Statement of the
Committee for the European Federal State
c/o Movimento Federalista Europeo - via San Rocco 20 - 20135 Milano
www.alternativaeuropea.org - www.euraction.org

 

AFTER MARCH 11 IN MADRID:
HIGH TIME TO TRULY UNITE THE EUROPEANS
INTO A EUROPEAN FEDERAL STATE

 

The tragic terrorist attack in Madrid which evokes worries of links between internal and international strategies to foster terror makes the Europeans realise to be once again powerless and unable to act. Despite the usual firm condemnation of these acts and the usual reassurance by national governments that the murderers will be discovered and punished, the citizens cannot help sensing the bitter awareness to be left without any defence in front of such terrorist attacks. This makes more urgent than ever the need to understand the roots of the problem and to develop adequate policies and institutions.

The European states are increasingly weaker and are loosing more and more internal and international legitimacy. This offers an ideal ground to internal terrorists, who put their roots in unsettled nationalist claims, to act and try to destabilise national institutions. At the same time it provides space to the new international terrorism, sparkled by the degeneration of international relations and the passive acceptance of an aggressive American hegemony.

In the recent past, the Europeans, and first of all the Spaniards, were able to contain the destabilising effects of terrorism as the European integration was in continuous progress towards economic development, more democratic legitimacy and European influence on international affairs. This is no more the case today, as the European Union, with 25 and soon 27-28 member states, has entered an involutionary phase which affects its institutions, its policies, its economic and monetary prospective.

The Europeans of the XXI century, like the Italians of the XVI century, are ignoring the teaching of Machiavelli that "fortune is the arbiter of one-half of our actions, but that she still
leaves us to direct the other half, or perhaps a little less". As Machiavelli reminds, fortune is like "one of those raging rivers, which when in flood overflows the plains, sweeping away trees and buildings, bearing away the soil from place to place; everything flies before it, all yield to its violence, without being able in any way to withstand itshe shows her power where valour has not prepared to resist her, and she turns her forces where she knows that barriers and defences have not been raised to constrain her" (Il Principe, XXV).

The European Union ­ with or without the "European Constitution" developed by the Convention ­ is not and will not be able to face the "raging rivers" created by the current international disorder and will be left in the hands of fortune. As the Europeans have not been able to "make provision, both with defences and barriers, when the weather becomes fair", today they have to face tragic events as in Madrid.

But not everything is lost. It would be sufficient that a group of Countries ­ starting from the founding members of the European Union ­ decided to bypass the paralysing impasse of the Union and decided to create the first core of a European federal state, always open to other Countries if and when willing to join. The rift can thus be prevented and a new way open to a future of security and economic prosperity.

Milano, March 12, 2004