"While Europe is getting ready to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome", with the summit in Berlin on March 25th 2007, "we, bishops of Comece, express our gratitude for what has been accomplished within the European project". These are the first words of the document named "Common values: the live spring of the European project", approved today in Brussels by the plenary assembly of the Commission of the Bishops Conferences of the European Community. The text "is to be regarded explains the president of Comece, the Dutch mgr. Adrianus van Luyn as a contribution of the bishops to the preparation of the Declaration that the EU will announce in the German capital" on the occasion of the summit promoted by the German presidency to reflect on the history of the EU and the future of integration. The bishop of Rotterdam explains: "We intend first and foremost to stress that the EU is first of all a community of values". "To prepare our document, we have reflected on the history of the Community, its fundamental values, the goals that the EU institutions and the member states still aim at achieving. In addition, with the help of experts and scholars, we have drawn on the experience and the message left by some of the founding fathers of the European Community". (to be continued)
