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European Affairs
Leader in Focus
The Path to European Integration Has Reached a Critical Point
Franco Frattini, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy
It is our turn. No matter that Italy is aware of the difficulties awaiting its Presidency of the European Union, we are confident. We are comforted and encouraged by our earlier experiences; Italy's Presidencies have, in fact, often coincided with crucial moments in the recent history of European integration.
There is no question that once again Italy's Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers in the second half of 2003 is confronted with particularly challenging issues, not only within the Union itself but also with regard to Transatlantic relations. We do not, of course, expect to solve all these problems in the Presidency's short six-month span. But we aim to make substantial progress that will pave the way for further steps in future. This approach has been the hallmark both of European integration and of Atlantic cooperation. We need both more than ever.
Our Presidency comes at an especially difficult international juncture. There is no denying the fact that differences over how to deal with international threats have divided Europeans and damaged the Transatlantic relationship. Although progress has been made in repairing that relationship following the war in Iraq, it remains weakened. The path toward European integration has reached a critical point: obstacles remain, but there can be no turning back. We shall overcome the obstacles, but the goals and challenges ahead of us must be clear.
We are enlarging the European Union and strengthening its institutions, while working with our Atlantic allies to meet common security concerns and threats (namely terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction) and to advance the agenda of peace and stability in the Middle East. None of these issues has less priority than the others. They have to be confronted at the same time now. So, as the European Union, we have to move fast and effectively.
Let me first address the main EU internal issues. At the moment, we find ourselves between the signature of the Accession Treaties, providing for the admission of ten new members in 2004, and the outcome of a constitutional reform that will define the architecture of tomorrow's Europe and its potential role in the world.
We must define the principles, objectives and missions of the future Union, which will be one of both "states and peoples." We must work toward strengthening citizens' rights based on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, adopted in Nice in December 2000, and limit and define the responsibilities of the Union and those of the member states, while respecting national identity. Lastly, we must improve the functioning of all the EU institutions to allow prompt and effective political decision making.
The proposed new constitutional treaty that has been sent to member governments should also make the European Union more forward looking. It should allow us to become an important new player in international politics as a union, rather than as individual member states. Now more than ever, Europe can be not only an active factor of stability and peace in a very volatile international context, but also a guarantor of liberty, a contributor to global security and a stimulus to the quality of life of its citizens.
The Italian Presidency has thus convened an intergovernmental conference to approve the new constitutional treaty, drafted by the European convention that completed its work in June. By December we should be able to gather the broadest possible consensus on the text of the constitution, to enhance the prospects for its signature in Rome. We aim to arrange the signing ceremony between the accession of the new member states on May 1, 2004 and the elections for the European Parliament that are due to be held in the middle of June. The European constitution will thus be born with the signatures of 25 old and new member states.
We are strongly engaged in the creation of a larger Europe. Our Presidency will ensure that the new member states participate in the work of the Council so as to facilitate their full integration into the EU institutions. We have to set a timetable for Bulgaria and Romania, providing for their entry by early 2007, and implement the pre-accession strategy for Turkey agreed by EU leaders in Copenhagen in December 2002.
We must also agree on concrete steps to bring the Western Balkan countries closer to EU membership, and decide on a political strategy to intensify relations with all areas bordering on the Union, above all Russia and the Mediterranean countries. For the Mediterranean countries, we must design a new autonomous financial institution, which would later become a bank, to promote development and investment.
While our main goal must be a leap forward toward a new political Europe, we must never lose sight of the instrument that has brought us together the market. We should thus give new impetus to economic competitiveness, beginning with the opportunity offered by the euro and by the plan for economic reform agreed by EU leaders in Lisbon in the spring of 2000.
We should aim to enhance the European economy through active policies for job growth and a more flexible labor market, and by reactivating the flow of public investment in infrastructure, transportation, human resources, research and technology. This could be achieved through innovative funding strategies; we intend to work with the EU institutions on a fully integrated European project for growth, based on proposals by Giulio Tremonti, the Italian Economy Minister.
We are also advocating a more effective internal market in the enlarged Europe and encouraging the development of projects known as Large Transeuropean Networks. An enlarged Europe will need new infrastructure to bring together the economic capacities and the peoples of the different countries.
Europe recognizes that its new and momentous international responsibility calls for credibility and greater authority. That will necessitate stronger solidarity and cooperation, among our own countries, our traditional allies and our many friends around the world. We are committed to promoting the conditions leading to a more cooperative international climate. First and foremost, we need a solid and balanced Transatlantic relationship based on our continuing legacy of shared universal values, as well as of major common interests and objectives.
The Atlantic community is shaped by aspirations that we both chose to follow after World War II and the fall of the Nazi and Fascist dictatorships; that choice has forged over half a century of largely shared history. We remain confident that this recent past will supply the reasons for continuing the long-standing friendship between Europe and America into the new century, and facing new challenges together. We must count on this solidarity in confronting the difficult problems of the Middle East, and in undertaking initiatives in the U.S.-EU-Russia-UN Quartet in support of the roadmap we have agreed for the peace process and the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
Italians have strongly supported the peace process in the past and will continue to do so. We are willing, and expect, to host the peace conference foreseen in the roadmap, or provided for in any negotiations intended to find concrete solutions to the conflict and to put forward a socio-economic reconstruction plan for the region.
Europe can and must find a single voice in fighting international terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, further strengthening its existing, essential cooperation with the United States and other allies. To this end, we must continue to pursue the objectives of the Common Foreign and Security Policy, although NATO must remain the basis of the collective defense of its members and will continue to play an important role in crisis management.
On September 11, 2001, Europe and its peoples were with the United States. But it was also a wake-up call for us. The post-September 11 world we inhabit needs new and more complex security, to which Europe will make an effective contribution. Enhancing security will require widespread international cooperation; we need not only to secure the support of governments but also to win the peoples' hearts and minds. Europe will contribute by involving all the members of the international community in improving security, especially in the fight against terrorism, and particularly by vigorously promoting political, economic, and cultural relations with the Arab world.
We must also implement the priorities set out at past meetings of EU leaders, in Tampere, in Seville and, most recently, in Thessalonica, to carry forward the fight against terrorism, transnational crime and clandestine immigration (and its related trafficking). We must engage the countries that are sources of major migratory flows through a policy of dialogue and cooperation. Such a policy would be in addition to our existing commitments to integrate legal immigrants from non-EU countries into our societies.
The Union must increasingly cast itself as a role model for peace, democracy and stability on the international scene. This can and will be done if, alongside a Europe of good intentions and declarations, we can establish a Europe of responsibility and action. Action is needed to disseminate those universal values that are still denied and trampled upon in too many areas of the world. The European Union aims to become a large common space of liberty, security and justice, able to project its stability and its peaceful strength beyond its borders.
Franco Frattini is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of Forza Italia since 1998, and is coordinator of the party's permanent working group on the regions. He has served as Minister for Public Administration and Regional Affairs, Secretary General of the Prime Minister's Office, and legal advisor to the Minister of the Treasury and the Deputy Prime Minister.