If I were a European…” “

He’s more European than the Europeans. Convinced that the Union of the Twenty-Five is “the greatest political experiment being conducted today, with ethical implications of extreme importance”, Jeremy Rifkin is a great fan of the process of integration. He even accepted the invitation of the President of the Parliament in Strasbourg to attend the vote with which the Assembly said “yes” to the European Constitution signed on 29 October 2004 and now in the process of ratification. A “testimonial” FOR THE EU CONSTITUTION. RIFKIN is almost a “testimonial” of the “common home, “which, in his view,”may prove itself equal to the challenges of our time. Of course – he explains – the EU is an experiment not immune from problems and delays, but it is also able to arouse hopes in other regions of the planet, which look to the old continent with a spirit of emulation”. Author of the book “The European Dream”, translated into many languages, Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington and teaches at the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce with its campus in the American capital. An eclectic personality, among the first to tackle the issues of economic and political globalization, he is glad to spend time in the Strasbourg seat of the European Parliament, and to debate his theses with university teachers, MEPs and journalists. “I am really convinced – he explains to SIR – of my theses and of the fact that the ‘European dream’ is more credible today than the old American dream”. “THE EUROPEAN UNION IS A NEW HORIZON”. “In some cases you need to be an outsider to better understand the meaning of events. That’s why I affirm that, in my view, the Constitution of the EU is the most interesting thing I have got to know in the political field”. The American professor is fond of astonishing: “Of course, the Union is a strange beast that no one perfectly knows. It is an object in embryo, but it is also an experiment in integration that is not born from coercion. It is a free action of peoples and states. I would add that the Constitution that has been approved incorporates the Charter of Fundamental Rights”. This forms Part II of the text and “assumes extraordinary value”. Round the European Constitution “a new dream is being born – says Jeremy Rifkin – and one that is profoundly different from that of the United States. In the USA people think that each person can have success, by personal effort, by hard work. But that is clearly an individual dream. By contrast, what is taking shape in the European Union is a community dream, a process that is undertaken together and that has as its goals democracy, prosperity, social justice and international cooperation”. Rifkin does not fail to point out the past and present errors committed in Brussels: “I am not even able to say whether this adventure will really have a happy ending. But it is already a success that such an experiment has been begun. Here we are overturning the prospects for the future generation. They will have to look ever less to the USA and ever more to Europe, which is growing round the absolute value of peace”. OPENING THE DOORS TO TURKEY. So is Europe just “a bed of roses”? No, for there are many obstacles on the way: national selfishness, “suspicion” toward the institutions that seem far removed from citizens, mistrust in the “new arrivals” and, even more so, in Turkey… “As an American I share the idea that it is better for Turkey to form part of the Union. There are good geopolitical and military reasons for Turkish membership. It would also be a guarantee of dialogue between the West and the Islamic world. But I also think that the history of Turkey is closer to that of Europe than is commonly thought: the Ottomans arrived at the gates of Vienna, the Moors influenced Iberian culture. By opening its doors to Turkey, the EU would for the first time transcend its geographical heartland, and overcome political barriers and frontiers, to put together what has common historical roots. Ankara, clearly, would have to be asked for full acceptance of European values and the European project”. This Union “is, in short, a public piazza, a world microcosm, in which so many different races, ideas, cultures and religions live and dialogue together”. FOLLOWING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF Robert Schuman. What is his reply to the criticisms that call the EU a “super state”? Rifkin pauses a moment, ponders, then continues his argument: “I laugh when people take this position. Brussels is not the capital of a super state. Here there is no institution that predominates, or any winning culture. Here an attempt is made instead to create a fusion between differences, reciprocal enrichment. I would go further: it doesn’t surprise me in the least that the EU has no single voice, no single face on the international scene. That sometimes represents a problem, it’s pointless to deny it. But at the same time it demonstrates that there is no hegemonic ambition”. The author of “The European Dream” does not ignore a reference to the “founding fathers”: “For half a century Europe has been seeking a viable intermediate way between confederalism and federalism. The intuition of Robert Schuman and his step-by-step method, that of partial advances and the progressive construction of European unity, now seem far-sighted and concrete. If I were a European, I would continue along this road”.