IXE Group
Report of the IXE meeting, 28 – 30 September 2019 in Zadar, Croatia
At the invitation of the Croatian representation, women and men from various organisations and groups from France, the United Kingdom, Spain, Belgium, Poland, Croatia and representatives of COMECE, the European Bishops’ Conference, the Central Committee of Catholics in Germany met for the autumn meeting of the initiative “Christians for Europe”. Sabine Slawik attended this meeting for the first time as representative of ANDANTE.
To introduce the overall political situation of Croatia, there was a detailed presentation on the current political and social situation in post-war Croatia. This was followed by the reports of the individual representatives*, which were also very socio-politically oriented.
Of particular importance was the report by Clemens Ladenburger from Brussels on the new EU President Mrs von der Keyen and her “Agenda for Europe” with the following main points:
- a European green deal: for example climate change, biodiversity, trading systems, transition fund
- an economy that works for people: for example minimum wage law all allover
- a Europe fit for digital age
- protecting our European way of life
- a stranger Europe
- a new push for European demographics
A special look will then be taken at the report on Ursula von der Leyen’s first 100 days in her new office as Commission President. Digitisation is a topic that will also be looked at in this circle in the near future.
The idea of a European and ecumenical church congress will also be pursued, despite the low chances of implementation due to a lack of financial and personnel resources. The spring meeting of the ZdK will include an exchange and interest meeting for such an event.
Furthermore, the different processes in the Catholic Church were reported, such as the synodal way in Germany, Space of Faith in Belgium or also a reform process, which is currently taking place in France with SSF with national events, which are to be extended internationally in 2021.
