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PASTOR'S REPORT, May 29, 1979
Page 7
"We have decided to be all Europeans as Churchill would have said and to
be all Greeks, as Shelly would have put it," Karamanlis said. "For to
cite Isocrates, 'Greeks are not those born Greek but those who adopted
the classical spirit.'"
Karmanlis believes that entry into the EEC will consolidate Greek democratic
institutions and ward off the likelihood of another military dictatorship,
because under the Community's founding document, the Treaty of Rome, a non
democratic country would be expelled.
Community
president Roy Jenkins remarked he hoped the current negotia
tions with Spain and Portugal will end "as successfully as those with Greece.
The enlargement to twelve must not be allowed to weaken or dilute the Com
munity."
Papal Trip, Euro-elections
The move by Greece comes at a time of increased political activity in
Europe. On June 2, Pope John Paul II will embark on an eight-day trip to
Poland--the first visit ever by a pope behind the Iron Curtain. Crowds
in Warsaw, Krakow and other Polish cities are expected to be heavy.
Then, on June 7 and 10 voters in the nine EEC countries will go to the
polls to choose, for the first time, directly-elected candidates to the
enlarged and strengthened European Parliament. The campaign has drawn
some of Europe's leading political figures. For example, former Chan
cellor Willy Brant, heads the Socialists' list in Germany and former Prime
Minister Leo Tindemans is running for election in Belgium. The leading
conservative candidate is Otto von Habsburg, who is running for a seat
from Bavaria. Dr. Von Habsburg, while now a West German citizen, also
retains his Austrian citizenship.
The entrance of Greece into the EEC--Greece being the cradle of European
civilization--the papal trip to eastern Europe, the Euro-elections and the
von Habsburg candidacy all have an interesting tie-in.
On April 5, a delegation of current representatives from the European
Parliament was granted a papal audience. Interestingly enough, Dr. von
Habsburg was included in the delegation. The pope, reported the April 6
issue of Europe Agence Internationale (a daily r�view of European events),
pointed out to his visitors that they did not represent the whole of Europe,
which was well beyond the frontiers of the EEC. The Pope told them that
the idea of the whole of Europe should be promoted during the forthcoming
elections, which should be regarded as a first stage in a long process of
integration.
A few days later, in the April 27 issue of Europe Agence Internationale,
editor Emanuele Gazzo wrote that Pope John Paul II, in speaking to the
Parliamentarians, "enlarged on a theme which obviously lies within the
Church's universal perspective, but of which the present Pope is particu
larly aware (he spoke of it in texts drafted when he was Bishop of Kracow),
the question of Europe's frontiers, frontiers which do not coincide with
those of the present Europe. It is clear that in his opinion there is
hardly any sense in thinking of State frontiers: it is rather a question
of 'evangelisation' frontiers. We know moreover that the 'episcopal
conferences' of Europe override artificial barriers between East and West."