1. Celebration of Europe Day in Ashgabat-Tuesday 6 May 2008
Speech given by Mr Emilio Valli, Co-ordinator of the “Europa House”
Distinguished guests of the government, distinguished guests of the diplomatic corp, ladies and
gentlemen,
We are gathered today in this theatre to celebrate Europe Day. In reality Europe Day should be
celebrated on the 9th
of May, the day during which fifty eight years ago, in the year 1950, the French
Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, read to the international press a Declaration calling upon France
and Germany, both of whom had fought on opposite sides during the Second World War, to pool
together under the control of a single ‘supranational’ High Authority, opened to the participation of
other western European countries, the production of steel and coal, the materials which during the
Second World War were used to build military weapons.
The Schuman Declaration forged the way for the establishment in 1951 of the European Coal and Steel
Community (ECSC), a community of six member states (France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg,
Belgium and the Netherlands) all of whom accepted for the first time in the history of Europe to
willingly renounce a share of their sovereignty to a ‘supranational’ European authority, with strong
autonomy, for the benefit of peaceful relations and mutual prosperity. This first ‘supranational’
European institution was the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community.
During the following years, notably with the Treaty of Rome of 1957, two other European
communities were formed by the same six states: Euratom, pooling together the production of atomic
energy under the control of a common ‘supranational’ authority and the European Economic
Community (EEC), which also established a strong autonomous ‘supranational’ institution, the
European Commission.
The European Union or EU, that we know today, has grown out from the merging and further
development and expansion of these three originally separate Communities, each with its own
‘supranational’ institutions.
Why do we celebrate Europe Day? Europe Day is a celebration of the values which have led to the
construction of the European Union. Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of European integration,
declared: ‘Europe had never existed but it must be genuinely created’. The idea of Europe is about one
of shared fate and common problems, the solution of which requires transnational co-operation. No
idea is more current in the world of ‘globalization’ that we know today, characterized as it is by such
strong interdependences. That is why transnational partnership among institutions and peoples remains
at the core of today EU foreign policy concept.
Robert Schuman declared ‘Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be
built through concrete achievements which first create a defacto solidarity’.
Peaceful relations should be based on a rational vision of solidarity. Solidarity among countries and
peoples is a long term achievement, which requires time and a pragmatic approach based on mutual
interest and mutual prosperity.
It is with this wisdom of the founding fathers of Europe that I will like to conclude my speech and
thank you all for your participation to the celebration of this Europe Day 2008 in Ashgabat.