Growth in industrial production

The positive trend in industrial production in the Eurozone begun in January is continuing thanks to a further rise in the percentage rate of 0.4% registered in March, to which should also be added a half-point rise also for the 27-member EU. Over the last twelve months the growth has been equivalent to 3.7% for […]

di Redazione

Research partnerships for growth and employment

They are called “Joint Technological Initiatives (JTI)”, and are the two new platforms adopted by the European Commission for the establishment of the first European public-private partnerships between European Union, member states and businesses for investments in research and development aimed at promoting growth and employment at the Community level. The first initiative, ARTEMIS, concerns […]

di Redazione

Ethics and research

The world conference on “Ethics, research and globalization” was held in Brussels on 14 and 15 May. It was sponsored by the European Commission. Delegates included representatives of such international organizations as the Council of Europe, UNESCO, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Programme for the fight against AIDS, as well as of […]

di Redazione

Other steps forward

On the day in which the Parliament in Strasbourg renewed its request for the European Constitution to be approved “by 2008”, the President of the Commission José Manuel Barroso and the newly elected French President Nicholas Sarkozy intervened in Brussels to call for “a simplified, shorter and more compact treaty”. The plenary session of the […]

di Redazione

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Along different roads

A month before the summit that will have to decide how to overcome the impasse over the Constitutional Treaty, the European Parliament is continuing its debate on the “Future of Europe”. Some premiers of member states were received as guests by the EP in recent months and set out their vision of what the Community […]

di Redazione

Ukraine: 54% “without” religion

“Each of us must transmit to others his own experience of life with Jesus Christ. To be able to do so, we need to encounter him in our life. The population of Ukraine is suffering because it does not know Christ. And the task of the missionary is to bear witness to the meeting with […]

di Redazione

England: the Catholic patients in the hospitals

An information leaflet to explain to nurses and doctors of the UK hospitals how to treat Catholic patients. It is an initiative of the Bishops Conference of England and Wales, in the attempt to explain to atheist or non-Catholic medical staff in the UK that Catholic patients have specific spiritual needs. In a society like […]

di Redazione

Portugal: week of cultural diversity

During the presentation of the Week of Cultural Diversity (21-27 May), the director of the High Commission for Migration and Ethnic Minorities (ACIME), Rui Marques, declared that “migrants must participate fully in democratic political life and become co-responsible for the future of the country”. He supported “the right to vote in administrative, legislative and presidential […]

di Redazione

Spain: election, the suggestions of the bishops

“A vote that respects the Magisterium of the Church”. This is the wish expressed by the Bishops of the Ecclesiastic Province of Madrid, in the run-up to the municipal election of May 27th in Spain. “The responsible act of voting demands that the Catholics, as well as being aware of the electoral programs of the […]

di Redazione

CCEE

Thoughts, experiences, projects

On 26 April the new executive of the CCEE (Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe) was received in audience by Benedict XVI in the Vatican. Between 22 and 26 April it also had meetings with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State, and various heads of congregations and offices of the Holy See. This was […]

di Redazione