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God Bothers Constitution Talks
The latest delay in agreeing a final draft of the EU constitution comes from some nations demanding that a reference to Europe's Christian heritage be included in the text. Meanwhile, Britain's negotiating team is proving that some red lines are more equal than others.
Seven nations - Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Malta, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Slovakia - have demanded the text includes explicit references to Christianity. At present, the constitution text refers to Europe's "cultural, religious and humanist inheritance."
The seven mainly Catholic nations, who have the backing of the Vatican, wrote a letter to the Irish presidency of the EU requesting the addition.
Their call comes in the face of fierce opposition, led by France but supported by several northern European protestant states.
France is determined to keep the EU purely secular: Paris sees EU as modelled on the French state's tradition of strict separation of church and state. Moreover, France has already attracted controversy for introducing a law banning Islamic headscarves in schools. Many French Muslims see the law as anti-Islamic: If Paris agreed to a Christian constitution its claims to even-handedness regarding religion would ring hollow.
Some northern nations have PC reasons for opposing the "Christianity Clause:" Christianity may be Europe's main religion, and arguably the dominant force in the shaping of the continent, but it is no longer its only religion. Islam, Judaism and Hinduism have claims to large communities in the EU.
Furthermore, one of the biggest issues facing the EU in future is Turkey's membership. Some EU states fear that references to Christianity in the treaty text would upset many in this huge Muslim nation.
Britain is said to be uneasy with any direct reference to Christianity in the treaty but is happy to let other EU nations slug this one out, grateful that for once the focus is not on the UK as a potential "spoiler."
That doesn't mean that the heat is off: Foreign minister Jack Straw claims to be holding firm on the issues of Britain's "red lines." British negotiators say that the national vetos on taxation and social policy are all but secure - but that to win them, Straw has had to offer the Franco-German axis "flexibility" on criminal justice and home affairs.
It is not clear which areas of Britain's control over justice and home affairs are under threat: Nor is it clear how Straw will square these concessions with his macho talk of fighting to defend Britain's vetos last week. There was some talk of "emergency brakes" which would allow nations to halt legislation they disapproved of: Whether or not these are the same as red lines is a mystery known only to Straw.
It appears that Straw and PM Tony Blair have also been forced to give their blessing to Franco-German schemes to integrate faster. This "Two-speed Europe" has been a long-term French gameplan and a chilling nightmare for Blair.
Many were ready to give the government the benefit of the doubt provided it refused to back down on crucial areas of national interest. Returning from the Constitution negotiations clutching only two guarantees - and a handful of emergency brakes - simply won't do.
Straw and Blair must hope that the EU's current war of religion lasts as long as the previous one.
