Our Dear Europe! Don't give up Hope"
03/02/2016
Our Dear Europe!
Don’t give up Hope!
As we all are aware our dear
Europe is “scattering”. The United Kingdom wants just the common market for the
British business, Denmark wants to “plunder” the refugee, new walls and other
barriers are elected in the heart of Europe, in Poland media are “bridled” with
law, several EU national governments decide unilaterally to close the border,
EU governments’ raise attack on the Brussels to “cover” mistakes or political
weakness and incapacities in their own countries, pandering more and more to
national interests for electoral reasons and prevailing over a European interest where also
legitimate national interests can be satisfied. And as a New Year gift the EU
Council has shattered one of our most fascinating dreams promoting the
suspension of Schengen.
We are not naïve and are aware
of the epoch-making challenges that we are facing, with the mitigation’s tragedies
being emblematic.
However, we thought that the
European states needed to work together in the European Union also to face the
particular challenges; unfortunately, on the contrary when facing difficulties
they scatter. No surprise if the citizens’ confidence in a united Europe is
vanishing.
It is difficult for them to
understand what this Europe is doing. They are disoriented and lost. Unfortunately
we need to realize that also many media instead of being constructive preferred
to play with the problems.
Even if the said list is
longer, we don’t want to get discouraged and need to keep up to help in the
future of a united Europe, doing all we can
to keep the European flame alive, especially in the youth.
The 2015 EJ International
Congress in Budapest has already expressed concerns, with some inputs about the
present EU situation and its future.
Nevertheless, in light of most
recent events, we want to come out with new statements.
In the following we report
refection from our ExCom and EJ member ad further statement will follow
Paolo Magagnotti
EJ President
Do
not blame the locomotive If train carriages develop malfunctions!
EJ will not join
the list of lost hopes in the European Project
Jacques Campé
EJ Executive
Committee member
jacques.campe@cegetel.net
The EU has weathered many
storms in the past but the current tempest is of an unprecedented magnitude.
The earlier spirit of
"all for one, one for all" has given way to a mindset of "every
member state for itself", in total defiance of the entire body of
legislation ratified by the EU since its inception, to which all member states
must adhere.
Brussels has become the
universal scapegoat but it is only the sum of its parts. If train
carriages develop malfunctions is the locomotive to blame ? There is
however some hope that the current "scattering" will not lead to an
eventual breakaway.
Constant negative or
spiteful hype from the media only makes things worse and does not help restore
citizens' confidence, it only undermines it further.
Measures such as the
suspension of the Schengen agreement will hopefully be temporary and we can
reasonably assume that politicians will, for once, put aside their
electoral preoccupations and recover some common sense, preserving
all earlier achievements of the EU.
We must remain constructive
and confident to overcome the present deadlock : like all past storms,
this one will abate in the not too distant future.
The EU dream should not be
affected dramatically by present conditions and should not be allowed to
join the list of lost hopes.
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The European Union
is not a musical request program!
There is no alternative for the big EU achievement
Marc Willière
EJ Treasurer
marc.williere@wort.lu
The European Union is
not a musical request program, where one can choose only the best pieces. The
EU is – as well as every member state – rather a mutually supportive group,
where the weak are supposed to be helped by the strong.
Treaties on which one has been suited once must be
kept. And if one believes that they do not correspond any more to the topical
occurrences, one must come to an agreement by the majority about a change.
Extortions like those of the British Prime minister are not a solution and not
a democratic state worthy.
Nobody was prepared for the refugee's crisis, although
it did not come unexpectedly. However, instead of looking all together after a
solution – how it would have been usual in a big family like the EU –,
everybody has cooked his own soup. The result is one single pile of smashed
crockery.
However, in spite of all drama, it would be wrong to
meet trouble halfway and to forecast the close end of the EU. We should rather
use the topical crisis to make clear again to ourselves the many advantages of
the EU. And we must realize once more that they are not natural.
This is our obligation not only towards the founder's
fathers of the EU. But also towards all those who have fought in the past and
who are still fighting for the European Union.
There is no alternative for this big achievement. And
therefore it is our damned duty and obligation to do everything so that our
children and grandchildren can further live in peace and security - as we have
promised it to them.
Sadness for the Lost Values of our EU
Founding Fathes!
Not just economic entity, but “transcendent dignity”
Enzo Farinella
EJ member
enzo.farinella@gmail.com
Crises
thrust humanity into periods of reflection and regeneration.
2015 was not
a good year for the EU or for European values, my good friends Jack and Fernanda Hanning write from Strasburg.
