Does the EU threaten Christian values? Rónán Mullenargues yes, the secularist trend in a number of EU states is pushing it to inhibit freedom of conscience and limit subsidiarity, while Brigid Laffanargues no, the EU was founded by devout Catholics and its values of respect and tolerance are compatible with Christianity
YES:THE PHRASE "Christian values" refers here to a wide range of issues which are not just of interest to Christians. One such issue is respect for an individual's freedom of religious belief and social outlook. Another is the right of any EU member state to retain laws with a traditional "Christian Democratic" character where a majority of its citizens so desire, regardless of whether those citizens have religious, philosophical or sociological reasons for supporting such laws.
As a legal institution, the EU is neither inherently religious nor secularist. The values upon which it was founded and which inform its long-term policy goals are compatible with Christian faith. These include: (1) the importance of building European unity and solidarity, in opposition to authoritarian or xenophobic nationalism; (2) promotion of other forms of solidarity (economic, monetary, political etc) between peoples and nations; (3) in contrast with an old-fashioned socialism, respect for the right of economic initiative and the moral value of the market; (4) making business accountable to the public authority - a goal not now achievable by individual states; (5) respect for the value of subsidiarity at all levels, so that no more decision-making power than is necessary is ceded to EU institutions.
So why do Cardinal Brady and other Christians have cause for concern at recent developments? Perhaps because the secularist trend in a number of EU member states is influencing the behaviour of the union so as to inhibit freedom of conscience and the exercise of subsidiarity in particular.
The ousting of Rocco Buttiglione from the European Commission line-up in 2004 essentially occurred because the Italian nominee dared to agree with traditional Catholic teaching on homosexuality and because he had opposed the real possibility that certain proposed provisions in the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights could be used to further same-sex marriage, adoption or other agendas. A powerful gay rights lobby was outraged that such a man might receive the justice portfolio of the European Commission. But, in fact, Buttiglione was willing to implement whatever anti-discrimination laws the EU agreed. His ousting therefore represented an extremist form of EU politics that demanded both outward and internal conformity with a prevailing agenda. Such thought-policing militates against genuine pluralism in the EU.
This controlling approach looks set to inhibit Ireland's ability to take an independent line on sensitive social issues, particularly as successive Irish governments have failed to insist on a genuine subsidiarity up to now. Some of the challenges we face are still "in the post". But the European Commission's recent attempt to interfere with Irish legislation which allowed religious-run institutions to protect their ethos was a worrying portent. Here an EU-sponsored ideology of equality would frustrate a more authentic notion of equality that would respect parents' natural rights to educate their children according to their own values.
The fact that the Commission's proceedings were only dropped when the Irish Government pointed out that the Commission's action would hinder a Yes vote to Lisbon showed a troubling arbitrariness as regards how and when EU rules are likely to be enforced.
Although the EU has never formally been given any competence over family law matters, the EU-financed Fundamental Rights Agency has used its limited resources to issue a 164-page report arguing for the introduction of "same-sex marriage" throughout Europe.
Other examples of inappropriate European interference include the Seventh Framework programme, under which the EU spends common funds on research involving the destruction of human embryos (in violation of the ethical objections of some contributing member states) and the pro-abortion approach taken by the EU, whether in the disbursement of its overseas aid budget or in its stances in international fora such as the UN. These positions offend Christian values, certainly, but more than that there is a lack of subsidiarity and, indeed, pluralism when the majority view among member states is imposed on behalf of the whole of the union in matters that cry out for sensitivity.
The Irish Government would be foolish to underestimate the extent to which these concerns were a factor in many people's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. It needs to show more interest than it has to date in finding a formula that would allow it to ratify EU treaties while guaranteeing the necessary subsidiarity for Ireland in sensitive social matters, so that - liberal or conservative - we can decide such issues for ourselves. Why, after all, should the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights supersede the Fundamental Rights articles of our own Constitution? But given the EU's huge potential for good in the world there is also an onus on those who voted No out of concern for social values to identify in what circumstances they would vote Yes.
