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Oct. 31 - Nov. 7, 2004 |
2 - The Great Challenge for Cultures
Latin, Germanic, and Slavic peoples have converged in Udine for centuries
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2004-08-22
Europe begins here, in the quiet twilight of Palazzo Antonini, headquarters of the University of Udine. Austrian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Croat students exchange notes and textbooks with their Italian colleagues, and together they discuss, joke or listen to music sitting on the benches of the willow park beyond the grand Renaissance atrium. Italian is their lingua franca; at times even Friulian, a dialect that has given and received thoughts, words and idioms across the old border.
Europe begins where, until a few years ago, there were bars, wary custom officers and strict policemen. Between the borders there was a "no man's land" that kept the bordering peoples even farther apart, and dangerous, narrow paths that only illegal immigrants dared to tread, often leaving their lives and hopes at the foot of a cliff. Not anymore.
My car runs fast along the highway leading from Udine to Vienna. A sign reads "Austria Km. 5", and I automatically pat my passport in an inside pocket of my jacket. Five kilometres down the road, however, nobody is there to ask for it, nor after 10, or after 15. Just another road sign in German, giving directions for Villach. That's how I entered Austria, without noticing it. This, too, is Europe.
Frontier posts and customs offices have disappeared from the borders of 15 countries, faded into history; next year, that number will climb to 25: from Malta to Belgium, Greece to Portugal, France, Hungary, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, and of course Italy. Listing them all would be too long. We can simply talk of an immense territory spanning from Spain to the Urals and from the North Sea to the Mediterranean. A nation of over 450 million people, who frequently fought on opposing sides in the wars of the past, but who always found in their common roots a way to reopen dialogue when the guns finally fell silent.
This new nation now has other elements of cohesion: the euro, which replaced the old currencies, and some unique institutions that are a remarkable innovation on the past two centuries. The challenge is to wipe out the divisions of the past in the name of a shared future, under a new name - European Union - and a flag: 12 gold stars on a blue field. Twelve because "this is the number of perfection and completeness," reads the heraldic report. Our report on the new Europe begins in Friuli. This is no casual choice. Over this border territory the three souls of the Old Continent (Latin, Germanic and Slavic) met and often clashed. Ancient souls, yet able to renew themselves to generate the newest ideas. Later on we shall see how this works. For the moment, let's just say that the member states have delegated a part of their sovereignty to common institutions that represent simultaneously the interests of the Union, of its member states and of its citizens. This is accomplished through the so-called "institutional triangle": the Commission, caring for Union interests; the Council, representing the state governments; and the Parliament, elected by universal suffrage.
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