Citizenship as the fourth dimension

Saviour Rizzo took issue with the concept of "social Europe" (The Sunday Times, January 22) and Alain Lipietz's arguments for the values of "autonomy, solidarity and responsibility" (as commented on by Michael Briguglio, The Sunday Times, January 29) underscore the importance of our understanding of citizenship in general and European citizenship in particular.

Both contributions, in fact, point ultimately to a European social model that should respect human rights, encourage social cohesion, promote a socially just welfare system and strengthen democracy.

The development of the European Union, however, raises a critical question on the degree of implementation of these social values. This echoes Lipietz's interests in the combination of "ecological values" and the economy.

Taking a functionalist viewpoint, the question can be phrased as follows: "How can an institutionalised market-steered economy be combined with democracy?"

At the EU level, this tension is expressed in the divide between 'systemic integration' of the supra-national administration and 'social integration' based on values, understanding and participation.

Lipietz has indicated a possible path towards reconciliation in his three concepts of "autonomy, solidarity and responsibility". The present observations argue for a fourth dimension to this pathway, namely democratic citizenship.

Considering the five freedoms of the EU as expressed in freedom of exchange of goods, service transactions, movement of labour, entrepreneurship, and currency movement, the indications are that they support the trend to understand European citizenship mainly as a status that endows the citizen with economic rights and privileges.

Seeing rights of citizenship as a product of economic interdependence is, however, too narrow in focus. Moreover, a vision of citizenship that thinks of individual European citizens only as agents of the market is now well cherished by the majority of Europeans.

Other significant considerations, therefore, need to be factored in. These include citizenship within the nation-state, the role of social movements, migration, new relations of inclusion, productive processing of tensions and conflicts, and the flourishing of democracy within an ethnically and culturally heterogeneous community.

Such considerations clearly bring out the concept of European citizenship more as a matter of social integration, and an act of consciousness and decision, which emphasises the understanding of citizenship as a role wherein the citizen becomes a proactive participant.

This gives rise to the growing need for participation in other policy areas than the economy, such as education and the environment, gender and disability issues, social policy and political literacy.

What is of interest to European citizens is how to narrow the gap between the effects of European administrative networks at the supra-national level and participating in changing it. The rights of participation, which can bear on democratic changes, illustrate better the concept of active citizenship and fit more comfortably into the European social model of a 'community of citizens'.

European citizenship and democracy are more than simply a political and economic system. They are an attitude of mind, a principle of conduct, a process of inclusion. These are indeed significant dimensions for European civilisation.

A new political environment favourable to European citizenship can emerge through: a) renewed networks of communication among public spheres, like education and the economy, politics and the environment, and policies of welfare, ethnicity, inclusion and equity; b) differentiation and complementarily between national traditions based on history, religion, literature, art and European culture; and c) respect for the rule of law, whose purpose is building a society of free citizens working together for the common good.

This view of a social Europe corresponds to man's social nature and the demands of social justice. In the thought of John Paul II, it is a kind of civil behaviour that observes the criteria of what he calls "social ethics".

It is an expectation going beyond the economic co-operation among European states towards common cultural patterns of humanistic policies of participatory citizenship. It is a way of respecting Christian traditions of ethics and democracy.

This is expressed in democratic parliamentary institutions, civil rights and legal systems, the values of scientific enquiry as well as romanticism and humanism in the arts, which have always characterised European civilisation.

It is comforting to see such critical developments reflected in four important instruments of the EU. The Maastricht Treaty (1993) gives formal recognition to rights and duties of EU citizens, the Second Report of the European Commission on Citizenship and the EU (1997) strengthens the protection of human rights and highlights the need of increasing participation in European matters, while the Treaty of Amsterdam (1997) makes a step forward with the article on prohibition of discrimination and its emphasis on the principle of equality.

The EU constitutional treaty (2004), then, seals this democratic atmosphere with its reference to such areas as the social rights of workers, protection of personal data and bioethics.

What is being considered generally as the way forward is to make the notion of European citizenship capable of capturing the "different identities, aspects and attachments" of European 'personhood' which satisfies the demands of inclusiveness by human actors who are much more than subjects of production in a culturally diverse supra-national community.

This can be realised through EU and national legislation towards more available channels of communication for citizens in Europe and better opportunities for member states to make intelligent choices. A deeper understanding of what it really entails to be a European citizen may, perhaps, be one way of remedying for Europe's 'democratic deficit'.