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European Integration in a long-term Historical Perspective Giuliana Laschi (Università di Bologna) Link with similar concepts: European unity, European cooperation. When was the concept of Europe born? How much does it change over the centuries? Geographical Europe and political Europe. An uncerta...
European Integration in a long-term Historical Perspective Giuliana Laschi (Università di Bologna) Link with similar concepts: European unity, European cooperation. When was the concept of Europe born? How much does it change over the centuries? Geographical Europe and political Europe. An uncertain definition from a political point of view. What do I mean by European Integration? Immanuel Kant (17241804) • First great federalist philosopher • To Perpetual Peace 1795: link between world federation, perpetual peace and human emancipation The formation of the state Historical progress occurs with the organisation of society according to a rational law, which transforms relations of force into legal relations The first stage is the formation of the state: it monopolises force and subjects individual arbitrariness to law Perpetual Peace • Peace is "the end of all hostilities" and not the suspension of hostilities between two wars • Peace cannot be achieved on the basis of the balance of powers • It must be built by the creation of a legal order that guarantees it: extension of law to all social relations, including international relations Perpetual Peace World federation ensures perpetual peace Founded on a power capable of regulating relations between states and preventing the use of violence to resolve conflicts The choice to join the federation must be free. The states that make up the federation must be republican (in which there is a law desired by all and which guarantees the coexistence of free and equal men) Basic principle of federalist theory • International anarchy prevents the consolidation of freedom, democracy and justice within states • Peace, achieved through an international legal order, is the condition for defeating warlike and authoritarian tendencies within the state Perpetua l Peace The experience of the negativity of wars will be the first thing to lead European states to establish federal bonds, which would later extend worldwide. However, he envisages a confederation of states, being convinced that the republican state can only develop in small states. Proudhon’s Federalism • Federalism understood as confederation (does not know the USA or the difference between federation and confederation) in which the central authority is subordinate to the member states. • The municipality is the main centre of organisation of collective life. • He rejects the presence of a state because he considers it an absurd institution, aimed simply at the exploitation of others’ labour by a few men. Mazzini's thought • Struggle for Italian political unity, but with the idea of the unification of Europe and the entire human race • Strong idealisation of the concept of the nation: vehicle for achieving freedom and universal brotherhood • It remained a vague idea, not institutionally defined • The unitary nation-state remained the highest form of organisation of society • Aspiration for a Europe in which violence between nations would be eliminated and peace and solidarity between peoples would develop La Giovine Europa (The young Europe)(1834) • Set against the Old Europe of the holy alliance of monarchs • Reconstruction of Europe on a national basis as the beginning of a new historical phase of human solidarity and brotherhood between peoples • Italy as a spiritual guide to achieving European unity Cattaneo’s Federalism • Carlo Cattaneo (1801-1869): • Forerunner of 20th century European federalism • Denounces the illiberal and authoritarian limits of the unitary nation state • Federal solution applicable both for Italian unification and for peace in Europe • "We shall have real peace when we have the United States of Europe". Cattaneo’s Federalism • Federal institutions: • Subordination of a plurality of independent states to a superior but limited centre of power • Legal regulation from regions to mankind • Distinction between regional peoples and nations • Real freedom only by limiting political power: within states with regional decentralisation and in international relations by subordinating states to a supranational government Peace of Versailles • Generalisation of the nationality principle • Recognition of the principle of self-determination of peoples • Foundation of the League of Nations • Goal: to usher in an era of peace League of Nations • Legal-Institutional Framework for International Relations after the World War • Einaudi was familiar with American federalism and gave a negative verdict on the League of Nations, seen as a mere confederation without sovereignty • «the efforts made to create a League of Nations, remaining sovereign, would only serve to create nothingness, the unthinkable, to increase and poison the reasons for discord and war». Luigi Einaudi Paneuropa • Movement founded in Vienna in 1923 at the initiative of Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894-1973) • Identifies the problem of Europe remaining divided and unable to maintain peace and independence in the face of non-European powers • Rough and imprecise confederation-type project Luigi Einaudi (1874-1961) • War and European Unity (1918) • International anarchy and national sovereignty causes of world war • United States of Europe as a means for nations to secure themselves against attempts at hegemony by the strongest European Union project • European Union project presented to the League of Nations in 1929 by Briandt. • Based on the Briand - Stresemann pact (confederal character) Federal Union • Federalist movement born in Great Britain in 1938 • Important theoretical developments on the crisis of the nation state • Proposals for European or western federation as a step towards world federation • Movement of intellectuals who aimed to influence governments, parties