CONFERENCE OF EUROPEAN CHURCHES
CONFERENCE DES EGLISES EUROPEENNES
KONFERENZ EUROPAEISCHER KIRCHEN


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CCME History and Purpose

Migration comprises an integral part of Europe's history and an important dimension of its current reality. European citizens continue to emigrate from or move within Europe, while migrants and refugees from other parts of the world arrive to build new lives in a European home. Although there are challenges associated with the settlement of newcomers and longer-term residents in Europe, such individuals widely contribute to Europe's economic well-being and serve to enrich further its diverse cultures.

Europe's tradition of protecting human rights, integrating migrants and refugees and cherishing cultural diversity, however, is currently under strain. By vocation, churches are well positioned to promote mutual understanding and acceptance between various communities and to play an active part in the building of a just society of cultural, racial and religious diversity.

The Treaty of Amsterdam, which came into force in 1999, has conferred considerable powers on the European institutions to act on immigration and related issues of integration of immigrants and ethnic minorities. Furthermore, the European institutions have been given the competence to take measures against discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin and religion. This development demands an even closer co-operation of churches not only in the member states of the European Union but also in the countries in Central and Eastern Europe of which some are expected to become EU members in the not too distant future.

Founded in 1964, the Churches' Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) is an organisation of churches and ecumenical councils from Belgium, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. There are contacts with the Ecumenical Patriarchate (Brussels/Istanbul) and with church partners in Austria, Denmark, Romania and Russia.

The General Assembly of CCME, October 1999 in Järvenpää/Finland, decided in conjunction with the Conference of European Churches and the World Council of Churches to expand its mandate to cover the whole area of migration and integration, refugees and asylum, and racism and xenophobia. The General Assembly welcomed four new members from the above listed countries.

CCME is part of a wider ecumenical network of the World Council of Churches and the Conference of European Churches. It participates in a network of NGOs throughout Europe and has launched the Migration News Sheet and the Migration Policy Group.

CCME holds official observer status with the Council of Europe in Strasbourg http://www.coe.int/T/E/Social_Cohesion/Migration/and observes the Committee on Migration of the Council of Ministers. CCME also maintains regular contacts with the European Commission and the European Parliament. This enables CCME to monitor European policy-making in the migration, integration and asylum spheres and to present the concerns of the churches to the relevant institutions.

CCME promotes the adoption and implementation of international standards such as the European Social Charter, the European Convention on the Protection of the Legal Status of Migrant Workers, and the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families. CCME has also made specific proposals for the adoption of a European immigration policy and for equal treatment of European citizens and third-country nationals.

Mandate of the Commission

  • The Commission co-operates with its members, member churches and associated organisations of the World Council of Churches (in Europe) as well as of the Conference of European Churches and other ecumenical or church bodies working in the same field. It contacts and co-operates with the authorities, international organisations, trade unions, employers' associations and associations of migrants, refugees and minority ethnic people.

  • The Commission co-ordinates parallel efforts and initiatives undertaken by churches and other bodies in this field, and formulates common European ecumenical positions on these issues.

  • It promotes awareness-raising on issues of racism and xenophobia within the churches and in society; it conducts studies of the situation of migrants, refugees and minority ethnic people at local, national and international levels.

  • The Commission represents its members as appropriate in international organisations and organisations such as the European Union, the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and at meetings and conferences on relevant issues.

  • It organises consultations encouraging co-operation between members and non-member churches and between churches and other bodies; it identifies, in consultation with churches involved, projects and programmes including training and capacity building, and assisting churches to implement them or to carry them out themselves.

  • The Commission facilitates and encourages the distribution and exchange of information and experience; the sharing of resources, and ensuring the co-ordination of funding in this field.