(Brussels) “The Church wants to make a contribution to help the European Union to overcome the multiple crises it faces”. COMECE President, Card. Reinhard Marx, said this in his opening address yesterday which kick started the Plenary Assembly of the bishops of the countries of the EU. “In this existential crisis of the EU – Card. Marx said -, COMECE is more important than ever”. As for the consequences of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, the President of COMECE emphasised – as reported in a statement – that it was not only a British problem. Rather, Card. Marx continued, it is the European Union as a whole that should reflect on its political agenda and reaffirm its goals. The cardinal also encouraged both the UK and the EU to start moving towards each other again. Card. Marx then announced that the COMECE would organize a high-level Congress in Rome in autumn 2017 on “Rethinking Europe” to exchange views on the future of European integration. Our task “as members of COMECE”, the German prelate remarked, is “not to look for solutions in the past or on the way back, but rather, drawing upon the knowledge of the richness of the past, to find them in the future, looking forward with confidence”.