Abstract

Giuliana Laschi, Europe and its Integration process: the Italian Historiography point of view

The seminar “Europe and its integration process: the point of view of Italian historiography” was held in June 2016, promoted by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence Punto Europa of the University of Bologna, Forlì Campus, in cooperation with other Italian universities. The main objective of the seminar was to define the state of the art on the history of the European integration, both in research and teaching terms. Indeed, the situation of history in the Italian academic world is inherently troubling, especially that of the history of the European integration, even though the research work is far from being complete.

 

Stefano Filippi, The ratification process for the Treaty for the European Defence Community in the archives in France and in the United States.

The article deals with the difficult beginning, especially in France, of the ratification process for the Treaty for the European Defence Community, signed in Paris on the 27th May 1952. The draft law, for its ratification, was presented to the National Assembly in October 1952 by Pinay Government, in an atmosphere of increasing scepticism. The political difficulties linked to the French Fourth Republic institutions do not give enough reasons for this delay, moreover if we take American diplomatic efforts into consideration. A comparison between original documents, from National Archives in Paris and in Washington D.C., allows a more comprehensive historical reconstruction, with the highlight of the detailed requests from Foreign Minister Robert Schuman to his national executive. Come to light, with a clear parallel between those months in the Fifties and the present European timing, a sort of hesitancy in the political classes and in the public opinion when it is time to back supranational projects implicating less national power over Defence and collective Security.

 

Sante Cruciani, The relaunch of Messina and the Treaties of Rome: research paths and interpretative keys

Based on documentation from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this essay analyzes “exchanges, interactions and loans” between Italy and France from the Messina Conference to the Rome Treaties. Political cultures, community institutions and national States are connected to the construction of the European social model. The action of the EEC on the international scene of the Sixties and the Seventies take a great part of the analysis. Urges to rediscover the programmatic value of the Rome Treaties and to connect research paths that are sometimes separate in the historiography on European integration.

 

Maria Eleonora Guasconi, Europe between Crisis and Relaunch: the Hague Conference of 1969

The Hague Conference of December 1969 is usually described as a breakthrough in European integration after the stalemate of de Gaulle period. The article aims to investigate the different directions of this relaunch, trying to assess their long-term consequences in European integration.  In particular it deals with the thorny issue of Great Britain’s membership, the CAP completion, the Werner Plan on Economic and Monetary Union, the Davignon Plan on foreign policies coordination and the first attempt to establish a European social dialogue.

 

Maria Paola Del Rossi, Roy Jenkins, an English person as President of the European Commission in a crucial moment: broadening and reintroducing the Economic and Monetary Union

The essay retraces Roy Jenkins’ Presidency of the European Commission (1977-1980), analyzing his role in a crucial moment of the European, but also British, political History. As leading spokesperson of the Europeanist faction of the Labour Party, Jenkins was the protagonist of the debate on the Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union, that he defined as “European current challenges and future possibilities”. If the project has been accomplished by Schmidt and Giscard d’Estaing at the end of the decade, it was far away from Callaghan’s Labour government and its choice to detach Great Britain from the Monetary Union System, meanwhile the euro-scepticism was (re)making inroads among the Party and the public opinion.

 

Daniela Preda, The elected European Parliament: the action of Spinelli and the birth of the Crocodile Club

The article reconstructs the activity of the elected European Parliament, the action of Altiero Spinelli and its constituent initiative, the birth and activity of the Crocodile Club, until the creation within the Parliament of a permanent committee for institutional problems with the task of elaborating a modification of the existing Treaties.

 

Daniele Pasquinucci, Europe in a “blind faith”. Italy from the Single European Act to Maastricht

The essay aims to verify the attitude of the Italian political class in the transition phase leading up to the Single European Act and the Maastricht Treaty. The analysis shows that the Italian participation in the new phase of European integration was the result of a sort of “inertial Europeanism”, that is, of an attitude that was not sufficiently focused on assessing the domestic impact of “Europeanization”.

 

Riccardo Brizzi e Michele Marchi, Prodi government and Italian accession to the euro zone: between domestic problems and European challenge (1995-1998)

The aim of the article is to describe Italian difficulties to enter the group of eleven European countries that adopted the single currency by January 1999, focusing the attention on the role of Romano Prodi and his government. The main objective is to describe how Prodi built the electoral campaign of the Ulivo coalition and how he operated as Prime Minister to reach a target complicated both for domestic and for European reasons.

 

Sandro Guerrieri, The path of the European Constitution from the Laeken Declaration to the Lisbon Treaty

The Laeken Declaration of December 2001 opened up new perspectives to the constitutionalisation of the European Union. A Convention on the Future of Europe was established in order to prepare important reforms of the European Union’s political system. This European Convention, presided over by Giscard d’Estaing, was composed by representatives of the national governments, of the national parliaments, of the European Parliament and of the European Commission. The Convention met between February 2002 and July 2003 and drafted a constitutional project which, with some significant changes, was adopted by the Intergovernmental Conference in 2004. However, the French and the Dutch referendums in 2005 put an end to this effort, and with the Lisbon Treaty of 2007 the reform of the European Union was “de-constitutionalised”.  The author analyses the origins of the European Convention, the characteristics of the constitutional project it adopted and the causes of its rejection.

