Let's Leave God Out of This

Josep Borrell Fontelles

It is usually said that Europe is a meeting point of values within a geographical space. However, after the rise of the neo-liberal policies without a social balance, with the imminent enlargement towards the East and the Turkish question on the horizon, it is necessary to specify both the values and the geography of the European project.

In this debate about Europe’s being and raison d’ętre, two different but related events have recently had a bearing: the request by the Pope to include a reference to God and to the heritage of the Christian faith in the new European Constitution; and the declarations by the President of the Convention, V. Giscard d’Estaing, affirming that the adhesion of Turkey would mean the end of the European Union. The combination of these two positions, with a tendency to consider Europe as a “Christian Club” and consequently excluding a great country with a Muslim background like Turkey, is as inevitable as dangerous.

The Pope’s demand, adopted by the European Popular Party and by some social-democrat representatives, would mean, in my opinion, an important change in a political project which is inherently secular from the beginning, and must remain being so, with even stronger reasons, in the future.

To read the full document see: http://register.consilium.eu.int/pdf/en/03/cv00/cv00501en03.pdf.