Altiero Spinelli | |
|---|---|
 Spinelli in 1970 | |
| Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship | |
| In office 1 July 1970 – 4 July 1976 | |
| President | Franco Maria Malfatti Sicco Mansholt |
| Preceded by | Guido Colonna di Paliano |
| Succeeded by | Étienne Davignon |
| Member of the European Parliament forCentral Italy | |
| In office 17 July 1979 – 23 May 1986 | |
| Member of theChamber of Deputies | |
| In office 5 July 1976 – 11 July 1983 | |
| Constituency | Rome |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1907-08-31)31 August 1907 Rome,Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 23 May 1986(1986-05-23) (aged 78) Rome, Italy |
| Political party | Independent Left (1976–1983) |
| Other political affiliations | PCdI (1924–1937) PdA (1943–1946) CDR (1946) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 3, includingBarbara |
| Profession | Writer |
Altiero Spinelli (31 August 1907 – 23 May 1986) was an Italian politician,political theorist andEuropean federalist, referred to as one of thefounding fathers of the European Union. Acommunist andmilitant anti-fascist in his youth, Spinelli spent 10 years imprisoned by theItalian fascist regime. Having grown disillusioned withStalinism, he broke with theCommunist Party of Italy in 1937. Interned in Ventotene during World War II, he, along with fellowdemocratic socialists, drafted the manifestoFor a Free and United Europe (most commonly known as theVentotene Manifesto) in 1941, considered a precursor of theEuropean integration process.
Spinelli had a leading role in the foundation of theEuropean Federalist Movement, and had a strong influence on the first few decades of post-World War II European integration. Later, he helped to re-launch the integration process in the 1980s. By the time of his death, he had been amember of the European Commission for six years, and amember of the European Parliament for ten years right up until his death. The main building of theEuropean Parliament in Brussels is named after him. The 1987–1988 academic year at theCollege of Europe and the 2009–2010 academic year of theEuropean College of Parma were named in his honour.
Spinelli was born in Rome, the son of asocialist father. He joined theCommunist Party of Italy (PCd'I) at age 17 in 1924.[1] Following his entry into radical journalism, he was arrested in 1927 and spent ten years in prison and a further six in confinement. In June 1939 he was interned on the island ofVentotene (inLazio) along with some eight hundred other political opponents of the regime. Here he became involved in the PCI underground.[2][3] In 1937, he was expelled from the PCd'I for opposingStalinism, undermining theBolshevik ideology and supportingTrotskyism.[4]
In June 1941, well before the outcome of the war was safely predictable, Spinelli and fellow prisonerErnesto Rossi completed theVentotene Manifesto, eventually entitledPer un'Europa libera e unita ("For a Free and United Europe. A Draft Manifesto"), which argued that, if the fight against the fascist powers were successful, it would be in vain if it merely led to the re-establishment of the old European system of sovereign nation-states in shifting alliances. This would inevitably lead to war again. The document called for the establishment of a European federation by the democratic powers after the war. Because of a need for secrecy and a lack of proper materials at the time, the Manifesto was written on cigarette papers, concealed in the false bottom of a tin box and smuggled to the mainland byUrsula Hirschmann. It was then circulated through theItalian Resistance, and was later adopted as the programme of theEuropean Federalist Movement (MFE), which Spinelli, Colorni and some 20 others established, as soon as they were able to leave their internment camp. The founding meeting was held in clandestinity in Milan on the 27/28 of August 1943.[citation needed]
The Manifesto was widely circulated in other resistance movements towards the end of the war. Resistance leaders from several countries met clandestinely inGeneva in 1944, a meeting attended by Spinelli. The Manifesto put forward proposals for creating a European federation of states, the primary aim of which was to tie European countries so closely together that they would no longer be able to go to war with one another. As in many European left-wing political circles, this sort of move towards federalist ideas was argued as a reaction to the destructive excesses of nationalism. The ideological underpinnings for a united Europe can thus be traced to hostility to nationalism. In the founding meeting of the MFE, he said: "If a post-war order is established in which each State retains its complete national sovereignty, the basis for a Third World War would still exist even after the Nazi attempt to establish the domination of the German race in Europe has been frustrated."[citation needed]
The Manifesto criticised the "capitalist imperialism which our own generation has seen expand to the point offorming totalitarian states and to the unleashing of world wars".[5] It also declared that "the European revolution must be socialist, that is it must have as its goal the emancipation of the working classes and the realization for them of more humane living conditions".[6] However it opposed "doctrinaire" formulations of transitions to socialism and said "private property must be abolished, limited, corrected, extended: instance by instance, however, not dogmatically according to principle".[7]
After the war, Spinelli, leading the federalist MFE, played a vanguard role in the early episodes of European integration, criticising the small-steps approach and the dominance of intergovernmentalism, feeling even that the chance to unite Europe had been missed as sovereign states were re-established without any common bond other than the functionalistOEEC and the largely symbolicCouncil of Europe. Even theEuropean Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) was felt to be too sectoral. The MFE believed governments alone would never relinquish their national power without popular pressure. They advocated a European constituent assembly to draft a European Constitution.
