Europe’s Values and Ambitions
An Opportunity for Action – Now!
There has been much discussion about ‘the Future of Europe’ in the last few years. First there was the Convention which spent nearly 2 years on the subject, then the Intergovernmental Conference which eventually agreed the text of the Draft Constitutional Treaty. Then there was the ratification process of this and finally the French and Dutch ‘No’. But it doesn’t stop there. We have been in a ‘period of reflection’ since the summer of 2005. Much has been written on the subject of what should happen now and at their last summit, the Heads of State and Government of the EU have, again, considered what the future might hold for the EU, its constitutional structure and its policies. The period of reflection has been extended.
In the meantime, there may be an opportunity to try to influence at least the discussion on the broad picture. The signing of the Treaty of Rome (the founding Treaty of what is now the European Union) took place in March 1957. So 2007 sees the opportunity for 50th anniversary celebrations. This kind of thing is always a good occasion to make big speeches and agree grand visions.
On one level, it is easy to dismiss such things as simply the frills of political life. But once the speeches have been made, once the grand visions have been framed into words, they have a habit of influencing the political discussions and decisions for a long time into the future.
On 25 March 2007 there will be an extraordinary meeting of the European Council (the Heads of State and Government of the Member States) in Berlin (during the German Presidency). This meeting is called upon to adopt ‘a political declaration […] setting out Europe’s values and ambitions and confirming their shared commitment to deliver them.’ (Presidency Conclusions 15/16 June 2006, paragraph 49).
This is a real opportunity for Friends to make their views known to their governments in order to ensure that the discussion on values and ambitions of the EU takes account of what Friends would want to say about this.
QCEA produced a publication ‘Values Matter – Quakers Reflect on Europe’ in 2003. This was our response to the discussions in the Convention on the Future of Europe and much of what it says is relevant to this discussion.
In particular, the section which seeks to highlight the values-based global outlook of the EU which we would advocate is one that bears repeating.
The full text of the document is available on our website.
We can supply translations into German, French and Dutch in hard copy.
We urge Friends to reflect upon the values which you would like to underpin the European Union in the future and to communicate this to your government, and in particular to your Foreign Secretary, Minister for Europe Affairs and your Head of State or Government.
You may find it helpful to request the assistance of Members of your National Parliament in this process.
Please send copies of letters you send to these decision makers to QCEA and please also let us know what responses you receive. We will endeavour to contact the Permanent Representations of your country to inform them of the position you have taken vis-à-vis your Government on this to ensure the message arrives here in Brussels, too.
But without advocacy work at national level, any amount of work here in Brussels won’t achieve anything on this issue – this is a matter which the Heads of State or Government and Senior Ministers will have strong views on which their Ambassadors in Brussels are unlikely to be able to affect significantly.
A proforma letter to assist you in approaching your government is available to download. (Word 29kb)
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