EN Official Journal of the European Union CE 70/79

(2004/C 70 E/081)

WRITTEN QUESTION P-2200/03

by Maurizio Turco (NI) to the Commission

(27 June 2003)

Subject: Speech of the Commission President on religion and the European Constitution (Alessano, Lecce, Italy, 13 June 2003)

On 13 June 2003, at a meeting in Alessano (Lecce) organised by the Don Tonino Bello foundation, the President of the European Commission spoke on the above subject of religion and the European Constitution. Mr Prodi said: ‘(…) Religion is one of the fundamental values of Europe and (…) the history of Europe and the history of Christianity are indissolubly linked. Consequently, I regard the Preamble to the draft European Constitution as wholly inadequate. To ignore 1 500 years of civilisation is to create a vacuum in our consciousness, in our identity as Europeans. It would be better if there were no text at all rather than the text as it now stands. Better complete silence about our entire past than a lie. Others, more sanguine than us, will have the job of sorting this out at some later date. This is not by any means meant to reignite the antagonism between clericalism and anti-clericalism and between Christianity and other religions. Such antagonism has already caused more than enough harm in European countries. Nor do I mean to suggest that our minds are closed to opposing points of view in the European project we are trying to develop. We can refer to Christianity while at the same time rediscovering the roots that bind Europe to the Jewish people and declaring our desire for a dialogue with Islam. As believers we can refer to religion and as citizens to classical Greece and the traditions of humanism. (…) In order to enrich and stimulate the debate I have appointed two groups of eminent figures, one to examine the spiritual and cultural dimension of Europe and the other the question of intercultural dialogue within the European Union and in the Mediterranean region.’

Can the Commission:

— state whether Mr Prodi was speaking in his personal capacity or on behalf of the Commission and, in the latter case, whether the Commission shares the position of its President?

— state whether it shares its President's position regarding the Preamble to the European Constitution?

— supply the names of the members of the working groups referred to by Mr Prodi, explain their missions and objectives, state whether they receive any remuneration or reimbursement of expenses (and if so how much), provide information on their experience and background, and specify when their work began, when it will be completed and what use will be made of it?

Answer given by Mr Prodi on behalf of the Commission

(18 July 2003)

As the Commission has stated on several occasions in reply to oral and written questions by Members of Parliament, its members are politicians who exercise a political function and provided they respect the obligations which go with their office, they remain free to express personal opinions in total independence and on their own responsibility.

The Honourable Member will agree that the question of religious values is for every citizen a subject of a highly sensitive and personal nature.

The Commission does not consider it inappropriate that its members express their own views on particular issues at public events, to which they have been invited, provided that they respect the obligations of their office.

With regard to the question in the third indent, the Commission would refer the Honourable Member to President Prodi's webpages at http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/prodi/group/spirit_en.htm‘Inter-cultural Dialogue in the Mediterranean Area’ and http://europa.eu.int/comm/commissioners/prodi/group/ michalski_en.htm ‘Reflection Group on the Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe’.

The Commission would inform the Honourable Member that the members of those groups receive no remuneration, but the Commission bears the costs of their attendance at meetings in the usual way.