Redazione

With a joint communiqué issued on 9 June, the German Bishops’ Conference and the German Evangelic Church (EKD) have commented on the implications of the sentence of the Constitutional Court that has rejected the appeal of a commercial chain that had applied for a liberalization of working hours, making Sunday and holidays equivalent to weekdays. […]

ecumenism" "

“Integrating, not ignoring”: the same slogan as last year has been chosen for the German intercultural week (26 September-2 October) by the presidents of the Churches in Germany: Cardinal Karl Lehmann, president of the German Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, president of the Council of the Evangelic Church, and Metropolitan Augoustinos of the Greek […]

“With the law on religious liberty that came into force last year, a new era has begun for the Catholic Church in Finland”, says Bishop Josef Wrobel of Helsinki, interviewed by SIR following the European elections. “Not only is there full legal recognition of religious liberty – explains Wrobel -, but the esteem and consideration […]

“I regard the banning of euthanasia and cloning a great success for those in Bulgaria who are dedicating themselves to the defence of human life”. In these terms the president of the Bulgarian Episcopal Conference, Msgr. Hristo Projkov, has expressed satisfaction about the approval, in Parliament, of the law on health that prohibits euthanasia and […]

We continue our review of comments on the European elections. In this number it’s the turn of Lithuania and Sweden (see SirEurope no. 45/2004) LitHuania: “POPULIST PARTIES PROMISING MIRACLE CURES TOP THE POLLS”. “The victory of the populists expresses citizens’ reaction to national policy in which there’s little justice for workers”. That’s the comment to […]

european elections (2)" "

Mass abstention, especially in the ten countries of enlargement, the growth of the “eurosceptic” political groups, and the defeat, sometimes crushing (as in Great Britain), of the parties in government, seem to be the main characteristics of the recent European elections of 10-13 June. For many commentators the elections were supposed to be the test […]

front page" "

The results of Europe’s biggest ever election brought few surprises. The balance of power in the European Parliament will tip slightly to the right, with the socialists as the biggest losers and various “euro-sceptics”, “euro-realists” and other fringe parties as the biggest winners. With no significant change in the composition of the assembly, attention has […]

Analysis of the European elections monopolises the pages of the main international dailies, on the eve of the summit in Brussels, called to resolve the outstanding problems on the future Constitution: the first summit of the European Council to be held after the birth of the 25-member Europe. The “breakdown of democratic Europe” is diagnosed […]

The European Commission recently launched an Action Plan containing trans-European measures for the reduction of the number of patients due to environmental pollution. The Plan – that represents the Union’s main contribution to the 4th Interministerial Conference of the World Health Organization on health and the environment, due to be held in Budapest from 22-25 […]

The “European Action Plan for biological agriculture and biological foods” is now in operation. Presented by the European Commission during the Council of Ministers of Agriculture this week, the Plan – listing 21 actions to be realised within the next two years – is based on four main planks: improvement of information, increased effectiveness of […]