The unimaginable does happen. The President of the Swiss Confederation, Mr Moritz Leuenberger, speaking at the Jean Monnet Foundation's gold medal ceremony in honour of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Helmut Schmidt (see this column dated 15 November), alluded to his country's relations with the EU, saying: "As for our country's staying outside of political and monetary Europe, I will say this: many things that are a reality today in Europe seemed unimaginable 50 years ago. (…) It is important, first and foremost, for our country to assume its global responsibilities at all levels (an allusion to the upcoming referendum on Swiss membership of the UN). We cannot remain neutral in the face of human distress and terrorism. Likewise, it is out of the question that banking secrecy be used to protect the funds of those behind terrorist attacks. (…) In a multicultural Europe, Switzerland also has its place."
Generally accepted ideas are not to be trusted! Welcome, Pierre Moscovici, to the smallish clan -if truth be told- of European optimists. Last week, as he made the opening remarks at the National Assembly's conference on the future of Europe, the French Minister for European Affairs stated: "The imminent enlargement of the EU goes hand in hand with advances unprecedented in the history of European construction. I am not among the sceptics when it comes to current developments." His cautious optimism is based in particular on two observations: public participation in the debate on the future of Europe and Europe's steadily growing importance on the world scene.
Concerning the first, Moscovici spoke of his own country as follows: "Generally accepted ideas are not to be trusted! Contrary to what is often said, the French are interested in Europe, probably because they understand that their views count." He went on to note that the "public, free and open debate" giving citizens a say on European construction, has "at last given them the opportunity to take the European project back into their own hands".
As for the second, he emphasized the fact that Europe is today "dealing with the excesses of poorly controlled globalisation" and "reacting to the threats that new forms of international terrorism represent to our democratic societies". This touches on the heart of Europeans' concerns, the goal being to "guarantee that Europe can assert itself as a power in the international arena, a power defending democracy and justice, promoting peace and development, in short, helping build a fairer world".
A "natural European" becomes an "aware European". In parallel, in his just-published book entitled "L'Europe, une puissance dans la mondialisation", Pierre Moscovici states that, in his four years in posts with European responsibilities in the French government, he has become "an aware European". Earlier, he was a "natural European, sometimes naive, sometimes ill informed, sometimes prejudiced"; but now he understands that "Europe, with its sometimes annoying limits, its sometimes aggravating rituals, its difficulties, is the only grand blueprint for the coming decades". Announcing that he will be leaving his current post after the upcoming elections in France, regardless of the outcome, he adds that his European convictions are unshakeable "whatever my commitments may be in the future". His goal is "to return meaning to politics, to work towards a utopia that can stir people to action. I believe that Europe alone can be that utopia".
Nothing other than the future constitution of Europe... The French National Assembly's Conference on the Future of Europe (organised on the initiative of Alain Barriau, Chairman of the French Parliamentary Delegation to the EU) is obviously an example for all the national parliaments, each in accordance with its own traditions and rules. For the first time ever, all the Member State parliaments will be directly involved in preparing a revision of the Community treaty (they used to be consulted solely on an ex-post basis, namely for ratification). So it is normal that they discuss with all the representative forces of their country the result of the national public consultations, a phase being brought to conclusion in most States, and the transition to the European phase of the procedure. National Assembly President Raymond Forni pointed out that the national parliaments are directly concerned by the process getting under way because "the changes on the horizon are, in essence, constitutional" since the debate concerns "the priorities of Europe, the institutions it needs, the principles that underpin it; it is nothing other than the future constitution of Europe" that will be devised. A man of vision who is not afraid to use plain language. (F.R.)