Year XXXVIII, Number 2, July 2025

Sergio Mattarella
President of the Italian Republic

European administration and the increasingly integrated and extensive exercise of administrative roles by the European and national institutions have achieved important results of which, at times, there seems to be no awareness.

During the COVID 19 pandemic the Commission, acting on behalf of all the Member States, negotiated the supply of large quantities of vaccines and obtained them very quickly.

Everyone is familiar with the Commission-funded Erasmus project which gives an ever-increasing number of European students the chance of attending university even in other Member States. Over time, universities in the different Member States have forged ties and established forms of cooperation between them. The largest funding for university research currently comes from the European Commission.

Today our nutrition is much safer because the European Union has imposed strict food safety standards and ensures that widespread and stringent inspections are conducted.

We also trust our medicines and their testing because the medicine agencies of the Member States of the Union coordinate their work. Intellectual property is safeguarded on a European level, thereby offering it greater protection.

We fly safely thanks to the rules laid down by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency. We can travel without passports and without incurring additional costs on phone calls thanks to the agreements reached within Europe.

Crime is being fought more effectively and our safety improved thanks to the stonger cooperation we have been able to achieve between the polices forces of the various Member States.

This, of course, does not mean that we do not see that European rules have some limitations. We must be aware of them and work to improve and overcome them. We must work harder to improve the functioning of the Union’s institutions.

If we look at the current structure of the European administrative bodies and the principles enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, we can see that there is a move towards gradually aligning European and national rules.

This would appear to be due to the nature of the phenomena and issues which are emerging and on which administrative action is focussed.

Climate change, the energy crisis, the shortage of raw materials which are essential to the development of technology, migration, digital transition, defence, cybersecurity are not problems that can be resolved independently by the individual nations; they require interaction between parliaments, governments and the civil service on a national, European and - where possible- supranational level.

Europe has moved towards a gradual intensification of this interaction, thereby proving that it operates an open and flexible system which can find new solutions, as well as introducing new organizational models and new procedures.

As of today - we could say out of necessity and for evident and unavoidable reasons - economic, social, health and environment policies of national importance have now become a European responsibility.

The tendency is to guarantee coherence, harmony and continuity between national and EU procedures and rights, with a view to transitioning towards new systems of a general nature but also specifically aimed at achieving unity. The Next Generation EU programme is probably the best achievement of this objective.

On the other hand, the administrative bodies of complex societies must take it upon themselves to evaluate any new risk caused by human activities, environmental hazards, public health and financial issues.

In this context only, the close coordination of national administration entities can guarantee efficient measures to contrast the various crises –whether related to the economy and finance, migration, public health or energy – and find adequate solutions for the challenges posed by globalization.

The evolution and current structure of the Fundamental Rights covering administrative procedures are principally interconnected to topics which are common to the constitutional traditions of the Member States; these, as we know, form the corner stone of the European Constitution. A kind of virtuous circle has been forged between national traditions and the European Constitution which ensures that any further developments converge.

Nevertheless, the current configuration of European administration pays the price of the lack of a properly integrated European political forum, of truly European-level politicians and of a European public opinion that is not simply a concentration of different national sensitivities.

Within the individual nations too often the European Union is still seen as an entity that is separate to the Member States and not - as it is in reality- the result of interaction and cooperation between them, developed over time and based on decisions taken democratically and voluntarily by the national Parliaments and governments, as well as by the European institutions which were instituted and operate by the will and fundamental contribution of the individual nations.

The limited political self-awareness which characterizes the Union conditions its practical work and too often means it is not firm or timely enough in tackling the important challenges confronting the European states and their citizens.

However, the international situation, where harsh and even destructive conflicts prevail, highlights - by way of a contrast - the European States’ shared values and principles. These show that the States are naturally similar and inevitably united when it comes to reaffirming the values represented by democracy, human dignity, liberty, social equity and peace.

It is said that the European Union was founded, and continues to be built, in times of crisis and emergencies. This is certainly partly true.

In recent times, the financial crisis and the pandemic provided the opportunity to make bold choices that transcended the shortsighted concepts of national identity and interests.

However, this approach is no longer acceptable. At this turning point in history, we need to draw some inevitable conclusions and realise that the individual European states on their own cannot find an adequate response to the challenges of this day and age.

In March 1927 we celebrated the signing of the original Treaties in Rome. On that occasion, when welcoming the Heads of State and Government, I took the liberty of saying that the Member States of the Union can be divided into two categories: the small countries and those who still haven’t understood that they too are small.

It is only by being united that they can continue to guarantee their citizens a future of peace and widespread prosperity, such as the last seventy and more years have seen.