and public opinion Lord Lothian (18821940) • Kantian conception: history as the realisation of peace with the substitution of law for force in all social relations • US federal state - extended representative democracy • War cannot be prevented in a world of sovereign states • The League of Nations is a valuable educational intermediate step, but it cannot end war • There can only be peace in a world federal state The Ventotene Manifesto For a free and united Europe. Draft of a manifesto Context The Ventotene Manifesto, 'For a free and united Europe' was born from the minds of Ernesto Rossi and Altiero Spinelli and other opponents of fascism, 'the men considered to be the most dangerous and implacable opponents of Protagonists Birth and development of the manifesto The source of inspiration: Junius and English federalist literature. The development of ideas: in the canteens, the centre of cultural life during exile. In the 'bleak winter' 1940-41: the first draft. June 1941: the first edition written four-handedly by Spinelli and Rossi with contributions from Colorni and Hirschmann. The clandestine publication There are numerous versions of the manifesto, which began circulating from 1941 in Ventotene and later also on the continent. The edition published clandestinely in January 1944 was later considered by Spinelli to be the official one. It is edited by Colorni and contains a preface written by him. Curiosity: the adventurous dissemination of the Manifesto Content (ed. 1944) The parts of the Manifesto Preface by Colorni The Crisis of Modern Civilisation (Spinelli) Post-war tasks European unity (Spinelli) Post-war tasks. The reform of society (Rossi) key concepts Starting point for reflection: how to avoid further fratricidal wars in Europe? Through: Overcoming the nation state (whose maximum degeneration is totalitarian regimes) through a European federation Overcoming traditional parties: a revolutionary movement capable of mobilising the popular forces of all countries would make the goal of European supranational democracy possible. "The absolute sovereignty of the nation states has led to the will to dominate each one of them, since each feels threatened by the power of the others [...] This will to dominate could only be appeased in the hegemony of the strongest state over all the other subservient states. As a result, the state, from being the protector of the freedom of citizens, was transformed into the master of subjects held in service". "the dividing line between progressive and reactionary parties now falls, not along the formal line of greater or lesser democracy, [...] but along the substantially new line that separates those who conceive, as the central field of struggle, the old one, that is, the conquest and the forms of national political power [...] and those who will see as the central task the creation of a solid international state, who will direct the popular forces towards this end". The European Federation Representative supranational institutions; Open borders for goods, capital and citizens; Economic and monetary unity; Single army; Single foreign policy. In addition: the Federation would protect minorities and resolve ethnic conflicts in Europe. "They all agree in advocating the basic principles of a free European federation [...] These principles can be summarised as follows: a single federal army, monetary unity, the abolition of customs barriers and emigration restrictions between the states belonging to the federation, direct representation of citizens in federal assemblies, a single foreign policy. Citizens in a free and united Europe The federated Europe also had a 'spiritual' objective, namely to offer citizens the highest possible degree of civilisation. Full freedom of the individual; Respect for the rights of each individual; Guaranteed representation. In addition: Redistribution of wealth; Improving the lives of workers; Ensuring a good standard of living for citizens. "A free and united Europe is a necessary precondition for the strengthening of modern civilisation, of which the totalitarian era represents a halt. The end of this era will immediately bring the historical process against inequality and social privileges back into full swing". "Human solidarity with those who lose out in the economic struggle must not, therefore, be manifested in forms of charity that are always demeaning and produce the same evils whose consequences they seek to remedy, but in a series of provisions that guarantee [...] a decent standard of living, without reducing the incentive to work and save." Impact and legacy of the Ventotene Manifesto 1943: Spinelli and other anti-fascists founded the European Federalist Movement in Milan, a sui generis political actor. The MFE participated in the armed Resistance and made contacts with European Resistance circles. 1945: the Union of European Federalists (UEF) was founded and still constitutes the supranational political-organisational framework for the action of European federalist movements. Impact and legacy of the Ventotene Manifesto Federalism lost its momentum almost immediately after the end of the war, due to: Urgency to complete the western bloc as quickly as possible; US pressure; Birth of functionalism; Reconstitution and assertion of nation states and traditional parties. Impact and legacy of the Ventotene Manifesto However, the European integration process is studded with federalist projects and ideas. Many of the initial projects have been realised, albeit in the absence of a European Federation: Economic and Monetary Union Free movement of goods, services, capital and people Directly elected representative institution (European Parliament) European Union Foreign Policy (still incomplete and in search of its own characterisation) Impact and legacy of the Ventotene Manifesto There have been numerous attempts throughout the history of European integration to bring the EEC/EU closer to a more federal structure: EPC within the European Defence Community (1950-1954); Spinelli Project (1980-1984); European Constitution (2000-2007).
