“Europe would not be complete without the spiritual and cultural heritage of its central and eastern parts. We belong to such areas, independently located within the EU, and we have a lot to offer”: this was said yesterday by the bishop of Bratislava and president of the Bishops Conference, mgr. Stanislav Zvolensky, at a meeting with the Slovakian Prime Minister, Robert Fico, during the plenary assembly. Mgr. Zvolensky addressed many issues that are relevant to European and Slovakian societies. The EU’s current difficulty “mainly comes from its infringement of the principle of subsidiarity”, which, along with solidarity and human dignity related to human rights, are the pillars of Europe. Human rights however are more and more often viewed as one-sided, so that “the interest of the individual” is not “set off with the interest of the whole of society”. In a Europe that is “hopeless”, as proven by its falling birth rates, its secularisation and the attempt to turn religions into private matters, “the western liberal democracies do not have to become the universal rule to comply with”. The bishops call on the government to watch that social inclusion will not lead to conflict, in principle, with other nations or “to the loss of our spiritual and cultural traditions”, such as the “inacceptable” pressures put on the countries that have not ratified the Istanbul convention yet. And they call it to “be more generous in taking in the rehomed migrants”.