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ENLARGEMENT, CULTURE
 Getting into the spirit of union
As European leaders gathered in Rome to sign a constitutional treaty, the EU passed another historic landmark. But the enlargement of the Union brings with it a host of opportunities and challenges. A group of intellectuals conducted a soul-searching exercise to find the cultural cement to hold a growing Europe together.
 | A multi-cultural Europe celebrates enlargement on 1 May
© Source: European Community |
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On 1 May 2004, the European Union took the historic step of embracing ten new Member States and 70 million new citizens. Now this unprecedented union of 25 countries and some 450 million Europeans needs to find not only common political and cultural ground, but also to find ways of living with their enormous national, ethnic and religious differences.
Recognising the huge challenges that lay ahead, outgoing Commission President Romano Prodi set up a special Reflection Group on the Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe. Led by Krzysztof Michalski of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (AT), the group brought together leading intellectuals and thinkers from across Europe.
“I felt it was essential for a group of enlightened thinkers, free of all constraints, to reflect on the role that the most deep-rooted values of our shared historical background could play as the binding agent of fellowship and solidarity,” Mr Prodi noted.
In its final report, which it delivered last month, the group identified four core issues in the process of European integration: the enlargement of the EU to include countries from the former Soviet sphere of influence; the role of religion, including Islam, in a professedly secular Europe; and an enlarged Europe’s place in the world.
The core of European identity
Following the enlargement of the Union, “economic and cultural differences have, at a stroke, become much greater and more intense”, the report observes. As the shadow of the Second World War becomes more distant in Europe’s collective memory, the EU needs more than economic integration to hold it together, the authors argue.
“Economic integration… is incapable of substituting for the political forces that originally propelled European integration and cohesion,” they contend. “To function as a viable and vital polity, the European Union needs a firmer foundation.” This firmer foundation can only be found in more political cohesion and the nurturing of a sense of a common European identity and solidarity.
“New sources of energy must be looked for and found in Europe’s common culture,” they maintain. Given the continent’s diversity, this is more easily said than done, the report acknowledges. “Despite such difficulties of definition, there can be no doubt that there exists a common European cultural space” which should not and cannot be “firmly defined and delimited”.
But finding a cultural common ground requires the active participation of citizens across the Union. “It is through these institutions of civil society that our common European culture can become a reality.” Closer union also implies a sense of common purpose. “If the countries of Europe are to grow into a viable political union, [its peoples] must be prepared for a European solidarity.”
But this quest for a common culture should not be at the expense of particular national identities, minority groups, or religions. “In the search for the forces capable of establishing cohesion and identity… the question of the public role of European religions is particularly important,” the authors point out.
The report explores the role of religion in public life, the issues raised by the long-standing rivalry between Church and secular state, as well as the role of minority faiths, such as Islam. Although there has been a distrust of religious institutions and their divisive power in Europe since the Enlightenment, “religions also have a potential to bring people in Europe together”.
But, above all, the report concludes, it is the EU’s adaptability that is its greatest asset. “Europe’s capacity for constant change and renewal was and remains the most important source of its success and its unique character,” it stresses.
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Source:
EU sources
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