 

Giovanna Tosatti, A “Project called Penelope”: Romano Prodi’s contribution to the European constituent process

In December 2002 during the proceedings of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Romano Prodi, President of the European Commission, presented a draft federalist constitution as a working tool and contribution to the discussion. It was a complete re-elaboration of the treaties in force with a hierarchy of principles, rights, purposes and policies. It also contained relevant innovations such as the generalization of the “Community method” and new rules for entry into force and revision.

 

Lara Piccardo, The European Union and the enlargement to the countries of Eastern Europe

The article looks at the salient moments of the enlargement policy that the European Community/Union achieved between 1989 and 2004-2007 towards the Eastern candidates, trying to propose some reflections on this long path.

 

Doriana Floris, The needed Union: Integration locked in stalemate?

Starting from the important reasons which lead to the signing of the Treaties of Rome, the path is directed to the analysis of the difficulties that have gradually characterized the history of the European integration process. The consequences of the enlargements, especially those concerning Central and Eastern European Countries, the financial and migration crisis, terrorism and the increasing phenomenon of populism, represent a test-bed for the Community, presently the Union, which needs a comprehensive policy, and not just an economic-financial one.

 

Agnese Bertolotti, The Eye of Europe: cinema and european identity

Since its beginnings, cinema has always been quick to hold captive its European audience. Cinema offers a privileged haven for collective memory and over time it has been able to record the different perceptions of Europe as both a real and utopian place. The purpose of the reflections that follow is not to trace a historiography of the different genres, currents and trends that have characterized the European film industry, but rather to outline the deep and lasting relationship that binds the supranational spirit and cinema in Europe.

 

Silvia Sassano e Benedetto Zaccaria, Sources and images of the European integration process (1957-2017). The documentary exhibition “Ever Closer Union”

This article offers an analysis of the information and communication policies developed by the European institutions on the occasion of anniversaries celebrating the Treaties of Rome (1957), addressing the political and cultural rationale of such information initiatives. The article also focuses on the travelling documentary exhibition “Ever Closer Union: the Legacy of the Treaties of Rome for today’s Europe” organised by the Historical Archives of the European Union in Florence on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Rome Treaties. The focus is on the scope and structure of the exhibition and its links with the most recent trends on the history of European integration.

 

Maria Chiara Bernardini, Press, web and the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Treaties of Rome

The sixtieth anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, celebrated in Rome the 25th of march 2017, was a chance to make an analysis and an evaluation in a very difficult moment of European Union history. This article looks at the attention given to the event by three important italian newspapers “la Repubblica”, the “Corriere della Sera” and “Il Sole 24 ore”, and their different points of view about Europe, in their websites.

 

Chiara Moroni, The institutional communication of the European Union between democratic deficit and strategies of listening to public opinion

To explain the Euroscepticism and the growing disaffection of European citizens towards the institutions of the European Union, some observers speak of a democratic deficit, others of a communication deficit. Indeed, the European Union has progressively invested in communication: in addition to informing it has in fact focused its strategies on listening and sharing objectives. So more than a lack of communication it is necessary to speak of a mixture of negative factors that do not allow the improvement of perception by citizens. In this contribution, after having reconstructed the various strategic phases of the European institutional communication, it should be noted that Euroscepticism and disaffection also depend on national political systems and the media coverage of the Union’s activities.

 

Dialogue with Antonio Varsori. The 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome and historiography on European integration

The dialogue focuses on the documentation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the March 2017 conference “The Re-Lauching of Europe and the Rome Treaties” and on the most important initiatives of the European scientific circuits. The vivacity of Italian historiography, the ongoing confrontation with political and legal sciences and their projection in the international debate are confirmed. In closing, some issues of public discourse on Europe are addressed, such as the political crisis of the European Union and the diffusion of “Euroscepticism” in the public opinion of the Member States.

 

Doriana Floris, “Ceci n’est pas l’Europe” Caricatures for a Europe in difficulties

The purpose of the exhibition is to analyze, through the drawings of some known cartoonists, the current dangers threatening the complex process of European integration. The exhibition allows visitors to “taste” a sort of political satire in images, alluding to European facts and politicians and confronts us with extremism and intolerance, once again affecting our continent. Through their pencils, the authors have made drawings which are sometimes funny, violent, sad but which cannot leave us indifferent. An event, a journey, a truly original initiative, useful to anyone who still believes in the European project.

 

Maurizio Zinni, The Catholic press and the political anti-Semitism of the late nineteenth century: “La Voce della Verità” and the anti-Semitic movements in Algeria in 1898

During the second half of the XIXth century, a new form of anti-Semitism took place in Europe. It was characterized by old religious prejudices and new political and economical stereotypes. Catholicism used this anti-Semitism against the enemies of the new political and social context: freemasons, liberals, socialists and Jews. “La Voce della Verità” was born in Rome in 1871 and became one of the most radical catholic newspaper in Italy. It dedicated a lot of articles to the violence against the Jews in Algeri in the 1898 (first case of pogrom in the history of West Europe that was caused by the new form of anti-Semitism). These articles highlighted the use of anti-Semitism made by the Roman Church at the end of the Century.