The actuality of Robert Schuman” “

On 9 May 1950, the French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman proposed to Germany the creation of a community for the production of coal and steel, with a view to beginning a form of permanent economic and commercial cooperation able to ensure peace between the two historic enemies of the European continent. Within two years four other countries (Italy, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) joined the Schuman Declaration: the treaty establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was signed in Paris in 1952. It was the precursor of the European Economic Community (CEE) and the European Community of Atomic Energy (Euratom), both ratified by the Treaties of Rome in 1957. Now, over half a century later, can we still speak of the “actuality” of a Declaration that changed for the better the course of continental and world history? We interviewed Paul Mathrejsen , from Holland, former director of the European Commission, now a leading expert on EU law. 53 years later, is the Schuman Declaration still actual? “Robert Schuman, when he proposed to France and Germany in 1950 that they should pool their coal and steel production, had a double objective in mind: one contingent, linked to the emergency of the continent after the second world war and the fear of a rebirth of the German military industrial complex; the other long term, which we could call a dream or vision, aimed at the creation in a Europe destroyed by the war of a supranational organization for the political, economic and social rebirth of the European peoples. Both intentions were aimed at guaranteeing peace in a continent where on average a war had broken out every twenty years. Schuman’s project proved fortunate, both for himself and for us: other countries joined it, countries that have ever since put their weapons into cold storage (at least between each other). Today, at a time of the Union’s enlargement to Eastern Europe and of serious international conflicts, Schuman’s dual message of cooperation and peace is as actual as ever and has assumed new values”. How is this actuality expressed in an expanding Europe? “ Mutatis mutandis, what the EU proposes and offers to the former Communist countries is a new Schuman Declaration. On the one hand, economic cooperation and dialogue for peace and democracy with the countries of Eastern Europe have become a reality since the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the other, membership of the Union reinforces economic integration and pledges the new members to a pact for peace with Europe and the rest of the world which cannot be ignored. Instead of coal and steel, we now speak of trade in agriculture, telecommunications, and the energy market: the sense remains the same: living together in harmony, in the hope of recovering undeniable cultural divergences and relegating the bureaucratic red tape inseparable from a large supranational organization to a marginal position, subservient to the values of solidarity, brotherhood, sustainable development and the protection of human rights. Moreover, at a time when the Convention is preparing the future Constitution of united Europe, we should read between the lines of the Schuman Declaration to rediscover values and principles of European citizenship, the real ambition of the founding fathers”. And on the international level? “After years of shameful fiascos, from the former Yugoslavia to Chechnya and Iraq, the EU is now engaged in a facelift and equipping itself with the necessary legislative powers to act as a major player in international politics: not just an organization of trade, but one of democratisation, development and peace. The fronts on which its intervention is needed are several: reconstruction in Iraq, the “road map” for the Middle East, Cuba, regional conflicts in Africa, the new threats of terrorism. The “working together” for peace in Europe will also bear fruit elsewhere in the world; on condition that the political will and the consequent action prevail over words. That’s a lesson we can learn from Schuman”.