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The enlargement of Europe was not a new event, of course.Europe was born with 6 countries, then it spread up to 15,but the growth from 15 up was a new one for its complexity and its dimentions..It’s clear that this enlargement required at the same time a deep istitutions reform in order to make Europe capable to face new tasks. So the first problem was the inner reform of the Commission,i.e. of its way of working. We spent months and months in trying to refine all the procedures,of decision-making processes and most of all of expenditures control, budget, because there were some weak points, as in all the complex institutions, there were charges of not a sufficient severity in the use of means and resources, and so we checked the procedures analisys we used to work with from the beginning,with an extraordinary severity , I must admitt. Many times someone brought the charge against Europe of spreading over and throwing money around, we have preserved the same number of functionaries as the number of employees of a middle-sized town, a quarter of the employees of a city like Madrid or Rome ,so it’s a little structure.We tried, even if considering agricultural Politic and cohesion Politic too, to help the poorest parts of the Continent,considering all this, we mantained an expenditure like less of 1% of European national gross product. If we asked to not sector expert everybody thought that the balance-sheet is 5,10,20 % instead less of 1% with severity,seriousness.The new obvious procedure also allowed the precence of supervision and control organs and above all a strong reinforcement of Parliament control,so that, in spite of being Europe so complex , we could present ourselves in front of the citizens with the clean face and in a obvious way, so that they can check every spent Euro. After this another problem immediately came to us. The enlargement also involves a complete change, in the model of the principles ruling the EU, thai is to say a so large Union needs shared principles, it needs what we call it a simple language, a Costitution. The idea,then, of a Costitution process started at the same time. This process is always complicated for the starting point is the Union of countries with completely different histories. Think about French, Italian, German, British law foundments, think about the different concept fo Constitution itself in these countries. So trying to have a “Common Card” in order to face a future, which is bound to be common for centuries, is one of the most difficult and important missions. Of course a hard debate started, because two main different concepts still existed and exists in Europe; the first one considers Europe like a customs Unione or a little more, the other one like a deeper integration. Having a Costitution blending this differences was and is a great challenge.
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