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Il Consiglio delle Conferenze dei Vescovi d’Europa (C.C.E.E.)

Summary: The study re-examines the historical-juridical process of the Council of the Episcopal Conferences of Europe (C.C.E.E.), presents the current development, and sketches the foreseeable changes in the future. The C.C.E.E. is not regulated by its brief statutes only, but to a large extent by the extra-statutory norms for its eight commissions. It lacks systematic regulations whose content, however, will depend on the political circumstances of Europe which have already had a determinative influence throughout the evolution of the C.C.E.E. Besides, the delicate matter of the relationships between the C.C.E.E. and the Commission of the Episcopates of the European Community (COM.E.CE) must not be forgotten. Currently the COM.E.CE is yet governed by the statutes of 1980, but it is evident that the enlargement of the Union, accompanied by a pre-announced consolidation of an institutional sort, will necessarily involve a considerable enhancement of the role of this organism. Already at the plenary assembly of the COM.E.CE held in Santiago de Compostela in April 2004, the delegates from the episcopates of the new nations admitted into the Union on May 1, 2004 took part as members with full rights. The relationships of the COM.E.CE with the C.C.E.E will be transformed even more with the distant prospect of a radical change in the ecclesiastical structures of the continent because of the institution of a true and proper European episcopal conference.