Czech Republic: Assembly of the Catholic Church” “

The first session of the plenary assembly of the Czech Catholic Church ended in recent days at Velehrad. The meeting, with the participation of 91 delegates, represented an unique event, since all the dioceses of the Czech Republic attended it and the laity played an active part in it. The plenary assembly had been convened […]

di Redazione

Slovakia: Catholic education and abortion” “

An agreement between the Slovak government and the Holy See on the teaching of Catholic religion was reached on 9 July. “The agreement – explained the spokesman of the Slovak Episcopal Conference, Msgr. Marian Gavenda in a statement to SirEurope – regularizes a ‘practice’ already in force in Slovakia that provides for the teaching of […]

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European Churches" "

Croatia: bishops against yoga at school” “

An appeal against the introduction of yoga in schools next school year has been made by Croatian bishops during the last session of the permanent Council held in Zagreb on 12 July. The Minister of Education and Sport of the Republic of Croatia, in fulfilment of a decision taken by the government in February, has […]

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European universities" "

Universities of Eastern Europe” “

1200 delegates (including professors, students and chaplains) from state, private and pontifical universities in 40 European countries, led by some fifty rectors and 30 bishops from dioceses with university campuses, are due to attend the Symposium on “University and Church in Europe”, to be held in Rome from 17 to 20 July (cf. Sir 49/2003). […]

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A "revolving platform"” “

From a land of emigration with almost 5 million citizens scattered in 122 countries to a land of immigration: that’s how Portugal has been transformed in recent years. It now has some 450,000 regular immigrants (5% of the population), especially from eastern Europe (in particular from the Ukraine) and from south-eastern Brazil (from the poor […]

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immigration" "

An effective protection” “

A total of 465,000 applications for asylum, 381,000 of them in member countries of the Eu, were presented in Europe in 2002. The European country that received most requests was the Uk with 110,000 applications, followed by Germany (71,000) and France (51,000). 7281asylum applications were presented in Italy, the only European country in which an […]

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editorial" "

Not only frontiers” “” “

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 […]

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

EU Commission offensive against "spamming" ” “

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 […]

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Report on human rights ” “

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 […]

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Ecofin Council” “

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 […]

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