The Berlin Declaration (officially the Declaration on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the signature of the Treaty of Rome) is a non-binding

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

(EU) text that was signed on 25 March 2007 in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

(Germany), celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome which founded the European Economic Community, the predecessor to the modern EU. The Declaration was the brainchild of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2007. Designed to provide renewed impetus to the process of EU reform after the ratification of the European Constitution had failed, the Declaration aimed for a "renewed common basis" in time for the

2009 European Parliament election The 2009 European Parliament election was held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009. A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making th ...

s. The German presidency followed up on the issue by brokering a consensus for what later became known as the

Treaty of Lisbon The Treaty of Lisbon (initially known as the Reform Treaty) is an international agreement that amends the two treaties which form the constitutional basis of the European Union (EU). The Treaty of Lisbon, which was signed by the EU member s ...

Signatories

Presented in the name of “We, the citizens of the European Union”, it was signed by the Presidents of the three major political institutions; * Hans-Gert Pöttering as

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

. * Angela Merkel as

of the

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(and the European Council). *

José Manuel Barroso José Manuel Durão Barroso (; born 23 March 1956) is a Portuguese politician and university teacher, currently serving as non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International. He previously served as the 11th president of the European Commis ...

of the

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. It was originally intended that the leaders of all the member states of the European Union would sign it, though getting a document agreeable to all members proved a challenge, thus it was left to the three institutional heads – though this was met with some criticism.

Issues

Christianity

The declaration has been criticised by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereig ...

for not mentioning

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global popula ...

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originally threatened to veto it because of this omission but stood down in order for an agreement to be reached. Several secular organizations objected to the proposed inclusion of religion and produced their own declaration called "A Vision for Europe".

Translation

In the original German (the language the document was drafted in), the phrase ''"We, the citizens of the European Union, have united for the better"'' was written as ''"Wir Bürgerinnen und Bürger der Europäischen Union sind zu unserem Glück vereint."'' which is in fact closer to "We, the citizens of the European Union, have united in our fortune/happiness". This has been seen as a deliberate political mistranslation.Berlin declaration's 'fortune' is lost in translation
EU Observer 27 March 2007

References

External links

Berlin Declaration in all official EU languagesCommission statement on the Declaration
{{Authority control Declarations of the European Union 2007 in the European Union 2007 in Europe March 2007 events in Europe

Signatories

Issues

Christianity

Translation

See also

References

External links