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1992/93
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In the previous episodes, we reminded that two parallel processes start up in Rome. Once, in Italy we spoke about "Parallel convergences", that is two parallel processes that converge: the first one is related to the economic and monetary Union, whose ultimate goal is the creation of a common currency and the second one is related to the political union, linked to the collapse of the Eastern frontiers, in the perspective of the unification of the continent. So some negotiations start in Rome under the Italian chairmanship in December 1990 and it is not an easy task. The negotiations end a year later in Maastricht, Holland. In this town, the 12 Heads of State and of Government agree upon a Treaty, the so-called Maastricht Treaty characterised by three important items. The first one is that the Treaty constitutes the European Union. In the previous episodes we said that the European Parliament, under Spinelli’s drive, had proposed to transform the relationships among the countries that were part of the Community in a "European Union". A few years after Spinelli’s project, the Heads of State and Government decide to constitute the European Union. The second important item of the Maastricht Treaty is the creation of a European citizenship, of a European citizen empowered with a series of rights, such as, for instance, the right to vote in the communal elections or in the European elections, or some rights related to the belonging to a common civilisation. The third item, that is equally important, is the one relative to the implementation of a foreign policy and of a common security system, that means to consolidate the possibility for Europe to assert itself with its own voice world-wide. The Maastricht Treaty is undersigned by the end of 1991 and it then undergoes the national ratifications. Now it begins one of those difficult phases in the history of the European integration. In fact, the fact of asking citizens’ approval for the development of the European Union, towards a fate and towards objectives sometimes not very clear to the public opinion, causes- in some countries and in some people- a feeling of uncertainty, that determines some fearful reactions. This is the case of France, where thanks to the referendum concerning the Maastricht Treaty, for a few dozens of thousands of votes the majority of the French citizens give their agreement to this Treaty and especially in Denmark, where the Danish citizens must vote twice to allow the Maastricht Treaty to finally be enforced in 1993. The fundamental issue of the Maastricht Treaty- from an economic point of view is- as I said before, the implementation of the Economic and Monetary Union, in particular the implementation of a common currency. It is worth to remind the names of two Italian protagonists of this process of monetary unification. The first one is the Treasury Minister of that period, Mr. Guido Carli, that had been Governor of the Bank of Italy (an important part of the rules concerning the fundamental elements of the Economic and Monetary Union is due to the writings and to the ideas of Mr. Guido Carli) and the second one is Mr. Tommaso Padoa Schioppa, member of the Board of the European Central Bank, who is one of the authors of the part of the Treaty concerning the Economic and Monetary Union. In this occasion too, Italy gave its contribution to the development of the process of European integration with its ideas, ambitions and point of views, in the interests of the European union in its whole.
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