EUReview & Call to Prayer (EURCP)

EUReview & Call to Prayer (EURCP)

Our primary purpose is not to advocate issues, but a call to prayer about issues - issues that might impact the Christian community of Europe, and the rest of the world. As the EU government agencies begin to define the rule of law for the new Europe, only through prayer and involvement, can the Christians have a positive influence on the governing legislation and policies. Let us join in prayer that the following information will help make this possible.

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6 March 2005, EUReview & Call to Prayer Ministries – Hugh E. and Norma Jenson Davis

********* SUNDAY, 1ST MAY, 2005, PRAY FOR THE EU DAY *********

ARTICLES with links included and prayer requests

EU - Ukraine sign three-year action plan

Brief - Commission gives green light to accession of Bulgaria and Romania

Brief - Resounding Spanish 'Yes' to European Constitution

Brief - National parliaments given stronger voice in EU

Referenda on EU Constitution - let the people vote?
Ján Figel - the 'citizens' commissioner'?

Brief - Frattini: fundamental rights at heart of priorities

In search of Europe's cultural and spiritual values

Charlemagne The great [Constitution] debate begins

The Word to pray [1 Timothy 2: 1 "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence." [Prayers that implement God’s Word]. John 15: 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who ABIDES in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If you ABIDE in Me, and My Words ABIDE in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” [The conditions for freedom] 2Chronicles 7:14” if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

EU, Ukraine sign three-year action plan

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-135806-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

The EU and Ukraine have agreed at their special co-operation council to strengthen bilateral ties, but with no immediate prospect of EU membership.

PRAY for the Lord to have His way in this relationship.

Brief - Commission gives green light to accession of Bulgaria and Romania

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-135821-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

The Commission has passed a positive judgement on the scheduled signing of Accession Treaties with Bulgaria and Romania, but a lot of work still needs to be done.

PRAY that Bulgaria and Romania will hold firm about keeping their freedoms, especially religious freedom, if they are to become part of the EU.

Brief - Resounding Spanish 'Yes' to European Constitution

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-135727-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

Spanish people have given the green light to the European Constitution on 20 February with more than three-quarters saying 'Yes' in the consultative referendum.

PRAY that the Spanish people will be more concerned with finding out what the constitution actually says, and respond with more understanding to what could influence their daily lives and values.

Brief - National parliaments given stronger voice in EU

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-135728-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

One of the first initiatives of new Communication Commissioner Margot Wallström is to strengthen the role of national parliaments to help communicate EU policies.

PRAY that the national parliaments will act with openness in explaining EU policies and objectives and the provisions of the constitution; so that citizens can make responsible decisions about accepting or rejecting it.

Referenda on EU Constitution - let the people vote?
http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-130616&type=Overview&_lang=EN&email=7581

The European Council adopted the final text of the Constitutional Treaty on 18 June 2004. The Treaty was signed on 29 October 2004. Starting on this date, the Member States have, in principle, two years for its ratification. A popular vote or a parliamentary decision? EurActiv sheds some light on the state of play in each country.

PRAY that more countries will allow the citizens to vote on whether or not to ratify the present constitution; and that the citizens will know enough about its contents to vote responsibly.

Ján Figel - the 'citizens' commissioner'?

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-135571-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

Ján Figel, the EU's education commissioner as well as the commissioner responsible for multilingualism (the first ever) and sport, tells EurActiv how he intends to build a more 'citizen-friendly' Europe.

PRAY that Commissioner Figel will be successful in his aim to “build a more citizen-friendly Europe” – a Europe with opportunity for everyone to have access to someone in government who will listen to them as they speak up about issues that matter to them.

Brief - Frattini: fundamental rights at heart of priorities

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-135548-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini has emphasised that respect for fundamental rights will be at the heart of the Commission's freedom, security and justice programme.

Brief News:

In a speech to the Bundestag in Berlin on 14 Feb 2005, Mr Frattini put forward the Commission's freedom, security and justice priorities. On immigration, the Commission will consider:

The possibility of jointly processing asylum applications;

Setting up a European Migration Monitoring Centre;

Creating a European Border Agency;

Extending the Schengen acquis to the new member states.

On crime, the Commission will::

Put forward proposals for a comprehensive information policy on police and judicial co-operation;

Adopt a strategy on organised crime;

Put forward legislation to fight counterfeiting.

Running through all these proposals is the guiding principle of safeguarding individual liberties, underlined by the accession of the Union (via the new Constitution) to the European Convention on Human Rights.

PRAY that the fundamental rights of religious freedom will not be overlooked

In search of Europe's cultural and spiritual values

Published: Tuesday 1 March 2005 - 11:50

http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-136125-16&type=News&_lang=EN&email=7581

In Short:

The possible entry of Turkey into the EU has heated up the debate concerning the values that glue Europeans together into one community. Religious thinkers shared their views at a recent conference.

