An unbelievable gathering

Europe’s non-believers come to Brussels.

The presidents of the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament (all of them Christian Democrats) have just held a meeting with leaders of Europe’s non-believers. 

It was the second-ever such meeting and the first since the coming into force of the Lisbon treaty, which provides that the Union “shall maintain an open, transparent and regular dialogue” with both “churches and religious associations or communities” and with “philosophical and non-confessional organisations”. The EU leaders had had a meeting with church leaders (the first since Lisbon) back in July, so the non-religious could not be kept waiting any longer.

After the meeting on Friday (15 October), Jerzy Buzek, the Parliament’s president, stressed the consensus on universal values “whether we come at these big questions from a faith perspective or a non-confessional perspective”.

But Entre Nous begs to differ. OK, the non-confessional guys scored well on marvellous titles – the President of the European Association of Free Thought, the President of the Council of the International Masonic Order, the Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge of Romania (with which the executive director of the UK’s National Secular Society and the chairperson of Atheist Ireland can hardly compete).

But in the interests of openness and transparency Buzek should have pointed out that the non-religious scored very badly on beards and hats.