• Senator Rónán Mullen represents the National University of Ireland graduate constituency in Seanad Éireann
NO:THE EU is emphatically not a threat to Christian values. In fact, the EU has had strong normative foundations from the beginning and its values have been made more explicit in successive treaties. Cardinal Seán Brady's address to the Humbert Summer School in August has triggered an animated debate on this topic, especially in the letters page of The Irish Times. Lurking behind this question is a deeper and much older question about the place of religious institutions in the modern state and modern politics. This question has animated politics in Europe for over two centuries.
It is important to distinguish between the values underpinning religious institutions and the values that underpin political institutions, be they at the national or EU level. Religious and political institutions have fundamentally different purposes and roles. Political institutions, such as the state or the EU, owe their legitimacy, stability and unity to their capacity to defend the freedom and equality of all of their citizens, regardless of religious or political adherence. The liberal democratic state replaced religious absolutism and the divine rights of monarchy precisely because it was based on religious tolerance and the separation of church and state.
There is, however, a high degree of consonance between religious and political values in Europe and this consonance extends to the EU. The world's most successful effort at integrating strong-rooted nation states would not have been possible without the impetus provided by continental Christian Democracy. The founding fathers, Robert Schuman, Alcide de Gasperi and Konrad Adenauer, were devout Catholics. This fact moulded their political values, ideology and behaviour. Continental Christian Democratic parties emerged during the period of mass political mobilisation and social transformation that accompanied capitalism, industrialisation, and a secularising world. Confessional parties engaged in highly contested cultural and political conflict with communist, socialist, liberal and social democratic parties.
Emerging from the second World War, Christian Democratic parties assumed powerful positions in governments in western Europe and used this power to launch the process of European integration. The post-war imperatives of peace and forgiveness resonated powerfully with Christian values.
Successive treaties have made the values that underpin the EU much more explicit. The treaty that evolved from the European Convention and its successor, the Lisbon Treaty, outline in a very clear manner the values on which the EU is based. Article 2 says: "The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights . . . These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail." Article 3 goes on to say that the union's aim is to "promote peace, its values and the wellbeing of its peoples".Article 4 establishes respect for the equality of the member states, their national identities and their fundamental structures, both political and constitutional. These values form the basis not just of the union's internal action, but also its role in international politics, as is evident in documents about the union's external role.
Title 1 of the Lisbon Treaty (articles 1-8) offers a "values map" for the EU and its peoples, representing the best of Europe's rich heritage. If these values, outlined in Europe's treaties, are anti-Christian, it would be news to people all over Europe who have deep religious sentiments and who would regard the values outlined above as central to their normative frame.
How these values are translated into policies is the product of politics in the union. Pluralism and respect for diversity is fundamental to Europe. Politics and policies of the EU are moulded by all of Europe's political forces, not just those of a confessional tradition. Moreover, European politics is rather evenly balanced between the left and right and between confessional and liberal-left-wing political forces. The European People's Party (EPP), made up predominantly Christian Democratic parties, has 288 seats in the European Parliament; the Socialist Group (PSE) has 215 seats; the Liberals have 101. Because of the pronounced bias in the EU towards consensus, it gravitates towards the political centre and agreements are based on a high level of consensus. A high level of agreement is essential in a union of 27 states with a combined population of some 497 million. Europe's deep diversity can only be managed on this basis.
Notwithstanding the real challenges facing Europe and the limits of the EU, the Union, underpinned by the Convention on Human Rights, has established a shared normative framework for Europeans that would have been unthinkable 60 years ago. Kant's "sweet dream" outlined in Perpetual Peace: A Philosophical Sketch (1795) has been at least partially achieved within the boundaries of the European Union.
• Prof Brigid Laffan is principal of the college of human sciences at UCD