Brussels, 21/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The fiftieth anniversary of Agence Europe provided an opportunity for Jacques Delors, George Papandreou, Jacques Santer, Giorigo Nalopitano and Antoinette Spaak to ask questions about the future of Europe, without forgetting its history, and also about the place of the citizen within this history. This collective discussion unfurled at a colloquy on "Espace public européen: réalités et perspectives", which was organised for 20May in Brussels by the Greek Presidency (the idea came from MEP Myrsini Zorba, said Giorgios Katiforis, also a Pasok MEP, who chaired the event).
The Europeans' contribution to the integration process was a central theme of the speech by Council President George Papandreou, who declared that, in Europe, "we have an untapped resource, the citizen", and that one of the priorities of the political strategy of the leaders of Europe, in this phase of European history and in view of the huge forthcoming wave of enlargement, should be to encourage "the involvement of everybody" in this joint construction process, and the development of a "dynamic civil society". The Greek Presidency has already taken a concrete initiative to this end, that of the "e-vote", commented the Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs, who announced that 153,000 people had already made their voices heard, using this electronic vote underpinning "e-democracy", on 12 topical issues. Another Greek initiative planned is for an "agora" to be held in Athens in September, to discuss the finished work of the European Convention. This will be a new opportunity to open up "a new area for the citizens" of Europe, commented Mr Papandreou. He also announced a Greek proposal to the Convention (of which he is a member): a European President directly elected by the citizens.
In his speech on "Europe continued", former President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, called upon his audience not to forget, when building the future, "those people without whom we would not be here". He also confessed his "irritation" at recent appeals made by some people for "refoundation", which sounds to him like "let's forget the past", whereas in fact we must not forget "the testament of the fathers of Europe", i.e. "peace, autonomy and influence" (for example, on how to manage globalisation). Jacques Delors also emphasised:
- the topicality of the Community method, which is "underestimated" in the European Convention. We need to achieve "a good compromise between the Community and intergovernmental methods, but in the results of the Convention to date, we are not there yet", regretted Mr Delors. In particular, we need to clarify the European Commission's powers of control and enforcement, so that the "economic and social area" can work, he underlined. On the subject of the European Council, he stated: "it is there, it gives guidelines, but these must be prepared, discussed, and their enforcement followed".
- the role of the institutions. Behind the institutions, "there is the mechanic", insisted Mr Delors, taking up his old maxim once more: "it is not enough to look at the design, you also need to open the bonnet" (Valéry Giscard d'Estaing found this a good enough analogy to recycle it for himself, noted Jacques Delors). And when you do open the bonnet, you see that "what counts is the Commission/General Affairs Council double act", if the Council is to work.
- the "challenge of co-operation" in terms of "economic policy". Mr Delors set about the Economy and Finance Ministers ("these people are taking it easy", he said), and again criticised the weakness of the economic pillar of the Economic and Monetary Union, which featured in the Delors report. Under these conditions, the euro is "the lapdog of the dollar", stormed the former Commission President.
- the indispensable "differentiation" (which we might need to find a new name for, Mr Delors acknowledged). It is "a crucial element, we have to accept the fact", as Europe has "made progress because of differentiation". He pointed out that in Maastricht, has there been no opting-out on monetary and social, "Europe would have been at stalemate".
- the need to combine vision and realism. Reinforced co-operation is an example of this, said Jacques Delors, who feels that with twenty-five members, it will be possible to create an area of peace, of sustainable development, to respect national identities, "and no more". But "this is a conversation nobody dares to have", he commented.
Jacques Delors also paid tribute to the "small founding countries", addressing his successor at the head of the Commission, Jacques Santer. During the Single Act and Maastricht negotiations "you had (Ed.: as Luxembourg's Prime Minister) to overcome as many pitfalls as you would if you were crossing the Himalayas", Mr Delors reminded Mr Santer. He went on to speak of Jean Monnet, saying: "he is the one who told me one should always think of the smallest among us".
Jacques Santer, today MEP and Convention Member, regretted that "the polarisation of large against small is polluting the atmosphere" at the Convention. "I never noted systematic large/small opposition", he said, drawing on his long experience in the Luxembourg government. He went on to add: "now, we are getting institutionalised, and this is the focus of Convention debates". Mr Santer, also, insisted on the role of citizens and on the "innovating genius of the founding fathers". One cannot set a price on fifty years of peace, something that does not show up in the national budgets, he affirmed. He expressed his "great regret" that the EU had not, when defining its enlargement strategy, "found a motivation for future generations", resulting in a debate that mainly centred on the difficulties expected of the next wide enlargement. Jacques Santer gave a warning for the future, saying: "we should not strengthen the intergovernmental way to the detriment of the Community method".
Giorgio Napolitano, Chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Constitutional Affairs, made the same appeal, saying: "let us safeguard the Community spirit, let us fight against the tendency to regression shown at the Convention and around it". He exclaimed: "Valéry Giscard d'Estaing has said there are "conservatives" at the Convention. Well I prefer conservatives to regression". "It would be fatal regression to injure, yes injure, the role of the Commission and the Community method", he said. This risk, according to the former President of the Italian House of Representatives, "exists implicitly in the ideas of a full-time European Council president", whereas the European Council must return to its original role which is to give strategic impetus to European construction. Giorgio Napolitano also recalled the role played during fifty years by Agence Europe, citing Italians who have worked for European unity: the Statesman, Alcide de Gasperi, the "combatant" Altiero Spinelli" (Jacques Delors welcomed among the public his former assistant, Virgilio Dastoli, who is today spokesman for the Permanent Forum for the Civil Society), and the "passionate witness" to all this, Emanuele Gazzo, who by creating Agence Europe (with Lodovico Riccardi) in 1953, had opened a beginning of a European public area.
Antoinette Spaak gave the debate great vivaciousness, marked by her all-time European commitment. She recalled that, back in 1943, during the war, her father Paul-Henri Spaak, another great European, had spoken in a note of "the Europe that will be born tomorrow", a Europe of peace that "should not work under the regime of unanimity". That was sixty years ago, and we are still quarrelling about unanimity!, exclaimed the former MEP. She admitted she was "very institutional". Yes, she said, objectives should first of all be fixed, but once they are fixed, "one should immediately speak of institutions". She said, however, that her main appeal is for youth. "I am preoccupied by the young", who consider Europe as something already acquired and which, in general, hardly interests them, Ms Spaak admitted, urging political decision-makers to find better ways to answer the questions of the young. One could even speak with them about institutions, she said.
Other friends of Agence Europe took the floor during this very warm exchange, to give a summary of these last fifty years. Jacques-René Rabier, former collaborator of Jean Monnet and former Director General for Information at the European Commission, recalled the early days of the Agency in Luxembourg. Norbert Schwaiger, former Head of the Council's press service, spoke of his first meeting with Ferdinando Riccardi; John Palmer, from The European Policy Centre, that with Marina Gazzo thirty years ago when he was a journalist with The Guardian; Fernand Herman, of Lidia and Marina Gazzo whom he saw running along the corridors of the European Parliament where he had been elected for the first time in 1979.