Madam, - Surely it is time to have a rational debate on a federal Europe.
At present the relationship between the Union and member-states is poorly defined with the result that people are seriously concerned about the compulsive intrusion of Brussels in their internal affairs. The multiplicity of "competences" attaching to the Union as defined in the draft constitution will reinforce those fears.
A constitution based on federal principles would clearly prescribe and delimit the powers of the Union and thus safeguard the independence and diversity of member-states. - Yours, etc,
T. O'CONNOR,
Churchtown,
Dublin 14.
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Madam, - Much has been spoken in recent days about the crisis into which the French referendum result has plunged "Europe". However, the European crisis has been germinating for a very long time and it is not a crisis of politics, despite the clear dissatisfaction of Europeans everywhere with the manner in which they are governed. Nor is it an economic crisis, even though the largest economies of Europe have been in recession for most of the past 15 years. The European malaise, as so frequently pointed out by the late Pope, is primarily a crisis of culture.
Europe's rejection of religious values has led its peoples into a sense of apathy in the face of the increased bureaucratic restraint and coercion in almost all areas of their lives. The redefining of European culture which has taken place over the past 35 years to a materialist and anti-spiritual model has led to the loss of regard for liberty and rejection of the essential primacy of democratic values in the conduct of politics. State-operated human rights agencies enforce intimidation against individuals who express their opinions and argue endlessly about expanding spurious and contradictory "rights", while ordinary citizens face persecution and job discrimination because of their political or religious beliefs.
The current proposed constitution is wordy, complex, ambiguous and capable of endless re-interpretations by a morally effete judiciary. It contains no great enabling vision for the continent's future, no great unifying principle upon which Europeans can stake their claim to greatness or moral ascendancy, no core belief which can stir its people to self sacrifice - nothing, in other words, that a man would willingly die for. Dr Martin Luther King once stated that if a man has found nothing worth dying for, he has found nothing worth living for.
Europe's rejection of its religious culture came to a head in its rejection of Humane Vitae in 1968. From that rejection sprang the demographic implosion which is the root cause of on-going economic recession and which threatens European culture with external domination. A Europe with no sense of religious values will not long be able to withstand the spiritual dynamism of a resurgent Islam, waiting patiently for the prize which has so long eluded it.
Europe has a long way to travel before it can begin to set its culture on a path of regeneration. At the moment there is no more than an inchoate malaise at the way in which people are governed, at the on-going attacks against civil and religious liberty and at the malodorous proposed constitution, which owes a great deal more to the Soviet model than its defenders are prepared to admit.
However, recognising that a problem exists is the first step to defining what that problem is and to seeking a solution for it. Is it too much to hope that the somewhat confused French Non may be the beginning of the process of reshaping Europe into something which will give hope and purpose to all its peoples? - Yours, etc,
MICHAEL LEAHY,
Clifden,
Corrofin,
Co Clare.
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Madam, - In the referendums on the EU constitution people are being asked to give a simple yes or no answer about a very complex document. Sinn Féin is asking the people of this State to answer no. When was the last time you ever heard a member of that party (or any other party for that matter) giving a simple yes or no answer?
Perhaps, if the governments of Europe want to get an affirmative answer to the document they are presenting to the people of Europe, they should call in the wordsmiths from Sinn Féin to devise a simple question - should we adopt the treaty ratifying the EU constitution? - and provide, say, 10 different optional answers which can be interpreted whichever way the government, or anyone else, chooses.
After all if politicians can never give a simple yes or no, why should the people? - Yours, etc,
BRENDAN QUINN,
Enniscrone,
Co Sligo.