Summary of february 2001
"Democratic Governance for Europe" 

by Sandro Guiglia
(Facilitator of the topic)

°°° Abstract: Here is the first synthetic message (another will follow) of our discussions and topics discussed as well as some suggestions of orientation of the discussion.
We will analyze in this message the following topics discussed: democratic governance notion; States-Nations and globalization; Europe and world; European Constitution.°°°

1) democratic governance

The concept of governance doesn't please some, especially it seems that it is the subject of different interpretations and that its definition is not clear.

My interpretation (in Italian, my mother tongue, the word doesn't exist) is the following: action to manage, to direct, to orient, to solve a problem in its complexity through a multiplicity of contributions, autonomous but consistent, done by a plurality of actors that pursues their interests and assume their responsibilities in a setting of active subsidiarity.

I believe that we should come back on the concept of governance and on the one of subsidiarity to verify if, out of it, we could not get some suggestions for the articulation of the levels of power (Townships, Regions, States, Europe) that is to say for the forms and levels of participation of the citizens and the organized civil society.

2) states-nations and globalization

It doesn't make any doubt that the globalization of the economy (external factor) reduce the power of the States. Therefore, their role of mediation of the conflict interest between citizens and redistribution of wealth produced, becomes always less important. Precisely someone has mentioned that it doesn't allow us to be considered that the political powers and the roles of the States are or will disappear. What was not the subject of an analysis, it is the possibility of recuperation of power of the political action against the globalized economy through the construction of a continental level government.

The other element of reduction of the power of the States (internal factor) is the tendency to the transfer of power to the lower administrative level (Townships, Province/Departments, Regions) in the form of federalization of the state. This tendency can produce a growth of the democracy, if one remains in a diagram of cooperative and socially responsible subsidiarity.
This tendency did create the idea, among political intellectuals experts, of an Europe of the Regions that frightens the States - nations stronger and centralized.

The hypothesis of an European Federation, composed of federal national states, without a single model, enabling a circulation of the powers at several levels, based on the active subsidiarity principle, could be discussed.

3) Europe and the World

Someone has recalled to us that we cannot debate on the Europe that we want without taking into account some that Europe is part of the world and that it would be, of all ways, determined by the evolution of the world tendencies. It could be interested therefore to orient them, and especially to give its contribution to the completion of the necessary (and even urgent) world governance.

4) European Constitution

This topic was often present but in an indirect way. One realizes that each among us thinks about the different aspects of a Constitution (legal aspects, founding principles, rights and duties of the citizens, definition of the roles and the powers of the different levels of governance, etc.).

In an apparently contradictory way, one affirms that these are not the peoples that write the constitutions (which is true) but, at the same time, one expresses a requirement for popular participation, of the aware citizens, of the social actors; to define what kind of Europe we want.
Personally, I think that if the objective of writing a Constitution was registered in the European political agenda, civil society, the organization of citizens could launch a broad discussion more easily on ** the Europe that we want**, therefore the need of a citizens participation to the definition of the main elements to register in the Constitution.

In a second and last message, I will present the other topics that were considered in our discussions.

°°° Abstract: It is the second and last message of summary of our discussions.
We will analyze in this message the following topics considered: European charter of the fundamental rights; national rights and European right; European public opinion; passion, imaginary European, motivating project.°°°

1) European charter of the fundamental rights

The majority of the intervening people on this topic denounces especially its insufficiency for the social rights. The return of the social rights to the national legislations produced two shortcomings: a subsidiarity without cooperation and solidarity on the one hand and the risk to draw the national right downwards on the other hand in some country members.

It is a retraction to send back in the time the definition of the European Constitution.
The methodology followed for its definition is contested: the actors of the civil society were not challenged; an action of legal lobby is not enough, it is necessary to associate to it a political fight about a setting of rules of social order, on the promotion of public policies.

2) National rights and European right

The legal work of constitutional order must affirm and must clarify the rights whose union European asks for the respect in every country and the specific European rights that complete and support the national rights. An intervening party's affirmation, that one can shared completely, puts indirectly in evidence the problem of the unity of the rights for all European citizens, while protecting the diversity of the rights of the countries members, as long as they are consistent with the European right.

As we already told it about the Charter of the fundamental rights, the problem is not only a legal alchemy question but essentially a political alchemy question. Once again, non must wonder what can be the participation and the pressure of the civil society.

3) European public opinion

The absence of an European public opinion is surely the most important element of the weakness of the European political project. It cannot be built by decree and it needs time.

Who have interest and feels enough responsible to work on its construction?
The political parties, the unions, the medias, the universities, the civil society must be in general active actors.
What can be and must be the role of the active citizens to stimulate the other actors towards this direction?
It is one of the questions on which we should think and come to indicate a precise strategies (possible Alliance between organizations and social movements, networks of radios, of newspapers, setup of campaigns on events such as on the "the mad cow", etc.).

4) Passion, European imaginary, rallying project

The conducted unification process slowly leads, drawed by the economic, the Single market, the currency debate do not entailed, among the European citizens, a passion for this project, neither a collective European imaginary.

Could the discussion on the European Constitution be the release of passion and could it constitute a rallying project? On this question, the people who intervening are very devided between them on the "no", the "yes" and the doubts, but there is a wide consensus on the need for a rallying project.