01-06-2007 - Traces, n. 6 Debate Appeal for a Common Life by Hans-Gert Pöttering President of the European Parliament Allow me to quote some words spoken by Pope Benedict XVI in a speech made in September 2006. He said, “The deeper sources of workable and crisis-proof European unity are to be found in the shared convictions and values of the continent’s Christian and humanist history and tradition. When all is said and done, without a genuine community of values, the dependable law-based community that people hope for and expect cannot be constructed.” The main message that the Berlin Declaration should send out is that the European Union is essentially a community of values. For this reason, the third chapter of the Berlin Declaration is of special importance, being the chapter that lists the central values of the European Union. But the declaration by itself is not enough. As regards the future of the Constitutional Treaty, the European Parliament will leave this in no doubt: we stand by the Constitutional Treaty. We want the substance of the Constitutional Treaty, including the chapter on values, to become a legal and political reality! This chapter on values–and I would like to say this loudly and clearly–must first and foremost reflect and embrace Christian values and the Christian philosophy! Above and beyond this, the European Union must also give the principle of freedom its full meaning. Freedom implies allowing people to develop in their own way. It also means respect for the undeniable diversity of the nations of Europe, which is closely bound up with tolerance and respect for others. Tolerance also presupposes freedom of speech and freedom to practice one’s religion. Tolerance is based on reciprocity–a message that the European Union must not shrink from emphasizing. For examples, in Turkey, the reopening of the Halki Greek Orthodox Seminary has still not been allowed; and in our Islamic partner states in the Mediterranean region, the rights of Christian communities are insufficiently recognized; and also in China, the activities of sects that are not recognized by the regime, such as the Falun Gong, are banned.