Felix Leinemann" "Comece secretaariat for immigration policy" "" "

editorial" "

Over a quarter of the conclusions of the European Council of Salonica are dedicated to an issue of the greatest priority: the policy of the European Union on immigration, frontiers and asylum. The conclusions assign a substantial programme of work to the current Italian Presidency. They begin with recognition of the “urgent need for a […]

On 15 July the European Commission announced in Brussels its programmes to curb the proliferation of unsolicited commercial messages sent by e-mail, the so-called “spamming” phenomenon. Following the adoption last year of the directive on the protection of privacy in the sector of electronic communication, member states are obliged to introduce antispamming provisions in their […]

The Commission for citizens’ rights of the European Parliament adopted its annual Report for 2002 on the situation of human rights in the European Union on 10 July. The report (by MEP Sylla) was approved by 24 votes in favour and 17 against. It focuses its analysis on terrorism, imprisonment, traffic in human beings, data […]

The first meeting of the Council of Ministers for the economy and finance (Ecofin) under the Italian presidency was held in Brussels from 14 to 16 July. The Ministers accepted with favour – in fact they adopted – the action plan presented by Italy aimed at the growth of the European economy through the relaunch […]

The first informal Council of Ministers of employment and social affairs of the Eu was held in Varese on 11/12 July. Two main issues were discussed: labour market policies and the campaign against clandestine work as part of the European Strategy for employment, and the clearer definition of the social dimension in the Lisbon Strategy. […]

EU in brief" "

The work of the Convention on the future of Europe has officially ended. It completed the draft European Constitution on 10 July. It will be presented in Rome on 18 July, and will form the basis for negotiations at the intergovernmental conference (Igc) which, from 4 October, will have the mandate of formally adopting the […]

On 15 July, the European Commission decided to apply to the Court of Justice of the European Community to challenge France, Luxembourg, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain, Austria and Finland for not having adapted their national legislation to implement EU law on the deliberate introduction of Gmos into the environment. The 11 member […]

biotechnologies" "

The debate on whether it is possible to introduce into European agriculture the American model of co-existence between traditional agriculture and genetically modified organisms (Gmo) has entered its acute phase. On the one side, there are those who foresee the risk of ‘de-naturing’ crops, to the detriment of the crops themselves and of the consumer; […]

Anglicans" "

Responsible dedication to social work as missionary activity of the Church and ecumenism were the main issues discussed during the general Synod of the Anglican Church, held in the archdiocese of York from 11 to 15 July. The meeting was preceded by a series of tensions between the more innovative wing of the Anglican Church […]

“The first obligatory step” that all “the Christian confessions must take” in pursuit of peaceful co-existence between peoples “is that of fully dissociating the name of God from politics” even if “a prerequisite of this is self-criticism in the Christian conscience about everything that implies violence and exclusion”. So said Paul Ricoeur, the great French […]