A model for the world” “

A Constitution for peace; a great occasion to re-launch the process of integration, begun a half century ago with the establishment of the European Economic Community; a further impulse to the progress of the Twenty-Five that together accept the challenge of globalization. The ceremony of the signing of the EU Constitution in the Italian capital on Friday, 29 October represented far more than a formality in the adoption of the fundamental Treaty. The SPECTRE OF WAR IS REMOVED. The ceremony of the signing of the Constitution on the Campidoglio in Rome was revealed as a further milestone in the history of European integration, which is encountering new difficulties at the present time, including those linked to the birth of the next Commission in Brussels, the negotiations on the possible entry of Turkey, the implementation of policies of inclusion for the states that joined the EU on 1st May, and the financial resources needed to give substance to enlargement. In a climate of formality, with a rigid protocol, but without excessive frills, the speeches of various political leaders emphasized the link with the long history of the European Community and with the “founding fathers” (Adenauer, De Gasperi, Monnet, Schuman, Spaak, Spinelli…), while at the same time looking forward to the next steps that await the EU. According to Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, President of the Italian Republic, “by this act the spectre of war has finally been removed” in the Union, while Europe is confirmed as a “real community of peoples, a space for peace and freedom” and hence “a model for the world”. Ciampi then urged a rapid ratification and application of the Constitution, which – he said – “will help to mature a solid European conscience in citizens”. The “craziness” OF THE FOUNDERS IS BECOMING A REALITY. In a Rome tightly controlled by the security forces, the representatives of the 25, to whom were added those of Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia (candidate countries or countries waiting to become candidates), followed a programme that entailed first of all various welcoming speeches, followed by the ceremony of the signing of the Constitution, and concluding with the ritual group photo and the lunch offered by the host head of State. “Rome is proud to feel itself the home of Europe”, declared the Mayor Walter Veltroni. “The future of Europe – he added – also consists of the answers it is able to give to the young, the elderly, the sick and families. Inclusion and social justice are not empty words for the Union, just as co-operation, solidarity and multilateralism are among our basic values”. The ceremony continued with an address by Silvio Berlusconi, Italian Prime Minister, who insisted on the historic link with the signing of the Treaties in 1957: “The apparent craziness of our founding fathers has become a wonderful reality”. EUROPEAN IDENTITY REINFORCED. For his part Jan Peter Balkenende, Dutch Prime Minister and current President of the European Council, wondered whether the EU might represent a threat for the national identities that live together inside it. “Many pose this question; but is it not perhaps thanks to the freedom and spirit of openness in Europe, and thanks to our contacts with others, that we are able to discover who we are?” According to Irish Premier Bertie Ahern, who headed the Council during the previous semester in which the Constitution was approved, “at the centre of the Constitution we find the national identities of the peoples of Europe”. By replacing “the current confusion of treaties, it simplifies and clarifies the legacy of the last fifty years”. The Spaniard Josep Borrell, now President of the European Parliament, added: “Whatever its shortcomings, this project represents a decisive stage in the construction of a political community”. Borrell also hailed as positive steps “the increased role of the parliamentary Assembly” and “the greater closeness of the EU institutions to citizens”. EU MORE democratic, traNsparent AND EFFECTIVE. According to the outgoing President of the Commission, the Italian Romano Prodi, “with the signing of the Constitution the heads of state and of government have given proof of political farsightedness and risen above their contingent national interests”. The Union has thus re-affirmed “its original form of political organization in order to respond to the growing globalization, promote its values and exercise the role it is called to fulfil on the international stage”. The President-designate of the Executive, the Portuguese José Manuel Durao Barroso, in listing some of the main legislative innovations incorporated in the Constitution, argued that “a new Union, more democratic, more transparent and more effective” is born from it.