Do not blame the locomotive if train carriages
develop malfunctions! EJ will not join the list
of lost hopes in the European Project, adds
our colleague and friend Jacques Campé from Belgium, EJ Executive Committee
member.
Our EJ Treasurer, Marc Willière, remarks on
solidarity, stating that the European Union is not a musical request program,
where one can choose only the best pieces. The EU is – as well as every member
state – rather a mutually supportive group, where the weak are supposed to be
helped by the strong.
Are
we losing sight of the aims which should direct our way in the EU?
We
believe that in the new disparate Europe of today and equally so in a more
globalised world, the knowledge, the dialogue and the coming together of the
various cultures are of crucial
importance.
In this meeting we
find the human person in all his/her dimensions, viewed not just as an
economic entity, but with a “transcendent dignity”, the focal point of all
values, everywhere in the universe and always throughout the centuries. Personal freedom, supreme
dignity in a world of justice, solidarity and peace, equality among all human
beings, the promotion of all forms of openness to all, as brothers and sisters,
respect for diversity and for individuals and groups who think or believe
differently, deep sense of belonging to a common intellectual and spiritual
tradition, flow from this vision of the human person.
Due to the “transcendent” personal dignity these all are fundamental and
inviolable rights, beyond any religious, social or philosophical interpretation
or dependence, as a common anthropological, cultural and ethical heritage.
Looking
at the terrible human tragedy of so many migrants - vulnerable human beings who having been
fleeced and cast adrift on unforgiving waves are now buried in the depths of
the sea, while the “fortunate” survivors, searching for a new life and a
fundamental freedom, find themselves not liberated, but humiliated and treated
like lepers at the borders of many countries -, we ask: where is the solidarity
of the European Union, which was a fundamental pillar of our founding fathers?
Lest we forget many successful global individuals such as the great Graca
Machal, founding member of the Elders and international advocate for women’s
and children’s rights and widow of Nelson Mandela, was herself once a terrified
migrant refugee who sought and was given sanctuary.
To
close the eyes of conscience and shut down borders, when real and present dangers exist for the
person, not only offends the “transcending dignity”, present in every human
being, it is also a form of criminality reminiscing the actions of bygone
despots.
If history is
“magistra vitae”, let’s take light and courage from our past.
After the fall of the
Roman Empire in 476 AD, countless numbers of monks, philosophers, scholars and
scribes, most of whom hailed from Ireland, brought a new wave of
re-evangelization and moral-cultural renaissance to a Europe ravaged by
barbaric invasions, droughts, decadence, and the disappearance of moral values.
In time, the sophisticated efforts of the monks in advancing both
re-evangelization and cultural re-vival generated a genuine spiritual
improvement. It in turn produced a healing and civic reunification of almost
the entire European continent.
The
contribution made by St. Colomban, St. Gall, Marianus Scotus and other Irish
monks to the various countries of Europe in which they toiled was so vast that
it is almost incalculable. They were the most important actors in the growth of
European cultural heritage.
The memory of the past should constitute the paideia for our future. I’m of the opinion that to consolidate and
build the EU and the world of the UN upon solid basis, it is not enough to
appeal only to a mere economic and commercial union or to purely economic
interests, which, while they sometimes unite with ease, can, at other times,
just as easily divide. To be worried about a loss of 0.4% in the PIL’s growth
or on the tenure of the “Patto di stabilita’”, I prefer to side with the
Italian Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi, working for a “Pact of Humanity”. Thus, it
is necessary to aim at authentic values, based upon the universal moral law,
written in the heart of every human being and, therefore, upon an authentic
spiritual, ethical and cultural unity, notwithstanding religious and ethnical
differences.
Time has come to work together in building a
Europe which revolves not around the economy, but around the sacredness of the
human person, around inalienable values, the wisdom of Pope
Francis when speaking to the Assembly of the European Parliament stated.
To
rediscover the true values that characterized the cultures of our Countries,
reaching their deep humanistic roots in a common dialogue of cultures, is the
challenge which each one of us now finds placed before. A challenge which
demands that we should all strive to bring a meaningful contribution to the
building of the common European home and of a world of countries,
united in the respect and promotion of the fundamental values of every human
being, in whom a “transcendent dignity”, a “veritas”, “intimior intimo meo”, is
present.
To promote culture and values, so dear to the Irish
monks, among all the citizens of Europe and of the entire world and to create a
feeling of solidarity and belonging to a common destiny, in front of which we
are all equal in a universe of justice and peace, is our challenge in the
European Union, the most fascinating,
courageous and important political project of the last centuries.
.