Brussels, 22/03/2012 (Agence Europe) - It took more than two decades, from the Maastricht Treaty in 1991 to the budget pact of 2012, to achieve the economic arm of monetary union, but something similar occurred in 1985 with the Single European Act, which did not cover co-decision for legislation and which was not really fully introduced until the Lisbon Treaty came into force in 2009, explains Pietro Calamia, Italy's former Permanent Representative to the EU, in issue 1046 of Lettera Diplomatica, published by the Circolo di Studi Diplomatici in Rome. He says that he believes the imperfect agreements of 1985 and 1991, that left much to be criticised (and which duly were criticised), helped to advance the European integration process because it is the speed of the laborious European democratic process that has made progress from the time of the ambitions of the visionaries of a European political union to the vague plans and reservations of defenders of ever more restricted national sovereignty. From his diplomatic experience, he has noticed a constant in the European integration process, which is that the agreements reached are often, if not always, partial, being added to at a later date.
He points out that at the time of the Maastricht Treaty, despite pressure from the president of the European Commission at the time, Jacques Delors of France, about the need for an economic arm to balance out monetary union, the big member states, led by France and Germany in addition to the United Kingdom, had rejected the idea of close coordination of economic policies. In response to people who dislike the fact that the new budget pact is temporarily intergovernmental, Calamia says that orthodox EU methods can be restored when the budget pact is incorporated in the EU legal system over the next five years.
Highlighting the role played by Germany in the talks, Calamia views Chancellor Angela Merkel's political vision for Europe in a generally positive light, although some see it as German interference. He is pleased with the way Italy has returned to the heart of Europe, thanks to the action of the Monti government, backed by the Italian president, Giorgio Napolitano, and most of the Italian public and politicians. (MG/transl.fl)