The essential role of culture” “

In the construction of Europe and in the process of integration now underway an important role is assumed not only by the Euro and the single market, but especially by culture: Romano Prodi is convinced of this. On 7 November he chose, for the first time, to convene the European Commission, which he heads, outside its usual institutional seats (Brussels or Strasbourg). The meeting was held in Fiesole (Florence), at the campus of the European University Institute, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary: a place of study founded with the aim of being a centre of exchange in the European academic world. “I believe it is a duty to express solidarity against terrorism in a concrete way: I say so in a very clear way, without reservations. But we cannot speak of war lightly or without concern: it is an option that may bring problems and tensions. A scenario is in fact being opened whose contours we don’t know”, declared the President of the European Commission. “European solidarity with the USA – Prodi continued – is such that decisions are being taken together, for example the one relating to the arrest warrant for crimes of terrorism”. Prodi also recalled “the serious dialogue between the countries of the Union on these issues, without disagreements”. In the present international crisis, indeed, “there is a military but also political contribution of Europe, thanks to its extraordinary role from a geographical and cultural point of view, and its experience”. Nonetheless, if after 11 September “the Commission’s involvement in European policy has become indispensable, we find ourselves faced by a contradiction, because the Commission itself does not have this power”. This – says Prodi – is a moment of “great delicacy” for the future of Europe: “we are faced by an enlargement”: a process that Prodi has called “the greatest operation of democratic globalization after the phase of the construction of Europe”, which lasted 50 years. “Now the phase of enlargement we are going through touches various political problems: European foreign policy does not yet exist; we are in the process of creating it and for that reason we are quarrelling”, observed Prodi. Perhaps the last act of the Union will be a Europe that expresses its cultural, economic and political capacities in the world”. “If 45 years were needed to achieve the Euro, one year cannot be enough to achieve a common foreign policy. Meanwhile, however, steps are being taken in this direction: the fact that the President of the United States should draw up a list of the problems to whose solution Europe – and not its individual member States – may contribute is a sign of a seed that is growing”. The European Commission meeting in Fiesole also received a message from the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi. “The great economic and political progress achieved by the European Union in past decades would not have been possible without the essential role of the culture that has nourished the feeling of belonging to a shared European homeland, also thanks to the role of the European University Institute”, writes Ciampi. He also expresses his appreciation for the decision to deposit the historical archive of Italy’s great post-war prime minister Alcide De Gasperi in the campus at Fiesole. The work of three generations of Europeanists, declared Ciampi, ought to be brought “rapidly to the attention of public opinion and especially to the younger generations”. Fact File The European University Institute was founded by the member States of the Union with an inter-governmental agreement in 1972 and began its activity in 1976. The aim of the campus in Fiesole is to contribute, by its programme of higher university teaching and research, to the development of the cultural and scientific heritage of Europe, considered both in its unity and diversity. Apart from research on European themes, this objective is currently achieved by study for a doctorate in history, political sciences, law and economics. At the present time some 550 researchers attend the Institute, which has a teaching staff of some sixty professors from 15 different countries of the European Union, but also from the USA, Australia and other non-European states. Laura Badaracchi¤