Strasbourg, 05/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday the president of Italy, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, appealed to the European Parliament in Strasbourg for continuing the EU's constitutional process, despite the French and Dutch “no votes” on ratification of the text. Mr Ciampi said, “is it in fact correct to interpret the results of the referenda as disenchantment with European unity? Is it right to give in to the temptation of calling into question the very design of the Founding Fathers? If we look to wider horizons we may find that, rather, the Rome Treaty of October 2004 is a scapegoat for a general sense of unease” which concerns the Union's governing policies rather than its institutional set up, he explained. Ciampi said that France and the Netherlands' rejection can be explained above all by fears by citizens of being excluded from crucial decisions about their future and concerns about the socio-economic situation.
To loud applause from MEPs, Mr Ciampi said that the European Union is not - and cannot be - a simple free trade zone. Above all it is, and was from the beginning, a political entity, a land of rights and a constitutional reality which does not conflict with our beloved national constitutions but, rather, connects and completes them…From here on we must press ahead together, not just the 11 countries which, like Italy, have already ratified the Constitutional Treaties, but also the countries which have yet to do so, and the two countries which have said no to the Constitution”. The Italian president said that they therefore had to think of policies for the future of the Union but without abandoning the constitutional project. To this end, it has to do everything “to become vertebrated by initiatives aimed at establishing political, physical and social cohesion”. Political cohesion, which requested, notably, the principle of subsidiarity being interpreted as a principle of political cohesion. Physical cohesion: “European needs physical cohesion. It needs transport and communications infrastructures to help Europeans become more united while respecting the environment and landscape” Social cohesion: “We cannot tolerate glaring differences in living standards to persist between areas and therefore between peoples whom our international persona represents in a unified manner”
Ciampi explained that if these objectives of convergence and cohesion are to be attained, Europe will need “appropriate policies of economic governance”. He explained that “a lack of political will on the part of national governments is what prevents the effective coordination of national budget policies”, which made it hard for the European Union to intervene with a common fund in carrying out large infrastructure projects or joint research and innovation initiatives. Ciampi stated that “Europe must renew its efforts in the field of major joint programmes”. He also underlined examples where the EU has been very successful: CERN and the European Space Agency, ITER, the Galileo, Erasmus and Airbus projects.
The Italian president also reiterated the attachment and confidence of this country to the euro, “the tangible benefits stemming from participating in the common currency are there for everyone to see. They include defence against exchange-market fluctuations, low interest rates and increase competitiveness in those Euro zone countries”. Ciampi warned, however, that the positive effects of the euro could be watered down as long as the EU did not have coordinated management of both national budgets and the orientation of the economic policies of states, “Only on this basis will the European Union be able to fully realise the potential inherent in the single currency of becoming a global economic player”.
On Financial perspectives for 2007-13, Ciampi referred to the positive debate that was ongoing on EU priority actions and explained to MEPs that, “I should like here to wish every success for the task which the British prime minister Tony Blair, current president of the European Union, has undertaken to accomplish before this Parliament”.
The Italian president (who will soon be ending his mandate) concluded in his speech to the European Parliament that he remembered the 1930s in Italy and Germany (where he had carried out part of his studies) and the madness European countries had created with the second world war and the slaughter of a whole generation. Fortunately, at the end of the war “great and wise men raised an edifice which cannot be destroyed…we must remain vigilant and warn the young generations of any new perils”, he warned.
Ciampi's speech was interrupted by an incident provoked by Mario Borghezio an MEP from the Northern League and, who, on the orders of president Josep Borrell, was expelled from the building immediately.