The participants of the International Symposium 'CENA DE LE CENERI' organised by the Alliance Against Conformity at Freiburg, Germany, February 25^th to 28^th, 2004, were informed in detail by Nicola Giovannini, collaborator of Maurizio Turco, President of the Radical Deputies (Lista Bonino) in the European Parliament, about the meaning and effects of Article 51 in the concept of the future European Constitution. The Article 51 by which the privileged churches tend to set up a pre-legislative grey area in which they will have a decisive influence on European politics, contradicts clearly the principle of secularism the European Constitution should be based on. Furthermore, Article 51 guarantees the conservation of the immense privileges that the churches obtained thanks to the Concordats signed by Franco in Spain, Mussolini in Italy, Salazar in Portugal and Hitler in Germany, which are the grounds of their power, influence and wealth based on State collected church tax or public financing. Therefore we demand the restoration of the pre-fascist status in the whole of Europe and join the appeal of the Radical Deputies against Article 51.

The undersigned,

Having regard to the motion for a resolution for a Secular European Constitution tabled by Maurizio Turco and 256 Members of the European Parliament and sustained by 320 parliamentarians from the 15 EU Member States

Whereas article 51 of the Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe:

     A. contradicts the principle of separation between public institutions and religious institutions;
     B. obliges EU to a regular dialogue with churches and religious associations and
         communities recognising so to religious institutions a right of interference in
         the exercise of European public powers;
     C. guarantees the perpetuation of privileges acquired at national level by
         religious institutions, preventing the scrutiny of their compatibility with
         the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens as with EU policies and Law;
     D. has a terminology inappropriate for a Constitution such that it is likely to
         give rise to many juridical controversies;

Whereas freedom of organisation and freedom of action of religious associations and communities are already guaranteed by article 10 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and article 46 of the Draft Constitutional Treaty related to representative associations of civil society;


sustain the motion for a resolution, promoted by Maurizio Turco and signed until now by 123 Members of the European Parliament, asking to the Council, the Commission and the Member States to abrogate the article 51 of the Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and, in particular, to the representatives of Belgium, France, Luxembourg and Sweden to use their veto, during the Intergovernmental Conference, in coherence with the amendments viewing to suppress article 51 that they tabled during the Convention's work.