60th ANNIVERSARY OF THE TREATIES OF ROME

Roma | 25 March 2017
Parent Category: Tutte le Attività (EN) - Category: Anno 2017

The European leaders in the Horace and Curiazi Room, in front of the document of' 57, called to sign a text to relaunch European integration in the next 10 years.
Juncker:"There will be a 100th EU anniversary”.
Gentiloni: "Return confidence to our fellow citizens".
Mattarella: “Start a constituent phase”.
One signature after another. Twenty-seven names have renewed in Rome a common dream and with the ink of the same pen that 60 years ago designed the first Europe, undersigned its commitment to defend its idea and unity.
For the Rome declaration, the European Heads of State arrived in the capital to reaffirm those wedding votes pronounced in 1957 in the eternal city, despite the divorce of an unsatisfied partner, the United Kingdom.
For diamond weddings, the 27 entered the Renaissance palace where on 25 March sixty years ago the Treaty establishing the Union was signed, and signed new key concepts: the unity of Europe, its indivisibility and the possibility for groups of countries to proceed faster than others in certain sectors.
"These are signatures that remain. There will be a 100th anniversary of the EU,"predicted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker on his arrival, but he also called "very sad" a meeting without the UK. The great absence was indeed the British Prime Minister Theresa May, who decided to start the complex process of separation from the European bloc next Wednesday. And it is a stormy Europe that is celebrating its anniversary today, which is riddled with winds of discord, doubt and popular distrust.
"The 27 must prove to be the leaders of this Europe,"warned European Council President Donald Tusk. "The Treaties will need to be revised, all of them.
Now begins a constituent phase" added after the signing of the declaration the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella.
Accomplished under the sun by Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, the Heads of State crossed the large square of the Capitol designed by Michelangelo, directed to the hall of the Orazi and Curiazi, which hosted six of them 60 years ago.
Europe "could die" if it does not rediscover the ideals of the founding fathers, as "solidarity" said Pope Francis to the Heads of State and received them yesterday in the Vatican,"but it can regain hope in solidarity, which is also the most effective antidote against modern populism".
After the solemn commemoration of the Treaties, the Heads of State went to the Quirinale to meet at 13:30 the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella. Welcoming them, he congratulated them.

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THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE: UNIQUE WAY FOR PEACE

Roma | 25 March 2017
Parent Category: Tutte le Attività (EN) - Category: Anno 2017

The President of the Fondazione Mediterraneo, Michele Capasso, in addition to the meetings in Rome for the "60th Anniversary of the Treaties of Rome", recalled his personal commitment since 1988 to the constitution of the United States of Europe and the many initiatives undertaken by the Fondazione Mediterraneo on this subject, also during the visits of the Presidents of the European Parliaments and other representatives of the community institutions.

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MUSEUM OF PEACE CHARM VISITORS

Napoli | 24 March 2017
Parent Category: Tutte le Attività (EN) - Category: Anno 2017

Visitors from all over Italy are enchanted by the beauty and emotions of the Museum of Peace – MAMT

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POPE FRANCESCO RECEIVES THE EUROPEAN LEADERS: "DO NOT FOLD IDEAL FOUNDATIONS TO ECONOMIC NEEDS"

Roma | 24 March 2017
Parent Category: Tutte le Attività (EN) - Category: Anno 2017

Pope Francis receives the Heads of State and Government for the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, he warns from "centrifugal thrusts" and walls:"Solidarity is the most effective antidote to modern populism". It calls for the building of "truly secular societies". Gentiloni:"EU is not only economic parameters".
Europe is a "way of conceiving man from his transcendent and inalienable dignity" and not "a set of rules to observe". And one must resist the "temptation to reduce fundamental ideals to productive, economic and financial needs". Pope Francis emphasizes this by speaking to the Heads of State and Government of the EU countries, received in the Vatican on the eve of the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.
"Today we are gathered here today to celebrate our common project and tomorrow we will sign a document of common intentions, only together and united can we overcome the great challenges, we can defeat terrorism, solve the problem of immigration,"says the President of the Europarliament, Antonio Tajani, in his initial message of greeting. And Bergoglio, returning to the themes addressed in the comeback on the constitutive elements of that "common project" that was signed sixty years ago. They are summed up in five pillars:"The centrality of man, an active solidarity, openness to the world, the pursuit of peace and development, openness to the future".
On the theme of solidarity Bergoglio dwells at length. It presents it as "the most effective antidote to modern populism", as a response to "centrifugal thrusts". But also as a pivot on which to grow the "ability to open up to others". The Pope quotes the German Chancellor Adenauer and his promise of a Union that would not have erected "impassable barriers"around it. Francesco adds:"In a world that knew well the drama of walls and divisions, it was very clear the importance of working for a united and open Europe and the common will to work to remove that unnatural barrier that divided the continent from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic". Today, he comments, the "memory of fatigue" that was accomplished in order to overcome the barriers of sixty years ago has been lost. And if at that time "generations aspired to see the signs of a forced enmity fall", now we are discussing "how to leave out the' dangers' of our time: starting from the long column of women, men and children".
In these sixty years, the Pope admits, the world has changed:"If the founding fathers, who were animated by the hope of a better future and survived a devastating conflict, were animated by the hope of a better future and determined by the will to pursue it, avoiding the onset of new conflicts, our time is more dominated by the concept of crisis". But the word crisis, the pontiff explains,"does not have a negative connotation in itself, it does not indicate only a bad moment to overcome: it originates from the gecko and - Francis recalls - it means investigating, judging". The contemporary one, therefore, is "a time of discernment that invites us to examine the essentials and build on them". A time of "challenges and opportunities".
In this sense, the European Union, in the Pope's words,"unlike a human being of sixty years old, does not have in front of it an inevitable old age, but the possibility of a new youth". Success, however, is linked to the ability to "discern the path of a new European humanism, made up of ideals and concreteness". It is a question of "building authentically secular societies, free from ideological contrasts, in which oriundo and autochthonous, the believer and the unbeliever are equally placed". It is also a question of investing in development and peace. But" development is not given by a set of productive techniques", it "concerns the whole human being: the dignity of his work, adequate living conditions, the possibility of access to education and the necessary medical care". Francis quotes Paul VI:"Development is the new name of peace. But he warns:"There is no real peace when there are people marginalized or forced to live in poverty. There is no peace where there is no work or the prospect of a decent wage. there is no peace on the outskirts of our cities, where drugs and violence are spreading.
That the European Union should not be "only that of numerical parameters, but moral examples, values, in the richness of diversity", as the Italian Prime Minister, Paolo Gentiloni, stressed. "The Church - she said - urged us to strengthen dialogue, we remember Saint John Paul II and his commitment to reunite the two' lungs' as he called them, the East and the West. The Church has also encouraged integration, for example Pope Paul IV who spoke of the magnificent reality of the Union". Remembering that "we are the Europe of humanism and the Renaissance, of Pascal, of the Enlightenment and of reason as a founding idea of human development", Gentiloni reiterated that "we Europeans draw riches from numerous and different roots". "The Pope in the European Parliament spoke of humanization and once again we must follow who we are: we have overcome two world wars and Europe has become a great family. The journey of Europe continues, enriched by our diversity. The journey began some time ago and continues in the name of justice, progress, peace in Europe and the whole world".

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