April 2, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 29, 1424

BRUSSELS: Is God part of the European project? The question is becoming more pressing for traditionalist countries set to join the EU next year as the bloc’s first-ever constitution takes shape.

Poland, which is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic, is leading demands that “Christian values” find mention in the constitution being drafted by Valery Giscard d’Estaing’s Convention on the future of Europe.

But in most of the European Union’s current 15 member states, the church and state are separate and there is a reluctance to stray from secular values.

Giscard d’Estaing, a former French president whose convention is due to report back in June, has said that the constitution’s Article Two, dealing with the EU’s values, will make no reference to religion.

But he says the constitution’s preamble could mention religion, citing the preamble to the EU’s Charter of Fundamental Rights which talks of a Union that is “conscious of its spiritual and moral heritage”.

Several EU states including France successfully fought off any reference to religion in the rights’ charter adopted with the EU’s Nice Treaty in 2000, and expected it to be incorporated as it stands into the future EU constitution.

But the EU’s Roman Catholic lobby is pressing for much more.

Pope John Paul II has called for the EU constitution to take into account “the decisive contribution of Christianity and Christian vision to the history and culture” of Europe.

When Giscard d’Estaing released the first 16 draft articles of the text in February, the Vatican responded by describing the absence of any reference to religion as “totally unsatisfactory”.

The debate is most keenly felt in the pope’s homeland of Poland, where 90 per cent of the population is Catholic.

The country will hold a referendum on whether to join the EU in June. Cardinal Jozef Glemp, the Polish primate, supports EU entry “but only with God”.

Poland is one of 10 countries set to join the EU in May next year. Drawn mostly from the former Soviet bloc, the accession countries are loath to see EU membership undermine their newly regained national and religious identities.

In Hungary, the churches have stayed out of the formal debate on EU membership. But the Roman Catholic primate, Monsignor Peter Erdoe, is clear on what the Union owes its identity to.

“Without Christianity, the heart of Europe would be missing,” he said.

“Those who are secular have to recognize the fact that Europe is based on different concepts, including individuality, which cannot be divorced from our Judeo-Christian heritage,” says Italian Deputy Prime Minister Gianfranco Fini.

But the secular camp, led by France, are adamant that the EU does not have an explicitly religious mission.

They also note that bringing “Christian values” into the constitution could alienate EU citizens of other faiths, and make it more difficult to accept a mostly Muslim country such as Turkey into the club. The opposing camps may, however, be able to find common ground.

French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin has said he could support a reference to the “contribution of religions” in the future EU constitution.—AFP