Giorgio Cracco, who is a member of the Expert Committee in charge of outlining the project for the House of European History (an executive proposal should be discussed by the EU Parliament by 2009 and the House should be up and running from 2014), explains: "I proposed to go beyond the debate" about the historical period to refer to "and linger on topics that are relevant and on which depends the future of the EU. I am speaking in particular of the issue of the nations and the States. It would be misleading to think of a Europe without the States and the nations. Europe cannot be an empty container, but it must be full of the differences brought by the nations and the States". In addition, Cracco mentions religions: "Today’s secularised Europe, the one that wants to do without religions, will end up denying its own history and its own image in the world. The other civilisations keep thinking of Europe as of a Christian land". And, within Europe itself, "an all but weak line of reasoning proposes the issue of religion, whatever it is, as a civil resource, not as a private option". "This means therefore promoting religions as an objective heritage of culture and values, not as a wreck of the past to be got rid of". The next meeting of the Committee is due on 15th April.
