To mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome, Agence EUROPE has dipped into its unparalleled archives and is republishing articles from 1957, 1967, 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007 that reported on the celebrations of this event. EUROPE is also publishing the editorials of its own 'founding fathers', which analysed the match between the treaties and the challenges faced, decade by decade, in the European integration project.
See the four first instalments of our commemorative series: 1957 (see EUROPE 11748), 1967 (see EUROPE 11749), 1977 (see EUROPE 11750), 1987 (see EUROPE 11751)
Background
For the European Union, life begins at forty. As the treaties of Rome reach the age of maturity, Europeans need to understand that the Union – which replaced the European Economic Community in 1993 – also defends the interests of workers, says EUROPE's editor-in-chief Ferdinando Riccardi. Social rules exist at the European level: they grant rights to workers going through company restructuring, as was the case with the painful closure of the Renault plants in Vilvoorde on the outskirts of Brussels in 1997. In the view of former president of the European Commission, French national Jacques Delors (1985-1995), social struggles can make Europe move forwards.
IT IS STYLISH TO VILIFY EUROPE EVEN IN CASES WHERE ONLY THE EXISTENCE OF EUROPEAN LAWS MAKES IT POSSIBLE TO REACT, SUCH AS THE RENAULT CASE OR FREE MOVEMENT OF PERSONS - JACQUES DELORS SETS THE EXAMPLE OF A HOPED-FOR REACTION ON THIS 40TH ANNIVERSARY
The situation is really serious if, even in cases where Europe should be praised for its action, it is not only criticised but accused of being responsible for evils it is helping to cure. There's nothing to be done about it: it is stylish to vilify Europe and people are following suit. Have we all become sheep?
Take the distressing Renault case. Hearing what is being said, reading what is being written, one might be led to believe that the European Union has established bad laws that authorise collective redundancies and the relocation of industry. In fact, the opposite is true. It is the existence of Community directives imposing procedures, consultations and redress which has made possible the protest movement being seen today.
Without the European Union, multinationals would still be free to decide relocations and shutdowns as they please. The authorities and trade unions would only be able to stand by silently. Europeans of long date no doubt remember the battles over what was known as the "Vredeling directive" and the fierce opposition of mostly American multinationals. Existing texts have incorporated the main points of this directive.
The trade unions and workers have discovered European laws of which many were totally ignorant and it is by virtue of these laws and the rights they confer that they have initiated legal proceedings. Of course, we are still a long way from what is desirable and the Commission was right to recall that the Council had not agreed to all of its proposals. In our view, however, there is no justification for the expressions of guilt expressed in this case by some Community figures or for the furious attacks by certain MPs against European social legislation.
How much more dignified and closer to the truth was the response by Jacques Delors when asked what Europe had accomplished in the field of social protection: "Its accomplishments are tremendous." And this assertion was followed by an enumeration of European social achievements. Also in the agitation provoked by the Renault case, Delors saw something positive from the European standpoint: "When I see the European trade union movement take the battle to European level, I say to myself that People's Europe is taking its first steps. From an evil, the Vilvoorde redundancies, may emerge a good: a raised awareness of the necessity of social struggles to make Europe progress. Because without social struggles, no society can move forward."
There is another example of the difference between anti-European demagogy and reality. Charged with determining if there was any truth to accusations that the EU had concerned itself a great deal with free movement of goods, services and capital, but less so with the free movement of persons, Mrs Simone Veil has submitted a report. Her first observation is that legislation on free movement of persons is almost fully in place and that considerable work has been done, "much more than we first believed", to guarantee citizens' rights: right of entry, right of residence, transfer of social security and so on.
The remaining gaps are not generally legislative in nature, more often concerning enforcement. The EU has essentially done its duty and the national administrations must do theirs because -to quote Dante- "le leggi son mai chi pon mano ad elle" ¹.
The ambiguity results from the fact that certain Member States refuse to abolish border controls. However, these few remaining controls are an almost laughable nuisance in the face of the fundamental rights to which all European citizens are now entitled (often without even realising it). Mr Mario Monti, the European Commissioner with responsibility for the single market is wrong to maintain confusion between the two elements and to give the impression that free movement does not exist because, sometimes, a traveller is asked to show a document proving his right. This is cumbersome and psychologically ill-timed, but not the main point.
It is now an absolute certainty that it is at European level alone that it is possible to seek radical changes to tax systems that will make it possible to tax employment less and unearned income and especially damage to the environment and polluting energy more, and consequently to relaunch employment without placing a burden on public budgets. The EU has just begun implementing these projects and it is a revolution that only a united Europe can undertake (see in this connection EUROPE of 18 March).
As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, a little more frankness and courage from those building Europe would be a good thing. It would be appropriate, for example, for Members of the European Parliament in favour of integration to openly defend Community construction in the public opinion. Even those not approving of everything being done in Brussels, not concurring with all policy stances, should, at least respond like Jacques Delors to the question: "Do you ever have doubts about European unification?" "About its virtues, never. Nor do I doubt that it is taking place."
(¹) "Laws exist but who enforces them?"
Ferdinando Riccardi
(EU) EU/TREATIES OF ROME: THE FIFTEEN CELEBRATE IN ROME THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES OF SIX
ROME, 26/03/1997 (Agence Europe) - For the European Union, life begins at 40, affirmed EU Council President Hans van Mierlo on 25 March, during the ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the signature, on 25 March 1957, in Rome, of the Treaties of the European Economic Community and Euratom.
"We find ourselves celebrating as fifteen Member States the anniversary of the Treaties signed by six founding countries. And soon, there will be even more of us", declared in turn European Commission President Jacques Santer, adding that the founding nations had signed "a Treaty whose genius still surprises us". "It took courage to commit to the drive to European integration, which conflicted with many sensitivities and created a good deal of fear and hesitancy that proved unfounded", continued Mr Santer.
Today, "Europe must address more than in the past the everyday concerns of citizens" (who "are not challenging the purpose of the Community undertaking", but "sometimes call into question our way of pursuing it"). Now that Europe has "the historic opportunity to reconcile the entire continent with itself, our institutions and methods must be reinvented, building upon the solid heritage left by the Founding Fathers: equality between Member States, strong institutions, a genuine Community of law".
Other speakers at the ceremony on Tuesday afternoon at the Orazi and Curiazi, where the Treaties were signed, included Romano Prodi, President of the Italian Council, who observed that Europe is the focus of political debate in all the Member States today, and that "we have finally come out of the traditional politico-diplomatic domain, to strike the deepest chords of public opinion".
Mentioning the progress made over the past 40 years, Mr Prodi said that, with the Treaty of Maastricht, "we are perfecting our common economic constitution" and that the Treaty of Maastricht should not be seen simply as an "instrument for the introduction of a single currency, but also as the awakening of European peoples to the necessity of setting limits on the action of the governments". The function of constitutions is "to prevent abuse by princes", he noted, adding that Italy is "strongly committed to an increasingly integrated Union with federal foundations".
As EUROPE has already reported, during the commemorations, an extraordinary conference of Presidents of Parliaments in the European Union, with European Parliament President Mr Gil-Robles, was held at the Campidoglio. Mr Violante, President of the Italian House of Representatives, said that Parliaments can integrate the action of governments at European level, concerning, for example: - the quality and quantity of legislation; - social rights; - enlargement of the EU.
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