March 1957, March 2007

March 1957, March 2007: it’s fifty years exactly since Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, France and Italy signed the Treaties instituting the European Economic Community (Eec) and Euratom in Rome. The ceremony came six years after the first formal act in the process of European integration: the signing of the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community. These anniversaries go beyond the mere symbolism and celebrations, however appropriate, of the search for new proposals and viable ways of pursuing the goal of a European Union, which on the one hand has emerged as a major market protagonist, but on the other suffers on the political level and even more so on the social level. And it is precisely to arouse Europe from the unjustified torpor to which it has succumbed following the French and Dutch rejection of the Constitutional Treaty in separate referendums that it is important to remember the half-century of unification. Celebrating means objectively interpreting the great achievements of the past in order to learn their lessons for the present and derive impetus from them for the future. ‘No more war’ was the watchword that inspired the way of Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Robert Schuman and Alcide de Gasperi, all of them conscious of the fact that the European peoples could no longer permit themselves to go to war against each other. And in fact there has been no further war between the members of the Eu. But what about the lands along its frontiers? And elsewhere? And with what involvement of our countries?Common market and single currency are the two watchwords thanks to which Europe has succeeded in guaranteeing long-term prosperity and financial stability. But what about energy dependency? And the 75 million Europeans who live on or below the poverty threshold? The European social model has been the watchword that has permitted the realization of a common area of rights that has no equal in the world today. But what about the Lisbon Strategy that seems to be immolating on the altar of competitiveness Europe’s already weak policies of solidarity and the struggle against social exclusion? The European Constitution has been the watchword by which Brussels has decided to reform the founding Treaties to give citizens a clear constitutional text able to fill the democratic deficit. But what about the unanimous vote that continues to block crucial decisions in the Council? And the recognition of the value of Europe’s Judeo-Christian roots? Or the incapacity of European leaders to express themselves in unison in foreign policy?The landmark treaty of fifty years ago makes us understand that it was not enough for the European Communities to become the European Union: equally it will never be enough for Europe to endow itself with an institutional architecture if the member states then have difficulty in sharing the minimum bases of cooperation. But it also makes us understand that the message can only be one of hope. Europe must become an agent of peace, development and prosperity. It must defend the rights and the interests of families, in particular if they are poor and suffering; and to do so, new rules are needed. European leaders must once again sit down together round a table, desist from the habit of pursuing national interests, and more closely consult civil society: to resuscitate the chapters of the Constitution that can be introduced immediately; to reinforce the partnership with Africa, the one real winning strategy for Europe; and to understand and make others understand that 75% of national legislation is by now nothing more than the transposition into domestic legislation of the norms adopted at Strasbourg and Brussels.At Berlin on 25 March 2007 the heads of state and of government will be called to approve a “Declaration of European Values”, while concurrently with the summit the Commission of the episcopates of the European Community (Comece) will hold a congress in Rome to mark the 50th anniversary of the European Community; it will include an audience with Benedict XVI. In celebrating the first fifty years of Europe, the German and Italian capitals, two “symbolic places”, can and must represent the point of revival of the European conscience.