RELATED

Reflection group finds no fixed list of European values

Background:

The prospect of Turkey joining the European Union has triggered a discussion about the commonly shared values which make up a 'European identity'. After a lengthy discussion, references to 'God' or 'Christianity' have been excluded from the EU's Constitutional Treaty.

The president of the previous Commission, Romano Prodi, appointed a group of intellectuals in the spring of 2002 to look into the shared spiritual, religious and cultural values that would continue to drive the process of European integration.

The final paper produced by the 'Reflection Group on the Spiritual and Cultural Dimension of Europe' in October 2004 argued that "economic integration [...] is incapable of substituting for the political forces that originally propelled European integration and cohesion". It cited the example of the Lisbon Agenda which has failed to bring Europeans closer together.

This paper argues that Europe's cultural identity has been shaped by a constant confrontation with "the new, the different, the foreign", which comes into our lives via successive rounds of EU enlargement and thanks to the EU's immigration laws.

One of the conclusions the authors reach is that "there is no essence of Europe, no fixed list of European values". There is no "finality" to the process of European integration." "Europe is a project of the future."

Positions:

The Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) invited three religious thinkers to share their views on what they thought connected Europeans. The discussion took place on 24 February at a CEPS conference on the theme of "What Values for Europe?"

Rabbi David Rosen said that universal values can also be considered European and originally European values could have become global. Rabbi Rosen explained that individual human dignity is at the heart of all religions and it is the basis for human solidarity. Europe, as a collective, was designed to transcend national identities and it brings together nations with different cultural backgrounds. It is built upon the recognition that it is desirable to have a unity that respects diversity. The rights of the individual are thus brought together with the interests of the collective and the aim is to strike a balance. Rabbi Rosen talked about the value of hospitality and the importance of welcoming guests, other human beings, who in a religious sense have a 'divine image'. He said that the well-being of our own community must be ensured while welcoming diversity (guests).

Stefan Lunte, deputy secretary general of the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community, pointed out that there has been little talk of values in the past 50 years of European integration. Mr Lunte said that a true 'European citizenship' is needed which cannot be built around the EU institutions or the 'lengthy' Constitution. What is needed is a European identity, an 'incarnation' of the European idea into our hearts. Peace incarnated through economic cooperation into the EU. In order to achieve the higher cause of peace countries have given up part of their sovereignty. Mr Lunte said that the Union's values as described in the EU Constitution are the achievements of the nation states, rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Peace has now prevailed for more than 50 years, Mr Lunte pointed out. However, he felt that to achieve additional common values will be difficult without religion. Therefore, he called for a more positive approach towards the role of religion in the incarnation of European values.

Tariq Ramadan, professor at the University of Geneva, talked from a European Muslim viewpoint. He said that we should move away from a negative definition of ourselves, ie defining ourselves against what we are not, and instead create a positive perception of 'us'. What unites Jews, Christians and Muslims is monotheism. Europe is a project and we all wish to find a 'meaning' in it, he argued. We all ask the question 'why?' and we all see our message as 'universal', while also teaching the respect of others, Mr Ramadan explained. It is necessary to have a 'marriage' between faith and intellect, ie to have faith as well as a critical mind. Mr Ramadan pointed to the great values the EU Constitution puts forward, such as equality, dignity, justice and human rights. But the challenge is the implementation of these values. Mr Ramadan therefore suggests an emphasis on civic education, promoting a multi-dimensional, inclusive identity, and building partnerships at local, regional and national levels.

PRAY that the EU constitution reflect and preserve the true values of Europe and full religious freedom be assured

Charlemagne The great debate begins

http://www.economist.com/World/europe/PrinterFriendly.cfm?Story_ID=3644698

Feb 10th 2005

From The Economist print edition

Arguments over the EU constitution remain largely national

LATE last year European Union ministers sat down in Brussels to draft a common declaration about the new European constitution. Since all 25 EU countries are meant to ratify this document over the next two years—and as many as ten will hold a referendum on it—it seemed a useful idea to set out succinctly what the constitution does and doesn't do. Useful: but, sadly, also impossible. The British suggested that it should be made clear that the constitution's Charter of Fundamental Rights would not limit the rights of managers to sack workers. But the Belgians and the French objected; as far as they are concerned the charter will do exactly that. All right, said the British and others: how about making clear that the constitution puts paid to the idea of a common EU tax? Not at all, said the Belgians and other federalists, for whom the creation of such a tax remains a cherished ideal. Eventually, the ministers abandoned the whole idea of a common declaration. Each country will be left to explain the constitution to its own citizens as it sees fit.

