BRUSSELS (CNS): “People have shown responsibility by voting. This is a very positive sign,” Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, president of the Brussels-based Commission of European Union (EU) Bishops’ Conference, or COMECE said, following the results of the European Parliament elections on May 27.
 

BRUSSELS (CNS): The new head the Brussels-based Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community bishops, Archbishop Jean-Claude Hollerich of Luxembourg, pledged to combat populism and promote European unity.
 
“The European Union (EU) is a gain for the common good and this is why the Church should be in constant dialogue with it,” said Bishop Hollerich, who was elected president of the commission on March 8.
 

HONG KONG (SE): To mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome, the Commission of Episcopal Conferences in the European Union held a gathering in the Eternal City from October 27 to 29, the final day of which included an audience with Pope Francis.
 
Meeting under the theme of Rethinking Europe, the bishops chose the anniversary for their gathering because they believe that the treaty that was signed in 1957 marked the beginning of the integration process which finally lead to the formation of the European Union.

PARIS (AsiaNews): A group of around 60 Muslim imams came together in Paris on July 10 at the Champs-Elysées where a policeman, Xavier Jugelé, was killed in April this year, before setting out on a Muslim March Against Terror which included stops in European cities that have been the victims of terrorism.
 
They boarded a bus bound for Berlin and then moved onto Brussels, where they were welcomed by representatives of the Belgium government.
 

MANCHESTER (CNS): A ruling in the European Court of Justice allowing employers to ban employees from wearing visible religious insignia prompted Bishop Philip Egan, from Portsmouth in England, to comment that it is an infringement of human rights.

The European Court had considered two cases. One involves a company banning a Muslim woman from wearing a hijab (headscarf), as internal policy does not allow employees to display any visible signs of political, philosophical or religious beliefs.

VATICAN (SE): A gathering of mayors from around Europe called for the creation of a Network of Mayors to promote intercity cooperation in dealing with the issues facing the metropolitan areas on the continent.

MANCHESTER (CNS): “We cannot accept that people drown and suffocate at the borders of Europe. Building barbed-wire fences and walls to prevent refugees from entering Europe is not a solution,” the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) said in a statement on September 10, a day after meeting in Munich, Germany.

A common asylum policy for the European Union (EU) would prevent countries from keeping out migrants, the commission said.