The heads of state or government of 27 member states of the European Union and the presidents of the main European institutions all met in Rome on Saturday 25 March to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding treaties of the European adventure, but with the shared feeling that a profound uncertainty is affecting the future of the European project.
"My dear friends, we must be more proud of Europe". This theme – which was at the core of European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's speech – also filtered, to varying degrees, into all the other speeches delivered in the Horatii and Curiatii Hall of the Capitol (the same hall in which the Rome Treaties were signed on Monday 25 March 1957, and where the Rome Declaration has just been adopted – see EUROPE 11573/3).
The city, place and reason for this summit indeed lent themselves well to an exercise of "romanticising" the past, as Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said.
Commemoration that prompts questioning
However, this was not entirely the case. The look back to the past was naturally imprinted with a sense of pride, but also with the weight of History, for what has been achieved on this continent in 60 years, "despite all the mistakes made", as European Parliament President Antonio Tajani said. At some point, all the speakers also referred to a certain gravity of the situation, when their look turned from the past towards the current state of the Union and the future outlook with 27 member states.
Diagnosing the patient, Tajani said that "our Union is still unfinished and it often seems remote from people’s problems, divided, inefficient, overly bureaucratic". For the host of the celebrations, Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, this Union has fallen short by addressing too late the challenges brought by History. "We have stopped", contrary to the recommendations of Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of the European construction. "Have we become bored or tired" of this unity we have inherited?, asked European Council President Donald Tusk.
In this way, even if the word "crisis" was carefully avoided in the speeches at the Capitol, its perfume was nevertheless perceptible. It was, however, explicitly stated at one point – by Pope Francis, who had granted an audience with the European leaders ahead of the summit, in the royal room at the Vatican. "There is the economic crisis that has marked the past decade; there is the crisis of the family and of established social models; there is a widespread 'crisis of institutions' and the migration crisis", he said. Indeed at the European Parliament in Strasbourg this same pope had urged Europeans, in November 2014, not to make the Mediterranean "a big cemetery" (see EUROPE 11204/5).
But Pope Francis also stated that the word crisis "has its origin in the Greek verb kríno, which means to discern, to weigh, to assess". For Pope Francis, therefore, "ours is a time of discernment, one that invites us to determine what is essential and to build on it. It is a time of challenge and opportunity."
Resetting the European project with 27
This evaluation exercise has been started and the lessons of the past will be learned, Muscat and Gentiloni assured. The reason for this is that "we are at a turning point", in Muscat's opinion, which provides an opportunity "to restart" the European machine, and to give new impetus to revive the trust of citizens, in Gentiloni's view. This is a form of response to Pope Francis' call, who had said his visitors were "charged with discerning the paths of hope – identifying specific ways forward to ensure that the significant steps taken thus far have not been wasted, but serve as the pledge of a long and fruitful journey".
While this realisation of having to act seems widely shared, what are the rules for it for the future? Although the responses mentioned in Rome lay the ground for a certain working agenda, they do not yet provide concrete projects that meet with consensus. In order to agree on the Declaration, which is above all a "symbolic act" to reaffirm the unity of Europeans, everyone had to forgo something, as Gentiloni noted.
It is therefore not surprising that different conclusions can be drawn. For the current president of the rotating Council presidency, Muscat, the main result is the enshrinement of the EU's "social dimension", even if this precise concept was struck out during the drafting work. It is up to us to have the "resilience, courage, boldness and above all mutual trust" to take good decisions in order to "move forward", he said, calling on the political leaders attending the commemoration in Rome to act so that they do not enter the annals of history as those who "through their inaction, dismantled a 60-year old project".
It is time to remember what unites us
Is a multi-speed Europe the right solution? France, Germany and Italy believe this is so. The fact that "all the countries, even if they do not necessarily agree on everything, have signed this declaration, with the idea that the states that want to go faster can do so, that Europe can remain united but with different speeds, was also an idea that I supported", France's President François Hollande commented.
Tusk's speech especially focused on the risk of political unity disappearing in Europe – an outlook that would spell the end of Europe, in his view. It is thus "much more important that we all respect our common rules such as human rights and civil liberties, freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, checks and balances, and the rule of law. This is the true foundation of our unity", he said. He then told his audience: "Prove today that you are the leaders of Europe!"
Pope Francis had underlined that, beyond the political choices to be made, it is the fundamental principles of European construction that should now be recalled: "Europe is not a conglomeration of rules to obey, or a manual of protocols and procedures to follow. It is a way of life, a way of understanding man based on his transcendent and inalienable dignity, as something more than simply a sum of rights to defend or claims to advance."
Adopted three weeks after the publication of the European Commission's White Paper (see EUROPE 11736/1), the Rome Declaration is part of a process of thematic reflection – social dimension, globalisation, economic and monetary union – on the future of the EU with 27 member states, which is expected to come to an end at the European elections in 2019.
The Rome Declaration can be consulted at: http://bit.ly/2ohko07 (Original version in French by Jan Kordys)