18/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - At a meeting, this week, with German and European church representatives, German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that the churches had a special role to play in the European unification process. Through their many ecumenical meetings and representative bodies at European level, he said, the churches of Europe are closely linked one to the other, making them important interlocutors in the discussion on common European values and on the future of European integration, says a press release from the Commission of Bishops' Conferences of the European Community (COMECE). Discussions between the German Presidency and church representatives focused mainly on the Berlin Declaration and the Constitutional Treaty. For further information: http://www.comece.org (hb)