Rejuvenating memory

The future of the European Union also depends on the capacity to enliven and preserve – among European populations – the collective memory of the continent’s history and the underlying reasons for its creation. The historical significance of the European unification for the States and the populations taking part in this process is evident. The reconciliation of once belligerent neighbouring countries determined the continent’s pacification and liberation, which brought Europe to act once again as a world economic and political player, laying the grounds for the creation of Countries and cities that had been destroyed by war and ideological blindness, finally overcoming divisions. Cross-border policy and the development of the common market boosted industrial and economic progress, bringing widespread public welfare. We ought to be grateful to the politicians, diplomats and officers of the founders’ generation. However, this story of success is not only due to the wisdom and to the far-sightedness of the Founding Fathers of the European Community. It is also the result of ample harmony between representative democracy and the forces of civil society, which were committed in pursuing efforts aimed at unification, understood as a European movement. The solidity and the sustainability of these efforts, carried out in the course of 60 years, are guaranteed by institutionalized dimensions conferring to the European Union a quasi-federal legal system. However, such legal system is doomed to remain provisional unless it is completed by a Constitution providing for the Union’s democratic and federal future, also in view of the new challenges linked to globalization. The completion process of the European Union’s legal system requires the ongoing and renewed support of all citizens. Time has passed since the foundation of the unification movement established in response to the war and to repression. And the risk is that the original motivation and thrust may gradually be forgotten, as confirmed by surveys conducted over the past years in several EU Countries.The development and the results of the referendum in France, in The Netherlands and in Ireland on a European Constitution project and on the Treaty of Lisbon, showed that overlooking historical events would enable the opponents of unification to easily mobilize majority movements, under the banner of nationalistic and populistic slogans, in order to impede the process, while turning into its opposite at a later stage. This scenario ought to be prevented so as to defend the dynamics of the process and ensure Europeans’ ongoing consensus. Those Member States that entered the EU only few years since the reunification ought to receive information on the origin and history of the EU. Among the impulses of this process there has also been an ethically motivated response to the atheist and destructive ideals of nationalism, fascism and Communism. With the establishment of the European Community these aberrations were meant to be countered with concrete expressions of reconciliation, solidarity, justice, freedom, liberty and peace, namely a community of peoples and States that were meant to create their own future by cooperating with their neighbours, mutually helping one another. To incessantly remember this fact and convey it convincingly to the public opinion, and especially to the youth, is a priority of all political, public administration, education and academic leaders, and certainly it is also a priority of the leaders of the Church.