For 8 months, the Foreign Ministers of the founding countries of Europe, along with Spain, Portugal, Austria, Poland and Denmark, have been holding informal meetings that have thus far been covered by a veil of silence. Their aim: to hold free discussions, without negotiating constraints, on the Europe of the future. And then, the night before last in Warsaw, they approved a joint document. Which contains, first and foremost, a macroscopic political element. For the first time, Germany has agreed on a document containing an expression that until now has caused the Germans to shudder in horror: \u201cthe mutualisation of sovereign risk\u201d, albeit \u201cproposed by some members of the group\u201d. <\/P>
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But the importance of this document, which is in La Stampa\u2019s possession, goes much further. Those 8 pages, honed to the last detail in the Polish night, were inspired by the need for a greater awareness of Europe on the part of citizens and mark a move towards greater accountability by the institutions. For the first time, in addition to what is in effect a \u201cEuropeanisation\u201d of the parties, with integration and a check-and-balance relationship between the Commission and Parliament, the talk is of the responsibility \u2013 indeed the accountability, as in the Anglo-Saxon societies \u2013, of the institutions.<\/P>
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\u201cMore Europe\u201d was the slogan adopted when these meetings first got under way on 20 March 2012, in Berlin. The emphasis shifted to \u201cMore democracy\u201d, \u201cMore capacity for action\u201d, and \u201cEurope as global player\u2019 as the venues moved to Brussels, Vienna and Palma (Majorca). One striking element of the document is that it upholds, as an \u201cabsolute priority\u201d, the strengthening of Economic and Monetary Union and speaks explicitly of \u201cEuropean solidarity\u201d and, in essence, of welfare as a value that is part of the continent\u2019s identity.<\/P>
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<\/STRONG><\/P> Minister, what will happen now to this proposal for a new Europe? To what degree is it binding upon governments?<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cA few days ago, someone used the expression \u2018There\u2019s a blue sky over Europe\u2019. We certainly started out with darker skies. But then the ECB decisions, the German Supreme Court\u2019s ruling on the ESM and the elections in Holland blew away the clouds. Our main goal is to bring public opinion \u2013 the citizens \u2013 round to Europe. And to help accelerate the Lisbon Treaty amendment process. The document is circulating in the European Parliament even as we speak. So that\u2019s where we\u2019re starting from, the task of building consensus\u201d. <\/P> <\/STRONG><\/P> Germany, for the first time, has signed a document that refers to debt mutualisation. This aside, what was Italy\u2019s contribution to the document?<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cThat point is vital, and is a part of Italy\u2019s strategy for Europe. All of the Foreign Ministers agreed to discuss it in depth and the principle was included in the final version of the document. It\u2019s a principle inspired by solidarity, because the revitalisation of Europe must encompass the core values that make up its identity, not just algebraic and relative interests\u2026\u201d<\/P> <\/STRONG><\/P> Not just GDP and budgetary policies, then, and their sustainability. But what has this got to do with foreign policy?<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cIt\u2019s simple: it\u2019s a question of Europe\u2019s external presence. We need to respond to major challenges. The challenges posed by the economic crisis, which we\u2019ll overcome by moving more rapidly to fiscal and monetary union. But, and there\u2019s broad agreement on this point, we also need to take a more incisive approach in our foreign and security policy. It must include immigration and emigration policy, development issues\u2026 In addition to our well-established \u2018transatlantic\u2019 relationships, we need to work on an effective European defence policy that looks to an integrated military capacity\u201d. <\/P> <\/STRONG><\/P> The document makes no secret of the fact that, certainly in the long term, an EU army will be needed, and a European visa to enter the Schengen area\u2026<\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cThat last point was another Italian contribution. We want to keep the free trade and movement areas and at the same time strengthen the instruments available to us to mark the Union\u2019s borders. The core of the document, however, is its general direction, which reflects Giorgio Napolitano\u2019s idea of Europe: a new form of federalism, a \u2018functional polyarchy\u2019. And the need for the political forces, starting with Italy\u2019s, to Europeanise and make Europe the focus of their political debate. We need to address the issues at their root and foster an awareness of the value of and need for the Union. Not just to have \u2018a more organised Europe\u2019, as they say in London\u201d. <\/P> Minister, how long do we have to create the new Europe?<\/STRONG><\/P> <\/STRONG><\/P> \u201cWe approved the Six Pack and Fiscal Compact in just a few weeks. For foreign policy and defence policy we\u2019ll need more than 2-3 months, which is too long. We\u2019ve got the Arab Spring movements on our doorstep, and the consolidation of Libya. The real world won\u2019t wait\u201d.<\/P><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For 8 months, the Foreign Ministers of the founding countries of Europe, along with Spain, Portugal, Austria, Poland and Denmark, have been holding informal meetings that have thus far been covered by a veil of silence. Their aim: to hold free discussions, without negotiating constraints, on the Europe of the future. And then, the night […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[76,42],"class_list":["post-24456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviste","tag-ministri-precedenti","tag-unione-europea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.esteri.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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