De facto solidarity

“Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity”. This renowned phrases is to be found in the Declaration with which, on May 9 1950 French foreign minister Robert Schuman engendered the Community’s integration process. Over the past days, the EU celebrated the sixtieth anniversary of the Declaration, considered as the “milestone” of a political construction which – amongst countless difficulties and delays – contributed to bring peace, democracy and development in the Old Continent, rebuilding it on the ashes on World War Two. While Europe celebrated the anniversary, on May 9 the EU gave the green light to the maxi-financial plan designed to rescue the Euro currency and those countries experiencing an economic crisis, starting from Greece. A decision that responds to the criteria of the “de facto solidarity” which Schuman placed at the foundation of the “common home”. “Solidarity” is understood as sharing a problem, a moment of “suffering”, well aware that others, one day, might need a hand extended towards them, given the worsening of the crisis that has impacted economic and employment systems along with public spending across the EU. Schuman highlighted a “de facto” solidarity, which is the opposite of solidarity “in words”, namely, paying lip service. “De facto” in this circumstance means opening the wallet, granting adequate support; and perhaps it also implies justly demanding in return that the recipients pledge to adopt rigorous behaviours and to withstand minor sacrifices. Today accepting the heritage of Schuman and of the other “fathers of Europe” means precisely this: to address the new difficulties and the current challenges together, inventing modern up-to-date responses, in fidelity to the inspiring principles and raising the glance beyond the current scenarios.These reflections emerged on various occasions during the events for the celebrations of the 60th of the Declaration, held over the past days. Politicians, witnesses, Church dignitaries, scholars and young people, convened in the places where Robert Schuman lived, and heard the echoes of his Europeanist creed. The magnificent gothic cathedrals in Metz and Verdun, in North-East France, the memorial of World War I in Douaumont (erected where the battle between French and Germans was fought, which caused 300thousand deaths), Schuman’s home and his tomb in Scy-Chazelles, in the outskirts of Metz, did not appear as the open-air museums displaying past history. They are the symbolic places of a European lesson that is still valid and traceable. The Christian roots of Europe, the Continent’s tragic historical events, the life and the political intuition of a Europeanist Christian come together to revive the “de facto solidarity” which despite the passing of time, remains a secure pillar for the erection of a common future. The same future to which also SIR Europe, represented in Verdun, Scy-Chazelles and Metz by his editor-in-chief, will continue offering its contribution with information and thought.