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Church representatives from the European Union (EU) have voiced regret at the lack of reference to churches and faiths in a major new human rights document drawn up by the EU.

''This decision not to mention our religious heritage denies an aspect of Europe's history," said Keith Jenkins, director of the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of European Churches (CEC), which brings together most of Europe's Protestant, Anglican and Orthodox churches.

Jenkins was reacting to the text of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, agreed at an EU summit in Biarritz, France, on October 14. An acknowledgement of Europe's "religious heritage" had earlier been left out of the charter's preamble at the insistence of the French prime minister, Lionel Jospin, whose country has a long tradition of the separation of church and state.

The charter is intended to set out a common basis for the respect of human rights throughout the EU, although it is not expected to be legally binding on the EU's member states. The charter affirms the right of individuals to take part in religious activities, but it fails to acknowledge the role of churches.

Jenkins said that leaders of CEC's 127 member churches had been disappointed that the reference to Europe's religious heritage had been left out of the document, which was drawn up by a 62-member convention following a decision at an EU summit in Cologne in 1999.

"But this was just one government's response—we mustn't misinterpret it as being somehow a rejection of religion," Jenkins told ENI.

"Since the preamble tries to lay down the foundations of Europe's identity, some people naturally wanted a reference to religion. But it was recognized that Europe is now effectively multi-religious."

Besides reaffirming rights to association, property, education, health-care and political asylum, the charter states that the EU respects "cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity" and guarantees the right "either alone or in community with others and in public or in private, to manifest religion or belief, in worship, teaching, practice and observance."

In a letter sent in May to Roman Herzog, the president of the convention that drafted the charter, the CEC Church and Society Commission welcomed the charter's "respect for religious diversity," but warned that it failed to acknowledge the "corporate dimension of religious freedom."

According to a legal adviser to the Commission of Catholic Episcopates from the EU (COMECE), the failure to mention Europe's religious heritage could still be challenged when EU heads of state and government meet for a summit at Nice in December.

"We have to keep a low profile nowadays, and we know a direct reference to God would be hard for member states to accept," said the adviser, Silvio Marcus-Helmons, whose commission groups Roman Catholic bishops' conferences from the EU's 15 member states.

"But if labor unions and political parties are explicitly recognized, why shouldn't churches be as well? Religion constitutes one of the roots of West European culture—whoever denies this is guilty of revisionism."

The current 250-word preamble commits European nations to "a peaceful future based on common values," as well as to respect "the diversity of the cultures and traditions of the peoples of Europe."

"Conscious of its spiritual and moral heritage, the [European] Union is founded on the indivisible, universal values of human dignity, freedom, equality and solidarity," the preamble states.

Marcus-Helmons told ENI that an amendment mentioning the continent's "religious heritage" was tabled for COMECE by German delegates to the drafting convention, who had pointed out that Germany's constitution contained a reference to God.

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November (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44