Event report

The 27/8/2021 took place in Rueglio (TO), a mountain municipality of about 700 residents and the presence of numerous second houses, a meeting on the theme “The state of European unification and the Conference on the Future of Europe” in the premises of the KA 'D-MEZANIS (a 1500 building that the Municipality has restored and which is dedicated to conferences and exhibitions). In the presence of 35 people (between residents of Rueglio and owners of second homes and about fifteen teachers and students of the Liceo Classico Botta di Ivrea) chaired and moderated the meeting the Mayor of Rueglio Gabrielle Lafaille, professor of French Language and Literature at the University of Turin. The speakers were Sergio Pistone (retired lecturer in History of European Integration at the University of Turin and director of the European Union of Federalists) and Giuseppina Pucci (Lecturer of History and Philosophy at the Botta High School). The main ideas arising from the reports and speeches of the listeners can be summarised as follows: 1. the process of European unification is facing a number of enormous challenges: the need for structural supranational solidarity to address economic, social and territorial imbalances (between states and regions); the very serious international disorder; the dramatic ecological situation (covering the pandemic); international terrorism; growing poverty globally; biblical emigration; the technical and scientific revolution; 2. a radical political and institutional reform of the EU is urgently needed, the key aspects of which can be outlined as follows: — the creation of an autonomous EU fiscal competence (European taxes must be decided by the EP and the Council by majority); — new competences (exclusive and/or competing) in crucial matters (economic policy, foreign policy, darkness and defence, health, research, education and training policy); — new decision-making mechanisms of governance, which are an expression of a truly federal democratic political process (the EP’s codecision power and the abolition of the right of veto in matters that become a European competence is the first and most symbolic measure); the objective is the creation of an autonomous supranational government in its spheres of action, hence the cruciality of creating a European fiscal competence, a necessary condition for establishing European power and overcoming the intergovernmental system; — rethink the role of the European Council with a view to delimiting the areas that still remain intergovernmental in the EU in relation to those which evolve in the federal sense; — create new instruments in the Treaties to enforce the incompatibility of breaches of the rule of law with EU membership; — increase space for pan-European political confrontation; — ratification by a majority of the Treaties; as some Member States are not at present willing to share the federal union project, the time has come for those in favour of pooling parts of their sovereignty — in areas no longer manageable at national level — to move forward in order to create an EU open to all but at the same time foresees different levels of integration and participation; 3. the federalist front must implement a major European mobilisation campaign (which should, inter alia, systematically promote city assemblies) aimed at ensuring that the majority of the CoFoE vote in favour of these indications; after that, the EP should approve the proposal for a new treaty containing it to be sent directly to national ratifications through a referendum held simultaneously with the next European elections and which should enter into force in the countries that have ratified it provided that the double majority of European citizens and EU Member States are reached. In his speech Sergio Pistone focused mainly on the current situation in the EU and the action that federalists should take to strengthen European democracy through the reform of the founding treaties. Especially with regard to federalist action, a significant step in his report follows: The crucial commitment of the Movement for European Unity is to pursue a major European campaign, which has as its main objective the transformation of the CoFoE into a mechanism constituting federal political union. Here I remember in a schematic way the reforms that federalist pressure on CoFoE is supporting: 1. The creation of an autonomous EU tax competence (European taxes must be decided by the EP and the Council by majority). 2. New competences (exclusive and/or competing) in key areas (economic policy, foreign policy, security and defence, research, education and training policy, strengthening of market-related policies. 3. New decision-making mechanisms for governance, which are the expression of a truly federal democratic political process (the EP’s codecision power and the abolition of the right of veto in matters that become a European competence is the first and most symbolic measure). The aim is to create an autonomous supranational government in its spheres of action; hence the cruciality of the creation of a European fiscal competence, a necessary condition for establishing European power and overcoming the intergovernmental system. 4. Rethinking the role of the European Council, with a view to delimiting the areas that still remain intergovernmental in the EU with respect to those that evolve in the federal sense. 5. Create new instruments in the Treaties to enforce the incompatibility of breaches of the rule of law with EU membership. 6. Increase space for pan-European political confrontation. 7. Ratification by a majority of the Treaties. As some member states are not at present willing to share the federal union project, it is time for those in favour of pooling parts of their sovereignty — in areas no longer manageable at national level — to move forward in order to create an EU open to all but at the same time foresees different levels of integration and participation>>. Giuseppina Pucci masterfully illustrated the great opportunity offered by the Conference on the Future of Europe, but also the pitfalls that derive from it: <&LT; however, the Conference will have to respond to the crisis of the European project that the pandemic has put to the test, exacerbating and increasing the pockets of poverty, inequalities and situations of social injustice already present. It could therefore also be a double-edged weapon because, if the results of this broad consultation of citizens are translated into measures and rules that really improve the lives of Europeans, it will give new impetus and greatly promote the process of integration and constitution of the European Federation, if, on the other hand, this consultation is not followed by coherent political decisions, then the heart of the Europeans will increasingly depart from this great project. This Conference should therefore contribute to strengthening the feeling of belonging to a common political ego, of rousseauiana memory, in which the norms will not be imposed from above, because citizens will simply obey what they themselves have decided.>> In conclusion, following the contributions that have emerged and the content of the debate, the rapporteurs and participants agreed to support the reforms outlined above.