Draft EU constitution omits religion; Vatican upset
BRUSSELS (AFP) – A committee working on a proposed constitution for the European Union on Thursday released a draft that failed to make any mention of religion, bringing an instant rebuke from the Vatican, which termed the document “totally unsatisfactory”.
The convention on the EU’s future, which is chaired by former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing, released the first 16 articles of the proposed future constitution, from which any mention of either God or spiritual values was notably absent.
An official source in the Vatican said the proposed text was “totally unsatisfactory, not only for reasons which have already been pointed out by Pope John Paul II, but also because it is against the wishes expressed by many European countries”.
Earlier in the day, and without referring explicitly to the EU text, the pope commented to a group of visitors that “the Christian identity of Europe sometimes seems to be put into question”.
He made the remark to a group of visitors from the Serbian Orthodox Church.
The Roman Catholic Church, backed by strongly Catholic countries such as Poland, a future EU member, has been campaigning to have Christianity mentioned explicitly in a future EU constitution.
Such a move, apart from going against the separation of church and state, which is the norm in many EU countries, would make it more difficult to accept a predominantly Muslim country such as Turkey, which wants to join.
While leaving any mention of religion out of the draft law’s main articles, the Convention was reportedly considering such a reference in its preamble, however.
The articles released Thursday dealt with a definition of the union, its values, objectives and its areas of competence in relation to the powers of member states.
The draft text omitted any name for the new union, which Giscard d’Estaing would like to call “United Europe”. But it makes explicit use of the word “federal” in language likely to raise the hackles of British eurosceptics.
In the new EU, according to Article One, member states’ policies will be co-ordinated and “certain common competences” will be administered “on a federal basis”, the draft said.
At the same time, however: “The union shall respect the national identities of its member states.”
Article Two defines the EU’s values as “respect for human dignity, liberty, democracy, the rule of law and respect for human rights”.
Article Three addresses objectives based on the Union’s aim of promoting “peace, its values and the well-being of its peoples”.
The core aim will be “sustainable development based on balanced economic growth and social justice, with a free single market, and economic and monetary union, aiming at full employment and generating high levels of competitiveness and living standards”.
The draft ventures on to more politically problematic ground in Article Seven, which confers the right of every EU national to be at the same time a citizen of the union.
From Article 10 the bones of contention mount up as the draft constitution tackles the areas of union authority, as distinct from the competence of national governments.
One of the draft’s boldest assertions is a call for the EU to have the power to “define and implement a common foreign and security policy”, including a defence policy.
It states that the union will have the exclusive right to legislate in areas concerning the common market, customs, EU-wide trade policy, euro members’ monetary policy and conserving fish stocks.
It will share competence with member states on transport, energy, social policy, “economic and social cohesion”, the environment, public health and consumer protection.
In addition: “The union shall co-ordinate the economic policies of the member states, in particular by establishing broad guidelines for these policies.”
The draft drew immediate condemnation from Britain’s representative on the convention, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain, who said the section on competences failed to reflect the findings of the working party tasked with examining the issue.
But the convention will only get down to serious debate about the draft 16 articles at its next session on February 26-27.