The head of the convention drafting a European Union constitution warned delegates Thursday not to get sidetracked by semantics as they opened a debate on 1,100 proposed amendments, the most contentious of which was whether to include a reference to God in the future text.
Former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, the convention chairman, told the 105 delegates that the final text had to be completed by the June deadline.
"There is the wish that you should have more time, but ... we cannot go beyond those deadlines," Giscard d' Estaing said. "We should not be distracted from our work."
Despite the warning however, many delegates started bickering over words used or not used in the text dealing with the EU's values, objectives and areas of responsibility, demanding numerous changes and more time to debate them.
More than 80 suggested amendments concern an article on European values where the reference to God could be included, and that quickly took center stage.
How religion is handled could have serious legal implications once the EU's constitutional text comes into force, officials said, and could influence the outcome of future court rulings on everything from euthanasia to abortion rights and human cloning.
Several amendments by senior government officials were discussed calling for a reference to God and "Christianity rooted in European history."
Italian Deputy Premier Gianfranco Fini, from the rightist National Alliance party, proposed that constitution describe the EU as a "community that shares a Judeo-Christian heritage as its fundamental values."
"We must make more explicit the roots of European identity, which we see as part of the value of the Christian religion," he said. "This is not undermining the secular nature of institutions, its just a fact that goes back through history.We cannot be divorced from our religious traditions."
But many others disagreed.
"It would be very divisive to talk about Christian beliefs here," said British lawmaker Gisela Stuart. "We should leave those things alone. We should be talking about an inclusive Europe."
Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel agreed, saying the EU should be inclusive, including other beliefs if religion had to be mentioned. "Europe is not mono-religious," he said.
A previously drafted EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, approved two years ago, only mentions religion in passing, stating "The Union shall respect cultural, religious, and linguistic diversity." But the Vatican, the Greek Orthodox Church, and Protestants demand want protection for their religion-based, charitable organizations.
The draft text so far does not include any reference to God or religion.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer urged delegates not to get bogged down on religion or other political hotpoints, like whether the EU should become a federation.
"Any delay would produce the wrong message," he said. "We must reach our objective. The convention must draft and present in June."
Delegates, representing the 15 EU governments, national legislatures and EU institutions, as well as the 13 candidate countries, were to debate how to divvy up political powers between EU institutions and national governments and whether the union should be based on a federal system when debate continues Friday.