Letta for a federal Europe [Promoted content]

In an essay published by the Italian newspaper Il Foglio Enrico Letta, Secretary of the Democratic Party and former Italian PM, proposes a reform of the Treaties to create seven unions and build a federal Europe.

Roberto Castaldi is the editor-in-chief of EURACTIV Italy and the research director at the International Centre for European and Global Governance (CesUE).

Enrico Letta describes his European position in details. It is urgent to achieve seven unions regarding foreign, asylum, energy, defence, social and health policies. Plus a wider European confederation in order to enlarge quickly to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and the Balkans, while creating a more integrated federal core at its centre. In the paper Letta explains what all this would entail in terms of common actions and benefits for European citizens, thus implicitly highlighting the costs of non-Europe in all these policy areas.

Letta identifies the fundamental institutional knot to be overcome: national vetoes and the unanimity rule, to be eliminated in all the Union’s decision-making process. He proposes to start a Convention to reform the Treaties at the end of the Conference on the Future of Europe, to respond to the European citizens’ requests.

He proposes a concentric circles Europe with a federal Union within the framework of a broader confederation, so as to pursue enlargement and deepening together, instead of considering them as alternatives. Even if Letta does not write this, this is also essential to allow federal deepening to proceed even if some member states are not available, while allowing them to remain members of the wider confederation.

Letta also raises the question of Europe’s role in the world, of the vision and values that the Union must embody, and of the instruments needed to safeguard them, including the reform of its economic governance. He recognises that the main problems can only be tackled at European level, and therefore the fundamental political divide is between nationalists and pro-Europeans, between those mourning a 19th-century national sovereignty and those building a European sovereignty, the only effective one in the 21st century.

This stand opens up a political battle on three fronts. The first is explicit: Letta commits the PD to work to bring the whole European progressive family on this European platform. The second regards the position – and above all the initiatives and action – of the Italian government on all these dossiers. The third is a challenge that Letta de facto launches to all Italian political forces to overcome their ambiguities. Forza Italia is part of the European People’s Party (EPP) and proclaims itself pro-European, but remains an ally of Salvini and Meloni. Lega supports the Draghi government, officially based on Europeanism and Atlanticism, but then criticises it at every decision, while its historical friendship with Putin is so well-known that it cannot be forgotten even during Salvini’s trips abroad. Fratelli d’Italia immediately sided with the Western camp, but opposes the Draghi government and proposes a confederal vision of Europe – i.e. even weaker than the current Union – advocating a national sovereignty that actually implies a structural dependence on one or another of the world’s great powers. The M5S is asked to make a clear choice, once and for all, in favour of Europe. And consequently, all the other potential components of a centre-left “broad coalition” are challenged to accept an alliance with the M5S, if the latter clearly chooses a pro-European line.

It is significant that the essay comes in after the first round of the French presidential elections, in which the cleavage between nationalism and Europeanism proved so dominant that it swept away the traditional parties. Letta and the PD took a clear stand, which can help the European project, and may restructure the Italian political system.

Source: euractiv.com