16.03.2001
Colourful Italy has always been seen as an uncritical EU member. But
now a critical movement has been born
Italiani Liberi (Free Italy) is a new born Italian movement for
sovereignty. The movement has asked the Italian Parliament to
restore Italian sovereignty. While working to achieve this end,
Italiani Liberi aims at obtaining a moratorium in the adoption of
the euro and on the ratification of the Treaty of Nice.
Italy has always been considered as a country where no doubt about
the EU existed. A few years ago, the Italians even rejoiced in
paying an extraordinary tax "for Europe" to get the
country's finances in order for entering the euro zone. European
integration has been seen as the natural and necessary answer to the
Fascist movement that governed the country from 1929 to 1943.
But one persistent woman, Professor Ida Magli, has kept up a debate
through sharp analyses in lectures and in an extraordinary book,
CONTRO L'EUROPA - tutto quello che non vi hanno detto di Maastricht
(AGAINST EUROPE - all the things they did not tell you about
Maastricht) from 1997, with several reprints.
Ida Magli is a well-known figure in Italy because of her
professional work as an anthropologist. Her criticizm of European
Integration is founded partly in concern for democracy, partly in a
professional anxiety for the consequences of denying and eradicating
the part of a people's identity, the national part.
Now, Ida Magli has taken the initiative to an EU-critical movement,
Italiani Liberi (Free Italy) with a homepage, offering the Manifesto
of the Movement and an article, The Italian People Don't Know
They've Lost Their Sovereignty, as well as a contact address for
those who want to join the movement.
The site is in Italian, English, and even for some parts in Swedish.
Written by Luise Hemmer Pihl
Edited by Lisbeth Kirk
Press Articles
The Italian People Don't Know They've Lost Their
Sovereignty
by Ida Magli
Website [Italiani Liberi, In Italian, English and Swedish]
----------------------------
16.03.2001
Spanish MEP Enrique Baron Crespo, President of the Socialist Group
in the European Parliament, said we have to carefully organise the
post-Nice debate in order to have a better Treaty after the 2004
Treaty review. Jean-Louis Bourlanges admitted that EU leaders failed
to tackle the real problem, which is EU legitimacy, and adopted a
balance of powers approach, modifying the equilibrium between EU
institutions and between EU member states. Far from solving the
legitimacy problem, they complicated it even more. For Jean-Louis
Bourlanges, Nice created an inertia front, which will block the
Union. The EU as designed at Nice is a regional United Nations
Organisation, with an easy to block Security Council.
Spanish MEP Enrique Baron Crespo, President of the Socialist Group
in the European Parliament, said we have to carefully organise the
post-Nice debate in order to have a better Treaty after the 2004
Treaty review. Baron Crespo sees three important phases of the
debate. Until the end of the year 2001 and the planned Laeken
Declaration, we have to define the subjects and the method of the
debate. The subjects, both shortcomings and leftovers of Nice,
should essentially be the repartition of competencies between Member
Sates and the EU, the role of the Charter of Human Rights, the
simplification (without modification) of EU Treaties and the role of
national parliaments in the EU system. As for the method, Baron
Crespo recommends the setting up of a Convention involving civil
society, national and European institutions, similar to the
Convention that produced the Charter of Human Rights.
The second phase of the post-Nice era would be the debate itself,
run on the basis of the Convention, in 2002 and 2003. The third
phase, starting in 2004, would then be the negotiation and the
making of the new Treaty. This would be the only possibility for
curbing Nice shortcomings and close the legitimacy gap in EU.
Written by Daniela Spinant
Edited by Lisbeth Kirk
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