jacques Delors, president of the EU Commission in the eighties and nineties, the current duty president of the European Council, Wolfgang Schüssel, together with José Manuel Barroso, welcomed the religious leaders taking part in the meeting about the subject: "Fundamental Rights and Mutual Respect", now on in Brussels. "We have values and objectives in common added the Austrian Prime Minister, and we intend to further discuss topics such as truth, integration, solidarity, and subsidiarity. Moreover, this is the right opportunity to ponder which kind of society we want to create, a society respecting everybody and where everybody has his own place". Then Schüssel recalled: "Today’s meeting is one appointment in a series of appointments started long ago, and which we intend to continue, because we are persuaded that the European Union needs the contribution that may come from religions" and from "the believers of several faiths". About twenty personalities are sitting at the discussion table, including the Dalai Lama, who represents the Buddhist community, the (Anglican) Bishop of London, Richard Chartres, (Muslim) Ayatollah Seyyed Abbas Ghaemmaghami and Imam Abduljalil Sajid, Brussels Chief Rabbi Albert Guigui, (Orthodox Greek) Bishop Athanasios, and Pastor Jean Arnold de Clermont (Lutheran Evangelical Church).
