EU-brede petitie voor opname christelijke waarden in Grondwet (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Following the beginning of the intergovernmental conference to finalise the draft Constitution, a campaign has been launched all over Europe for a reference to Europe's Christian heritage to be explicitly mentioned in the text.

"Whilst acknowledging the remarkable improvement of the text of the Preamble making an inclusive reference to the religious heritage of the European identity and civilisation, the explicit absence of reference to the Christian heritage is deplorable", says a petition that is to be sent to European Commission President Romano Prodi, EU President-in-office Silvio Berlusconi, European Parliament President Pat Cox and the Treaty's architect, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing.

"We want to collect a million signatures by the end of the day", a conservative French MEP Elisabeth Monfort told a press conference in the European Parliament yesterday (8 October).

According to the initiators of the petition, non-coordinated action in several European countries has already acheived 300,000 signatures.

Italian MEP Mario Mauro of the conservative EPP-ED group pointed out that the initiators "are not interested in Europe being perceived as a 'Christian club'".

At the opening of the intergovernmental conference on 4 October several European states including Italy, Poland, Spain, Slovakia and Malta called for a mention of Christianity in the opening preamble of the European Constitution.