The year 2008 was the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, dedicated to Europe’s diversity and its multicultural character, intended to explore the benefits of our rich cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic heritage. In the midst of the challenges of the 21st Century, the current economic but also social crisis, culture plays an essential role in bringing citizens closer, while strengthening European values and European identity. However, culture alone can not play this role. Europe’s Christian spirituality and the values that stem from this Christian heritage have been and will continue to be indispensable in building a strong, prosperous and united Europe.
Coming from the Hungarian minority living in Transylvania, Romania, re-elected as a Member of the European Parliament in the 2009 elections, this is one of the priorities of my mandate. I am committed to giving further weight to Europe’s Christian spirituality, as I believe that it is this spirituality that has directly shaped the values that we all share and believe in our European family such as democracy, solidarity, rule of law and human rights, values that we all share and believe in our European family.
For this reason the establishment of a cross-party Ecumenical Intergroup at the European Parliament will create the most appropriate platform to join efforts to strengthen Europe’s Spiritual roots. While I am personally a Christian and feel that it is important to recognize the importance of Christianity in Europe’s culture and history, I recognize that not all Europeans share my faith.  By engaging with stakeholders of all faiths whether they are policy-makers, members of civil society, foundations, educational and cultural institutions or churches we can develop a common strategy to advance inter-religious and inter-cultural dialogue. We will fight against discrimination and violation of religious freedom by organising and coordinating discussions and hearings, by initiating resolutions and reports on European level, based on current needs and developments in the field.
If we want to have a strong Europe of values where citizens can live in peace and mutual respect and tolerance, the necessity to create an institutional forum to strengthen Europe’s spiritual dimension is clear. If we want to see the right to freedom of religion respected in Europe and beyond, if we want to put an end to discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, we have to join forces now. It is our moral obligation to continue promoting these fundamental rights through all appropriate European means. 
Being a church leader myself, of a Protestant congregation in Transylvania, Romania, I feel inspired – by my first-hand experience – in my European commitment to bring citizens closer to each other through their education and culture, through inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. At the same time, I feel responsible vis-à-vis those who elected me to Europe’s most important legislative forum to represent their expectations in a direct way by keeping these expectations high on EU’s agenda. Article 18 in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. Similarly, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU affirms citizens’ “freedom of thought, conscience and religion”. In this spirit, I invite all those interested to show support for this important initiative.
           
Laszlo Tokes is a Romanian Member of the European Parliament and part of the Group of the European People’s Party. He is on the Committee of Culture and Education and also on the Subcommittee of Human rights