Interventi

To the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, Palazzo del Quirinale

To the President of the Senate, Sen. Renato Schifani, Senate of the Republic

To the President of the Chamber of Deputies, Hon. Gianfranco Fini, Chamber of Deputies

To the Prime Minister, Sen. Mario Monti, Palazzo Chigi

2 March 2012

Distinguished Presidents,

The European Federalist Movement (MFE) appeals to you, as holders of the highest offices in the Italian Republic, to do everything within your power to ensure that, following the EU summit of March 1-2, Italy ratifies the new treaties as soon as possible and takes the lead in relaunching the European federation project and the bid to promote a European New Deal.

With the signing, by 25 European leaders, of the new Fiscal Compact Treaty, Europe has entered a new phase in the process of European unification. A phase in which the heads of state and of government, in an attempt to respond to the emergencies posed by the crisis, have acknowledged the political need to activate mechanisms, introduce rules and create institutions that go beyond the current Treaties. The above Treaty is certainly still inadequate, given its intergovernmental nature, and it fails to resolve the difficult questions of solidarity and of the democratic legitimacy of decisions taken, and still to be taken, at European level. But it nevertheless represents a crucial attempt (to which there exist no real alternatives in the current European framework) to restore confidence and hope among the peoples and to try to respond, in a more timely and effective way than the single national governments and European institutions are able to do, to the challenges posed by the globalisation of finance, the economy and production processes.

Under the terms of the new Treaty, should at least twelve eurozone countries fail to ratify within a few months all the commitments made by the governments, and thus fail to give the world, even before the Europeans themselves, a sign that a new framework of mutual trust and solidarity is being built between those countries that decided to abandon their national currencies without having proved capable of moving the process of European unification towards a federal outcome, then not only the euro, but the entire European Union and its institutions will be overwhelmed by an even more serious crisis and will risk disintegration.

Ratification of the new Treaties is nevertheless a necessary condition, but it is not enough to resolve the crisis.

Indeed, in order to create an effective and democratic government of the European economy, it will be necessary to tackle two major and still unresolved questions: the issue of democratic legitimacy and that of relaunching the European economy on new foundations.For this reason, the European federalists call on the political forces, governments and parliaments – in particular the European Parliament – to take, without delay, concrete steps towards the institutionalisation of a “two-speed Europe”, proposing reforms to ensure the coexistence of countries that have adopted the euro and those that have chosen to keep their national currency; and also reforms to allow the creation of an economic government of the eurozone, endowed with real development. A plan that, in bothquantitative and qualitative terms, goes beyond the old proposals – and never fully implemented – both by the national governments and the European Commission. This plan should be based on EU own resources and a strengthened EU budget and fostered by a tax on financial transactions, a carbon tax, and the issuing of europroject bonds (guaranteed by the EU) to finance major development projects. Definitely, Europe needs an economic government equipped with (the necessary) adequate powers and resources. It is also necessary to think in terms of a European New Deal capable of involving and mobilising public opinion, and above all the younger generations, with a view to laying the foundations for a better future.

For this reason, too, the senior officials in Italy’s institutions, government, political parties, civil society movements and parliament all have a responsibility to combine efforts to promote a new development model with a firm commitment to the creation of a European federation. They can help, wherever possible, to resolve the difficult problems that are making national sovereignty an insurmountable obstacle in the political, fiscal and budgetary fields, and to launch a European plan for sustainable development that might allow the EU to compete with the other large economic areas that are now being organised in the rest of the world.

With the highest respect,