“One truly neutral state in terms of religion is not obstructed by the symbolic provision of Article 3, because the major progress associated with the separation of church and state has been to some extent achieved through a joint legislative initiative.”
Those were the words of Minister of State Georgios Gerapetritis in his speech during the plenary debate on the constitution revision, in response to SYRIZA MP Sia Anagnostopoulou, who defended SYRIZA’s amendment that will safeguard constitutionally the religious neutrality of the state.
Commenting on the issue of national identity as defined by the Constitution, the minister of State also pointed out that “this concept is not a question of constitutional and political philosophy but a very tangible issue.”
The national identity set out in the Constitution, he said, is “used by the Court of Justice of the European Union when it comes to highlighting the specific characteristics of each constitutional order so as to give impetus to the European Union and enable each member state to operate within its constitutional text. So the term “national, constitutional, identity” is a term that is completely acceptable and reinforces this type of diversity of EU member states and does not shrink this diversity in any way,” Georgios Gerapetritis said.
Source: skai.gr
