ABSTRACT: Following the Congress of Bologna, which fully assumes the Radical Party's transnational choice, the Radical initiative is focussed on the Italian Parliament, where an important resolution for the European Union, the so-called Piccoli-Pannella resolution, is being passed.

(For the United States of Europe, edited by Roberto Cicciomessere, Gianfranco Dell'Alba, Gianfranco Spadaccia - Supplement to Radical News n. 68 of the 5th of April 1988)

The Congress of the Radical Party in Bologna of January 1988 fully assumes the party's transnational choice and confirms its Europeanist and federalist vocation.

The motion approved contained the clear indication of the need for the barycentre of the political activity for 1988 to be formed by a series of initiatives enabling to overcome the serious crisis affecting the Community institutions and the stall of the process of political integration of the European community.

The first initiative was the presentation of the Piccoli-Pannella resolution, subscribed by over 260 deputies of the Christian Democrat Party, the Socialist Party, the Social-Democrat Party, the Republican Party, the Liberal Party, the European federalist group, the Green group and the Independent Left group.

The resolution requests: 1) the attribution of constituent powers to the European Parliament, which will be elected with universal suffrage in 1989, to finally update the Treaty for the Union, 2) the election, in July 1989, of the President of the Council and of the Commission on the part of the European Community and the elected members of the Parliament of the twelve member states, united in General States of the European populations.

The resolution wants to urge immediate initiatives on the part of the Italian government, punctual and adequate initiatives to overcome the serious crisis presently affecting the Community institutions and the paralysis of the process of a political and economic integration of Europe.

While the economic and financial world, both national and multinational, have autonomously started the process of European integration, the Community institutions prove incapable of mastering the consequences of the Single Act (in other words, the complete integration and liberalization of the internal market, due in 1992) and of newly launching the constitution of the European Union, as established by the project of a new Treaty passed by the European Parliament.

There are three phenomena that most determine this worrying situation: the non-adoption of the institutional reforms passed by the European Parliament (proposal of a Treaty of the European Union), which would establish effective community powers, especially for the European Parliament elected with universal suffrage, and a correct democratic dialectic between the three institutions (European Parliament, Council and Commission), the Council's decisional incapacity and the Commission's scarce authority and autonomy.

To win the reluctance of some governments to adopt courageous measures to overcome the Community's crisis, it is necessary to directly involve the public opinion and the national parliaments, and therefore all the European political families which in their majority are in favour of the establishment of the European Union, or the United States of Europe, in the process of acceleration of the economic and political integration of Europe.

As far as the first question is concerned - institutional reforms - the suggestion is that of conferring to the European Parliament, which will be elected with universal suffrage in June 1989, the task of updating, within the same year, the proposal of a new Treaty already approved by the Parliament in 1984.

A resolution that suggests this same strategy has been in fact already approved by the European Parliament (Doc. A2-28/87 - relator Herman).

As far as the second question is concerned - the Council's decisional incapacity and the Commission's scarce autonomy - we suggest, while waiting for a definition on the part of the European Parliament, of a new, truly democratic institutional configuration, the extraordinary summons of the "General States"

of the European populations for the election of a stable President of the European Council (alongside the six-month "Presidents in office") and of the President of the Community executive. The need for Europe to be able to speak with one voice, and that two prestigious authorities, directly legitimated by the European Parliament and by the national Parliaments, be capable of prevailing over the selfishness of national and Community bureaucracies which paralyse any decisional capacity of the Council and any operative possibility of the Commission, is ever more acutely felt.

The fourth point of the resolution aims at adopting forms of symbolic involvement on the part of the political and parliamentary forces of those European countries, represented in the Council of Europe, possibly in favour of the United States of Europe. The last point of the resolution suggests measures that can enhance security in Europe. As a matter of fact, the most effective guarantees for the security and the peace of our continent can come from the development of a process which introduces elements of democratic debate and control in the countries of Eastern Europe.