Guernica, 08/02/2001 (Agence Europe) - Taking the floor during the celebrations, in Guernica, of the fiftieth anniversary of the European Movement of the Basque Country, Virgilio Dastoli, Secretary General of the International European Movement, recalled that the idea of "giving Europe a constitution - that we hope will be federal - has been the subject of studies and proposals over more than thirty years, but never concrete political actions or institutional initiatives". Mr Dastoli recalled that the debate on the European constitution had opened at the European Parliament after the adoption of the Spinelli project in 1984 (Oreja project, Herman resolution). He said it was rekindled by the Congress of the International European Movement in The Hague in May 1998, and then in January 1999 by the EU Council President of the time, Joschka Fischer, speaking before the European Parliament. "The time has now come, as several European leaders have affirmed, to open a process for constitutional refounding of the European Union", said Virgilio Dastoli. He went on to say: "At this stage of European construction, it is a question of reflecting on an agenda that is proper to the civil society, and of developing a strategy, a timeframe and an autonomous method (…). This is the road that should be taken by the European Movement over coming years".
Mr Dastoli also remarked that "the fact that the word 'constitution' is associated to that of State - and more specifically nation-State - does not mean that one should not think about it outside the political framework of the nation State. If a link is to be established, then it should be between constitution and society, given that the forms in which societies organise themselves evolve over time: city, Empire, State (…). The fact that Europe is not a State should not therefore be considered an obstacle, either theoretical or practical, to the idea that it may have a constitution and, inversely, the fact that the Union has a constitution would not mean that it becomes a State".
Representatives of all the Basque political forces took part at the meeting in Guernica. We recall that the European Movement had been created in exile, during the Franco era, and that, during these years, the European Movements set in place in Spain after this were a place for democratic debate. Thus, for example, a large meeting of Spanish democratic parties was held in the early sixties in Munich, at the initiative of the European Movements.