- Title: BOSNIA /HERZEGOVINA: Crisis shaking foundations of EU, Italian PM Monti says
- Date: 9th September 2012
- Summary: ORCHESTRA PLAYING FOR GUESTS OF MEETING VARIOUS OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE WORLD'S MAJOR RELIGIONS ARRIVING EUROPEAN COUNCIL PRESIDENT HERMAN VAN ROMPUY ARRIVING CROATIAN PRESIDENT IVO JOSIPOVIC AND BOSNIAN PRIME MINISTER VJEKOSLAV BEVANDA
- Embargoed: 24th September 2012 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Country: Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Topics: International Relations,European Union,Economy,Politics,Religion
- Reuters ID: LVA5VDEV8SMY94WSHOFD9AYFM8AV
- Story Text: Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday the crisis in Europe has gone beyond economic matters, shaking the very foundations of the European Union.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said on Sunday (September 9) the crisis in Europe is nolonger merely economic and is shaking the very foundations of the European Union.
He urged European nations to adhere to values of unity and solidarity and to finding a common ground they seem to have lost.
Monti was speaking at the opening of the annual World Meeting for Peace conference organised in Bosnia and Herzegovina's capital of Sarajevo, which gathered clerics and leaders from across the world, including European Council President Herman Van Rompuy.
"The time we are going through is time of crisis. And it is not only economic and financial crisis. It is a deeper crisis, much deeper we might think. This crisis is undermining the foundations of humanism around which Europe was born and developed," Monti said.
On Saturday (September 8) Monti had proposed an EU summit in Rome to discuss the rise of anti-European populism, divisions between north and south and nationalistic prejudices that have been fostered by resentment against austerity measures.
"The Euro, which represents a unifing factor to preserve, which represents the ultimate pinnacle of the magnificent gothic construction which is European integration risks becoming, paradoxically, the source of new divisions, of new rifts in Europe. The deep meaning of the actions we are taking in Europe is not only to be looking for technical and political solutions but foremost to put effort in order to recover the common feeling based on the great positive values of the European tradition: solidarity, tolerance, search for common good," Monti said.
"We need to go back to the moments, very far back in history, when we witnessed importance of integration rather than disintegration, harmony rather than conflict, tolerance rather than intolerance," he said.
The World Meeting for Peace is a three-day international summit organized jointly by the Rome-based ecumenical organisation Community of Sant'Egidio together with the Islamic, Serbian Orthodox Church, Catholic and Jewish communities of Bosnia.
After opening remarks, the Bosnian Grand Mufti Mustafa Ceric presented a copy of the Haggadah of Sarajevo to the Director-general of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel Oded Wiener.
The Haggadah of Sarajevo, which contains narration of the story of Passover from the Talmud and is used in Jewish liturgy, was originally created in Spain in the 14th century before appearing in Sarajevo in the 19th century and almost miraculously surviving both world wars as well as the more recent 1992-1995 Bosnian war.
The Haggadah is today considered a symbol of multi-ethnic Bosnia and its original is kept at the National Museum in Sarajevo.
The multi-religious capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina was chosen to host the summit as it marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Bosnian war in which 11,500 of its citizens had been killed during the longest city siege in modern history. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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