A critic of the USSR, Spinelli argued that "only when it is faced by a united federal Europe will the USSR be brought to a halt".[8]
This approach eventually had a response from governments when they set up the "ad hoc assembly" of 1952–3. It was Spinelli who persuaded Italian Prime MinisterAlcide De Gasperi to insist in the negotiation of theEuropean Defence Community (EDC) treaty on a provision for a parliamentary assembly to draw up plans for placing the EDC, the ECSC and any other development within a global constitutional framework to "replace the present provisional organization" with "a subsequent federal or confederal structure based on the principle of the separation of powers and having, in particular, a two-chamber system of representation". The Assembly was invited to submit its proposals within six months of its constitutive meeting following the entry into force of the EDC treaty. In fact, the Foreign Ministers, meeting three months after the signature of the EDC treaty, invited the ECSC Assembly immediately to draft a "treaty constituting a European Political Authority" without waiting for ratification of the EDC Treaty.
Spinelli played a significant role in advising the drafting of the Assembly's proposal for a European "Statute". However, the failure of France to ratify the EDC treaty meant it was all to no immediate avail. Some of its ideas, however, were taken up in subsequent events.
Following the crisis of the failure of the EDC and the "re-launch" under thePaul-Henri Spaak committee, which led to the 1958 EEC Treaty, Spinelli, recognising that the EEC institutions were the only real existing form of European integration, but still considering that they were insufficient and that they lacked democratic legitimacy, embarked on a "long march through the institutions". In 1970, he was nominated by the Italian government to be a member of theEuropean Commission[9] from 1970 to 1976, taking responsibility for industrial policy to develop European policies in a new field.
Spinelli decided to run in thefirst direct elections to theEuropean Parliament in 1979. He did so as an independent candidate on the list of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), which by then had become aEurocommunist party and was keen to have prominent independent figures to stand on its list of candidates.[10] Spinelli agreed to stand on the PCI list upon the premise that the PCI was "committed to democracy; that the idea of an ‘historical compromise’ was seriously meant and would be respected; that European unification was to be supported and the country’s present position in theEast-West equilibrium maintained".[11]
While an MEP he was a member of theCommunist and Allies Group.[12] Spinelli advocated what he described as a "democratic and social transformation of the European Community". He praised the French communists for providing a "positive contribution to this battle"[12] and said that under his influence the PCI had "adopted the line which I had sought and supported for many years, especially the need to transcend economic unification and move towards a European political union".[11]
To this end, he began to gather like-mindedMembers of the European Parliament around him, taking care to involve Members from different political groups. An initial meeting at the "Crocodile" restaurant in Strasbourg set up the "Crocodile Club", which, once it was of sufficient size, tabled a motion for Parliament to set up a special committee (eventually established in January 1982 as the Committee on Institutional Affairs, with Spinelli as General Rapporteur) to draft a proposal for a new treaty on the union.[13]
The idea was that the European Parliament should act as a constituent assembly, although Spinelli was prepared to make compromises on the way to secure broad majorities behind the process. On 14 February 1984, the European Parliament adopted his report and approved the Draft Treaty Establishing the European Union. The decision was taken with 237 votes for and 31 against (43 abstentions).[14]
Spinelli's project was soon buried by the governments of the member states. However, it provided an impetus for the negotiations which led to theSingle European Act of 1986 and theMaastricht Treaty of 1992. This happened with the help of several national parliaments, which adopted resolutions approving the draft Treaty, and of French PresidentFrançois Mitterrand who, following a meeting with Spinelli, came to the European Parliament to speak in favour of its approach, thereby reversing France's policy (sinceCharles De Gaulle) of hostility to anything but an intergovernmental approach to Europe. This momentum was enough to obtain the support of a majority of national governments to trigger the treaty revision procedure.
He marriedUrsula Hirschmann, a Germananti-fascist activist and fellow advocate of European federalism, in 1945 and they had three daughters: Diana,Barbara, and Sara. Ursula already had another three daughters (Silvia, Renata, andEva) from her first husbandEugenio Colorni, who was killed by the Nazis in Rome in 1944. Eva Colorni was married to Indian economistAmartya Sen in the last seven years of her life.
Although the resultant treaties fell short of what Spinelli would have liked, his efforts triggered a new momentum in European integration, including a major increase in the powers of the European Parliament within the EU system. In honour of his work, the largest building of theEspace Léopold, the European Parliament complex in Brussels, was named after him.
On 15 September 2010, under the nameSpinelli Group, an initiative was founded to reinvigorate the strive for federalisation of the European Union (EU). Prominent supporters of the group are:Jacques Delors,Joschka Fischer,Daniel Cohn-Bendit,Andrew Duff,Elmar Brok.
| Election | House | Constituency | Party | Votes | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1976 | Chamber of Deputies | Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone | PCI | 35,867 |  YElected | |
| 1979 | Chamber of Deputies | Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone | PCI | 21,007 | YElected | |
| 1979 | European Parliament | Central Italy | PCI | 129,014 | YElected | |
| 1984 | European Parliament | Central Italy | PCI | 172,271 | YElected | |
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Media related toAltiero Spinelli at Wikimedia Commons
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