The "problem" of foreign policy” “

Academics and politicians, both Italian and European, met together for two days in Naples on 26 and 27 September to discuss the question of the “European political system”, in the course of an international conference promoted by the Centre for Research on European Institutions (CRIE), the European Commission and the Suor Orsola Benincasa university institute in Naples. The meeting reviewed the progress of European integration. It is contradictory “to have a European Union that is an ‘economic giant’, but that is without any common foreign policy”, points out Juan Aviles, professor of contemporary history at the national University of Education outside Madrid. “In response to the major questions of our time, such as that of a war against Iraq – adds Aviles – Europe is unable to adopt a common position and the various countries take their own independent decisions. This is a serious problem. The one solution would be that of advancing institutionally towards greater integration. From the experience of the last ten years, from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia to the present day, it seems to me unlikely, however, that the 15 member states will succeed in achieving a common foreign policy through the intergovernmental approach”. At the present time, explains Aviles, “of the two competing projects for the EU, one ‘integrationist and tending towards federalism, and the other favourable to a European Union conceived as an intergovernmental affair, the second position seems predominant, as is also the case in Spain with the Aznar government. On the contrary, I am convinced that, in the spirit of the Community’s founding fathers, we would derive greater benefits if the trend to integration were to be preferred”. Piero Craveri, head of the humanities faculty at the Suor Orsola Benincasa university institute and director of CRIE’s historical sector, agrees. “The process leading to the new European institutions, undertaken a year ago by the Convention appointed to draft a new European constitutional treaty, is now entering its crucial phase, following the French and German elections”. But a problem that will soon rear its head is that of common foreign policy. “Europe – declares Craveri – is inclined to a position of pronounced neutrality, the result not so much of a political decision as of its incapacity to assume any position at all, as shown by the question of the war on Iraq, in relation to which only the conflicting choices of the national states are emerging”. “Today we are faced by the important challenge of EU enlargement, to which we also need to add that of economic and monetary Union, foreign policy, joint security and all the questions concerning justice and internal affairs. All this is translated in practice into the need to revise all our institutional procedures to make them more democratic and effective”, adds Jean Victor Luis, professor of Community Law at the University of Brussels and president of the “Academic Agora on the future of Europe”. The participants in the Convention, who are preparing the treaty for adoption in 2004, in his view, “are in some sense the founding fathers of a system that forms a continuation of the process of European integration begun in the 1950s, with six member states that, after enlargement, will increase to 27”. Difficulties are not lacking, as demonstrated by the Iraq crisis, but that does not mean, explains Luis, that there are not positive aspects. “Public opinion realizes that there is a lack of political unity and grasps the need for it. Clearly the economic consequences of a crisis in Iraq, with increased oil prices, could have negative effects for the work of the Convention, but this challenge must only encourage us more to progress along the way of integration”. “In the past – explains Luis – the Soviet danger stimulated the realization of the European Union. External factors may really favour internal integration. However, quite apart from the war in Iraq, the member states will have to decide on whose side they are and achieve greater cohesion and solidarity”. Gigliola Alfaro