Brussels, 03/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - The president of Italy, Giorgio Napolitano, addressed the European Parliament's plenary on 4 and 5 February on the occasion of the endorsement of the treaty for a United States of Europe drawn up by Altiero Spinelli. Napolitano called for a great leap forwards in the European integration process, shifting from extreme austerity to a concerted effort to rebuild and reconcile citizens with the European project.
Napolitano called, above all, for an improvement in the living and working conditions of European citizens, who are suffering from the tough austerity policies implemented in recent years to restore countries' budgets. Napolitano said a turning point was needed to boost jobs and growth and that extreme austerity policies are no longer viable. He said rebuilding growth and jobs, particularly for young people, was needed to tackle the disillusion in public opinion about the European project. He said the bitterness was due to the anti-crisis measures being adopted without enough consultation with citizens and it was a threat in the run-up to the European elections, which he said would be a moment of truth in the battle between supporters of greater European integration and people who want to liquidate the European project.
The Italian president slammed attempts by nationalists and populists and urged politicians to promote stronger European political cohesion and to show leadership with strong symbols (like Helmut Kohl and François Mitterrand did in Verdun). He said the historic reasons for the European project had to be got across to citizens with an impassioned sense of destiny. Modern Europeans need to find a new leader who will encourage public opinion to join the European project, said Napolitano, regretting the absence of long-term vision among too many leaders, who focus on national interests and political calculations, unaware of the decline that they are causing in the fortunes of Europe against the backdrop of globalisation. Europe, he said, had an exalted mission in globalisation and it is crucial that we show that we have a single model - the social market model.
The European Parliament, along with national parliaments, has a special mission in forwarding these ideas and it is the European Parliament that is the vital heart of the creation of future European political parties that can send out messages to public opinion that move beyond institutional codes and the way the institutions function.
Napolitano said that the current economic situation in the EU is at a turning point with green shoots of recovery that create few jobs and the risk of deflation or stagnation due to the restrictive polities of recent years. He called for growth and jobs to be boosted, particularly jobs for young people, through a concerted and mainly public investment policy targeting knowledge, research and big European and national projects, but not getting carried way in irresponsible expenditure.
The Italian president said that although the European institutions had initially been hesitant in their reaction to the financial and social crisis, they did take action to rectify the erratic behaviour of governments in the latter half of the last decade - behaviour that led to the crisis. Napolitano said that for too long, the euro had been a truncated currency that only served certain prerogatives and was managed politically at the national level trough intergovernmental agreements whose terms were dictated by certain countries. He said the crisis had encouraged greater integration and that was why it was time for a great leap forwards, putting EMU governance at the heart of the EU's institutional framework. He said things like Banking Union are a move in this direction and will make big changes in the way the EU operates.
The Italian president wanted to send out a clear message of hope ahead of the European elections and says he is confident because a common awareness culture had been formed in Europe that makes it impossible to go backwards on the European integration front. Napolitano said the European project now had such deep roots that there is an intermeshing of the different countries, institutions, citizens and young people in Europe and nothing can reverse that.
Napolitano's speech was greeted by lengthy applause despite some heckling from four Northern League MEPs waving placards and expressing opposition to the euro and Europe in hock to the banks. (FG/transl.fl)