It was a revealing incident. For although the constitution is meant to express and promote European unity, national political cultures around the EU remain very different. Take Spain, which will be the first country to hold a vote on the constitution, on February 20th. (Three countries—Hungary, Lithuania and Slovenia—have already ratified it through parliamentary votes.) The Spanish are cheerfully and uncomplicatedly pro-European. They associate the EU with the end of Francoist isolation and the arrival of lashings of cash from Brussels. So although in one recent poll 88% of Spaniards said they knew nothing or “very little” about the constitution, 56% also pronounced themselves in favour of it. The Spanish government has been trying to popularise the text by handing it out at football matches. The contestants on the Spanish version of “Big Brother”, a reality-TV programme, were even forced to explain bits of the constitution to each other. (Some see the sections on “delegated European regulations and framework laws” as a little too sensational for a mass audience.) Such exercises reflect the Spanish government's real fear: not that the constitution will be defeated, but that the turnout will be embarrassingly low.

Yet the messages that Spanish politicians are using to sell the constitution would be completely alien in more Eurosceptic countries like Britain. Josep Borrell, a Spaniard who is president of the European Parliament, proclaims that “this constitution marks a shift from a primarily economic Europe to a political Europe.” This kind of statement is regarded as feel-good rhetoric in countries with strong Europhile traditions. Similarly, Jean-Luc Dehaene, a Belgian who was a vice-president of the convention that drafted the constitution, boasted recently to a Brussels audience that the constitution represented “a great step forward for the EU to become a true political union.” Were Mr Dehaene to try to say this in Britain, he would surely be bound and gagged by emissaries from Tony Blair's government. For this is precisely the message that Mr Blair is trying to stomp on. He believes that his government can win a referendum only by convincing Britons that, as Mr Blair put it in a speech last November, the constitution is “an expression of Europe as a union of nation-states...the rejection of Europe as a federal superstate.”

Disagreements of this nature are just one way in which the EU's constitutional debate will vary across Europe. National preoccupations also mean that different countries will fasten on different aspects of the constitution. Spain is far more concerned by the threat that Basque nationalists may try to break away from the Spanish state than by the debate over the EU constitution. But the two issues have become linked, because the Spanish government is trying to argue that article five of the constitution would mean that the EU would refuse to recognise an independent Basque state. It seems unlikely that any other country will pay such close attention to the constitution's provisions on “the territorial integrity of the state”.

Talking Turkey

A few months after the Spanish referendum, it will be the turn of France and the Netherlands to vote. In these two countries an issue is set to dominate the debate that has barely featured in Spain, despite its Islamic past: the prospect of Turkish membership of the EU. The extent of Muslim immigration into France and the Netherlands is deeply controversial. In both countries opponents of the constitution will seek to link the prospect of Turkish EU membership—and with it the prospect that Turks may gain an automatic right to settle elsewhere in Europe—to approval of the constitution. Those arguing for a yes vote will fire back (correctly) that Turkish membership of the EU has, strictly speaking, nothing to do with the constitutional treaty. But they are already resigned to the intermingling of the Turkish and constitutional debates.

Other countries will air other interests and obsessions. In Britain, opponents of the constitution will make much of the idea that the Charter of Fundamental Rights will give even greater scope for foreign judges to overrule British laws. In most of the rest of Europe, the idea of such a charter seems wholly unobjectionable. The British, by contrast, are relatively happy with moves towards closer defence co-operation, which may be deeply controversial in traditionally neutral Ireland.

In each EU country, in short, national governments will carefully tailor their messages to their domestic audiences. And that may be the only hope of getting the constitution approved in all 25 countries. European federalists sometimes bemoan the fact that Europe's babble of different languages makes it very hard to build a common identity and to stage pan-European debates. But, when it comes to getting the EU constitution ratified, it may prove to be a distinct advantage that Europeans do not share a common language.

PRAY that the questions in each country concerning the constitution will be valid ones that really matter for Europe, according to God’s ultimate plan, and that the measure and kind of unity among the EU countries will be a unity that will help to open doors for more united evangelism, church planting and prayer among Christians.

REMEMBER MAY 1 2005 is PRAY FOR THE EU DAY

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EUReview & Call to Prayer Ministries is conducting this multi-denominational ministry under the mission program of the Assemblies of God Western Europe office outside of Brussels, Belgium. The mailing address there is: EMC/EURCP (Gerald Branum.) 45 Chaussee de Waterloo, 1640 Rhode Saint Genese, BELGIUM

(Your comments are welcome. Your assistance is needed. Can you help mobilise Christians to pray and participate? This call to prayer needs to be prepared by Europeans in other languages and with greater distribution!)

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