Italy and the EC

[Sancho the Fat]

BBC NEWS | Europe | A reporter remembers Rome 1957

Discuss, intelligently - i.e. not just regurgitating what others think, copying and posting from English language news sites, etc.

...

[liketheroman]

Not much room for a rant on that one, it is rather a pleasant piece on the setting of the treaty

Comments:

appropriate location - to my mind although certainly a German yearning, the ideologists were 30's Italians

the Italian industrial miracle - almost implies it was thanks to the Treaty, wise use of the Marshall plan money more like, while some countries built factories at least one felt that a country in ruins was the perfect time to found the welfare state

No news in the British newspapers - what it means seems to be a well kept secret to this day (unless you have time on your hands and a high boredom threshold)

Italy today - they must have mixed feelings. Like most others they pick and choose from the Treaty like an a la carte menu. The euro meant that the cost of government borrowing more than halved making the country tenable while on the other hand it has destroyed their old economic model and made them unproductive.

Final thoughts - in the timeline I found the roots in the European Coal and Steel Community as always interesting. The pooling of coal and steel interests was supposed to stop war. Funny how Sweden was never deemed critical as it was their iron ore that fuelled the war machine. Maybe things had moved on by then.

[alan h]

I thought the interesting thing about the signing 50 years ago was that the [Italian] printer was late in producing the document, so apart from the official looking front page, they all signed blank pages!

[or so they said on the BBC Radio 4 on Saturday]

[tuscanhills]

Originally Posted by Sancho the Fat

BBC NEWS | Europe | A reporter remembers Rome 1957 ...

And your point is?

[liketheroman]

Originally Posted by tuscanhills

And your point is?

It was clearly a teaser for a topical discussion.

I liked Macmillan's comment that he did not want to be part of a club of six, four of which we had to rescue from the other two (if memory serves he was a Battle of Britain fighter ace).

The Berlin declaration gave me a laugh:

The unnatural division of Europe is now consigned to the past
(hope they are not taking credit for the end of the iron curtain. Other than that, unnatural for who? I know Germany always loathed its stalets but I think the rest of us were pretty happy)


We, the citizens of the European Union, have united for the better
(relative and meaningless statement - better for restaurants in Brussels selling lobster suppers maybe)


We preserve in the European Union the identities and diverse traditions of its member states
(We do this in spite of the 'union' not because of it)


We are united in our aim of placing the EU on a renewed common basis before the European Parliament elections in 2009
(constitution by stealth - good old Mandy has already said as much)


As usual taking the credit for anything good and ignoring all the bad and ignoring all other influences (Marshall Plan, general improvement to world trade re WTO, peace through establishing a new balance of power, Gorbachev instrumental in ending the cold war)

[tuscanhills]

Originally Posted by liketheroman

It was clearly a teaser for a topical discussion......

Ah, I only ask as Sancho is never a fan of teasers, cut & pastes or context free posts.

I'm glad he's "on the turn"