As Finland assumes the Presidency of the European Union for the coming six months, a Delegation on behalf of the Churches met on Friday 30th June with the Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Mr.Erkki Tuomioja and officials from the Ministries of Education and Labour.
The Delegation was led by the Archbishop of Turku, his Excellency Jukka Paarma (Head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland). Other members of the Delegation were Metropolitan Ambrosius (Orthodox Church of Finland), Rev. Rüdiger Noll, Director of the Commission for Church and Society of the KEK (Conference of European Churches), Bishop William Kenney (auxiliary Bishop of Stockholm and member of the COMECE) and Mgr Noel Treanor (Secretary General of the COMECE).
The issues addressed were:
-Enlargement: The Minister of Foreign Affairs underlined that future negotiations with all candidate countries (Balkan countries, Turkey) will continue to be conducted on the basis of the Copenhagen Criteria. Concerning the negotiations with Turkey, the Churches underlined the importance of the fulfilment of the political criteria by Turkey, especially in relation to Human Rights issues and religious freedom.
-The Finnish Presidency and the Churches recognized the determinative role of the social dimension for the evolution of the European project. The importance of intercultural dialogue and the contribution of interreligious dialogue in this context were recognized by the Finnish Presidency.
-The Churches stressed the need to develop a European migration policy that is people centred. The Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister Tuomioja emphasized the centrality of the realization of the Millennium Development Goals as an essential element in the long term solution to the refugee problem.
-The Churches also drew attention to important anthropological, political and ethical issues arising from the 7th Research Framework Programme.
The Finnish Foreign Affairs Minister indicated that the Finnish Presidency will maintain contact with the Churches during the presidency.