Coming together again” “

Having reached a turning point in its own history, i.e. when it is faced by the dilemma either of taking the road of the real integration of peoples and States, or proceeding more cautiously along roads that lead nowhere, the European Community is being prophetically recalled to its own and true vocation: that of being “a peacemaker”, both within its own frontiers and on the world scene. The words pronounced by the Pope to the diplomatic corps accredited to the Holy See on Monday, 10 January, are explicit: “Europe may be cited as a privileged example of possible peace: nations that were once fiercely hostile to each other, and that fought against each other in deadly wars, now live peacefully together in the European Union, which in the year that has just ended has been further consolidated with the Constitutional Treaty signed in Rome, while it remains open to welcoming into its fold other states that are willing to accept the needs that their membership involves”. It is a peace – the Pope implies – that requires the construction of a mature democracy (the reference to the Constitution) and a “common home”, open to new members that share the great values and objectives of the European Community (it is easy to read in this a reference to Turkey). John Paul II thus wished to recall that the arduous start of the process leading to the unity of the continent, an aspiration cherished for centuries by enlightened intellectuals and politicians and concretely inaugurated with the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 (that would lead to the establishment of the European Coal and Steel Community), had as its primary objective the construction of peace following the latest in a long line of catastrophic wars. In practice, the beginning of the process undertaken by the first six states that joined the project was of economic type, but it was clear to everyone that the higher interest to be pursued was the political stability of Europe, which is achieved first and foremost by peaceful international relations. Only this would permit the emergence of consolidated democratic systems, material reconstruction and the achievement of greater prosperity and social justice in the post-war period. This was a great design for Europe, not by chance formulated and guided by three illustrious statesmen: the Frenchman Robert Schuman, the German Konrad Adenauer and the Italian Alcide De Gasperi. All of them were Catholics, all were “men of the frontier”, who had personally experienced the horrors of division, hatred and war. The words used by Schuman in his famous Declaration were unequivocal: “World peace cannot be safeguarded without creative efforts that are equal to the dangers that are threatening it. The contribution that an organized and vital Europe can make to civilization is indispensable for the maintenance of peaceful relations”. It is to this Europe of the “founding fathers” that we still need to refer today, at a time when the challenges posed to the Twenty-Five are revealed as daunting and delicate: we may think of the process for the ratification of the European Constitution; the negotiations on new membership, including that of Ankara; the concrete realization of enlargement to Eastern Europe, through inclusive policies aimed at the new members; and the need to give a “soul” to the Union through the promotion of different cultures, traditions and religions, and “body” to “European citizenship”, sanctioned by the new Constitution, by overcoming the democratic deficit, and turning European men and women into “protagonists” of the integration process. Gianni Borsa