European Bishops advocate for
justice in EU’s recovery fund
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| COMECE's logo |
The Bishops of the European Union welcome a proposed EU
recovery fund to deal with the economic fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, but
says justice for the most vulnerable and the environment must form its core.
By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ
The Social Affairs Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of
the European Community (COMECE) released a statement on Thursday, offering the
Catholic Church’s contribution to the proposed recovery plan of the European
Union.
The statement, entitled “Let Europe recover through
justice,” calls on the EU to renew the spirit of solidarity and agree on a
recovery plan that puts justice at its centre amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking about the statement, the President of COMECE’s
Social Affairs Commission, Bishop Antoine Hérouard, pointed out that “this
crisis may be an opportunity for the European Union to take an important step
forward in asserting and expressing its solidarity, supporting Europe to
recover through ecological, social and contributive justice.”
Recovery fund
COMECE welcomes the idea of a recovery fund that enables the
EU to raise resources to support members states through grants and loans.
The idea, notes the statement, is in line with Pope
Francis’s Easter Message call for “further proof of solidarity, also by turning
to innovative solutions.” COMECE encourages EU member states to allow
discussions be directed towards “the common good guided by a spirit of
solidarity” through ecological, social and contributive justice.
Ecological justice
The statement recalls that the Covid-19 pandemic has
revealed our “dependence as well as our disastrous impact on a heavily fragile
eco-system.” The novel coronavirus – which causes the lung disease Covid-19
– “made us realize that we cannot live healthy on a sick and
polluted planet.”
In this regard, say EU Bishops, “we should acknowledge that
the Covid-19 pandemic is linked to a larger socio-ecological crisis” that is
visible through “climate change, biodiversity loss and its devastating
consequences on the most vulnerable.”
COMECE invites the EU to seize this opportunity “to work for
radical change and reinforce efforts towards integral development and thinking
towards the future.” The Bishops also welcome the proposal to integrate the
European Green Deal as a part of the EU recovery plan.
Social justice
In implementing the recovery plan, the Bishops call on the
EU to “care about and respect the needs of the most vulnerable.”
COMECE proposes that this can be done by increasing the
funding available in already existing programmes that goes to help the poor,
the homeless, migrants and asylum seekers.
It also suggests that the EU should work on a contingency
plan that will extend the current financial framework by one year in the case
that there is no Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) agreement by January
2021.
Contributive justice
“We should ensure that nobody is able to shy away from his
or her responsibility to contribute to the recovery process in Europe,” insists
the COMECE statement.
In response to the crisis, European Bishops call on the EU
to agree on a common corporate tax base and urgently curb the structures of
corruption and tax evasion. This is because the pandemic has “revealed to
everybody the importance of sound public infrastructures and services.”
In conclusion, the COMECE statement invites EU and national
public authorities to find new hope for Europe in a “joint recovery that
expresses the ambition to work for a just future in a renewed spirit of
solidarity.”
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