J and P campaigners demand EU reforms

Catholic justice and peace campaigners have urged the European Union to become “more democratic and less centralised”, in order to avoid losing more member states after Britain’s vote to leave the EU, writes Jonathan Luxmoore.

“The EU is in bad shape. One important member state has decided to leave, and many others openly ignore or defy rules and decisions previously adopted together,” the Conference of European Justice and Peace Commissions said in a statement from its Luxembourg general assembly. “To bring things together again needs above all the restoring of trust – trust among member states and, clearly, the trust of citizens in politics in general and in European institutions in particular”. The statement was issued after the first summit of EU heads of government without Britain, last month in Bratislava. It added that the EU was intended to “bring together democratic nation states”, rather than replace them, and depended on support from “stable and clear majorities” in each one.