Europarliament rejects reference to Judeo-Christian root.Strasbourg, France--The European Parliament's plenary assembly rejected any reference to the continent's "Judeo-Christian" roots in the draft text of the European Constitution. The proposal was rejected Wednesday by a vote of 283 to 211. The vote sought to clarify Parliament's position in view of next week's intergovernmental conference An Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) is the formal procedure for negotiating amendments to the founding treaties of the European Union. Under the treaties, an IGC is called into being by the European Council, and is composed of representatives of the member states, with the in Rome that will approve the draft of the Constitution. The proposal in Parliament was presented by the European Popular Party (EPP (1) (Enhanced Parallel Port) See IEEE 1284. (2) (Ethernet Packet Processor) A chip from Kalpana, Inc., Santa Clara, CA that doubles speed of Ethernet transmission to 20Mbits/sec. In 1994, Kalpana was acquired by Cisco. ), which called for a "particular reference" in the text to the "Judeo-Christian" roots of Europe, without proposing a specific formulation of the request. Another amendment, presented by the European Union European Union (EU), name given since the ratification (Nov., 1993) of the Treaty of European Union, or Maastricht Treaty, to the European Community of Nations (EUN EUN Egyptian Universities Network EUN Laayoune, Morocco - Laayoune-Hassan I Morocco (Airport Code) EUN Endogenous Urinary Nitrogen EUN External Update Notification EUN End User Network ), which called for the "express recognition of the legacy of Christianity inscribed in·scribe tr.v. in·scribed, in·scrib·ing, in·scribes 1. a. To write, print, carve, or engrave (words or letters) on or in a surface. b. To mark or engrave (a surface) with words or letters. in the history and cultural identity of Europe," met with the same result. Although the EPP has a majority in the European Parliament European Parliament, a branch of the governing body of the European Union (EU). It convenes on a monthly basis in Strasbourg, France; most meetings of the separate parliamentary committees are held in Brussels, Belgium, and its Secretariat is located in Luxembourg. , it did not obtain the consensus of the majority. It had the support of the EUN, but even within the EPP members such as the British Conservatives and others, did no support it. Those voting against the proposal included the European Socialist Party and other minority groups, as well as 30 independent deputies. "We knew that these were the numbers, but we could not exempt ourselves from the responsibility v present forcefully the position which we firmly believe," EPP spokeswoman Katrin Ruhrmann said. EPP President Hans-Gert Pottering lamented the rejection the amendment, but explained that the preamble of the draft Constitution presented by the European Convention makes reference to the continent's religious patrimony PATRIMONY. Patrimony is sometimes understood to mean all kinds of property but its more limited signification, includes only such estate, as has descended in the same family and in a still more confined sense, it is only that which has descended or been devised in a direct line from the . And Article 51 of the draft recognizes the status of churches an communities which share a common faith, he said. Ruhrmann said that the last word now rests with the governments of the European Union. If they wish, they have the possibility to modify the draft Constitution in the sense we desire," she said (Zenit, Sept. 25, 2003). |
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