On Monday 27 November last, the “Comité des Sages” (Committee of Wise Persons) set up by the COMECE bishops, met for the second time at the COMECE Secretariat in Brussels.
Nine young Europeans aged between 25–30, coming from Romania, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Slovakia, France, Poland and the UK, were invited to present the ethical values that they believed essential for continuing the construction of Europe, and how they should be communicated to young people in Europe today.
Amongst the values that were most often cited were justice, the respect of human dignity and solidarity. However, the young people emphasised their support for the idea of responsibility – responsibility of the EU Members towards each other, responsibility of Europe towards the world, and the civic responsibility of individual Europeans. The Comité des Sages then took it in turns to reply to each point raised by the young people.
Following the example of their meeting with the Catholic movements on the occasion of the COMECE colloquium at Clermont-Ferrand at the beginning of October, then discussions with the COMECE bishops during their plenary session the previous week, the Comité des Sages will take into account the suggestions put forward by these young Europeans to enrich their report.
The text of the committee’s report will be published on the occasion of the COMECE European Congress in Rome on 23-25 March 2007.
The Comité des Sages is made up of 25 Catholic personalities coming from most of the Member State countries of the EU. Many of them have a wide experience of EU political matters (see attached list).
This committee was established by the bishops who are members of COMECE in order to prepare a report on the basic ethics of the European Union which would serve as the basis of meditation for the participants of a European Congress that COMECE will be organising in Rome to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Rome Treaties (23 – 27 March 2007).