The sixteenth edition of the conference on the role of the Catholic Church in the process of European integration co-organised by COMECE together with partners in Cracow, on September 21-22, 2016 focused this time on four specific issues imperatively necessitating solidarity in the EU, namely the solidarity in security and defence policy, solidarity towards the challenges of migrations and asylum, solidarity in reference to the energy and climate policy and finally the role of Churches and religious communities in strengthening solidarity in Europe.
The Catholic Church and other religious communities have their role to play in encouraging European solidarity, not only providing with the best practice examples, but also through the institutional dialogue with the EU. Acknowledging churches’ identity as well as their specific contribution in shaping the process of the European integration shows their impact on the EU policy. Fr. Olivier Poquillon OP, Comece Secretary General highlighted the need for a more participative approach in order to combat the perception of the European Union as a centralized, disembodied administration detached from the people’s reality. He also mentioned the importance to promote EU good practices that led to the achievement of decades of peace and prosperity in the old continent. Finally, he stressed the need for a better involvement of the citizen across a constructive articulation of solidarity and subsidiarity.
The experts’ knowledge, as well as the discussions allowed the participants to better understand European solidarity, which is a value often referred to at the EU level, but not always soundly interpreted or subjected to possible reductions or even withdrawals resulting in undesirable socio-political developments.
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