31/12/2013
Maria Grazia Melchionni
Since several years the European Union has been facing a crisis, which is simultaneously economic, political and institutional. The incapacity to adapt the European institutions to the
challenges set by the technological innovation and the globalization, the failure of the French and Dutch referenda on the ratification of the draft European Constitution, the great number of
mistakes contained in the Lisbon Treaty have caused a complex and multidimensional crisis, which is a crisis of meaning and direction.At the same time, this crisis has weakened two already
challenging processes: the deepening and the enlargement of the Eu. According to the Author, the European idea is discredited especially by the technical nature of the European narrative, which has no appeal on citizens, and by the personalization of politics. In
order to develop itself, the European integration needs the collective action and the patient and rational research of compromises rather than individual actions or coups de théâtre.
Nevertheless, the European public opinion has a quite positive vision of the Eu, the principle of union among the European States, the necessity of a European monetary policy, the Pesc and the
Pesd. Furthermore, the globalization and the financial and economic crisis could strengthen little and middle countries’ attachment to the Eu. The Author stresses that with 28members the decisional process is slow and difficult, whereas the
critical situation needs decisions token quickly and collectively, and suggests that nowadays the strategy of differentiated integration – limited to some international questions – looks like the
only way to take the European construction out of the present stagnation. The Eu has also to improve its socio-economic model and to develop some social policies. In other words it is necessary to balance the economic integration, the monetary politicies and the social regulations. Finally, Europe has to establish, within and out of the Eu, a system of relations among different
ethnic groups, based on the awareness of their interdependence and the pursuit of the common good.
Carlo Jean
The analysis of security in the Mediterranean basin should be extended to its ‘maritime hinterlands’, which includes the Black and the Red Seas and the Gulf. This area is also referred to
as the «arc of crises» or the «Great Middle East», as it was in the American National Security Strategy, which focused on that region after 9/11. Complexity also exists in the area, which is
referred to as «Mediterranean proper» - from Gibraltar to the Levant – both in theWest to the East and in the North to the South dimensions.
Umberto Montuoro
One of the essential keys to understand the weave of functional links between groups of individuals in the phenomenon of transnational migration affecting, in particular, the Syrian
population, is to imagine a virtual common square, divided into a thousand tents, housings, streets and barricades. The cyber environment, in fact, allows to build and maintain a network of
contacts, structured horizontally and vertically, even at a distance of thousands of kilometres, crossing the porous or rarely closed and hostile borders of national States easily and in real time.
State boundaries abstractly imposed by Western diplomacies only a few decades ago, upon ethnic groups and nations, often nomadic, but unified by centuries of history, religious traditions and a transnational language.
Ekaterina Entina
For many years the Balkan region has been the scene of a collision of interests of great powers. Being one of the central links of the region, Serbia throughout its history has experienced
multidirectional and often mutually exclusive influences of certain world powers. The end of XX and the beginning of XXI century became the turning point for the entire Balkans region where all
the countries chose the European perspective. However, for some of them the path to Europe has turned out to be fraught with incredible difficulties, often associated with the choice between a
recognized membership in the modern world and the preservation of national dignity. For the Serbs this question turned out to be the key one.
Cristina Elias Méndez
The aim of this paper is to contribute to the analysis and development of European constitutional law from the constitutional interaction between the European Union and the Member States. Against the traditional definitions of constitutional jurisdiction, it is now necessary to establish a
concept of constitutional jurisdiction that is coherent with the multilevel constitutionalism of the European Union. From these methodological premises, the different models of constitutional
jurisdiction in the Eu, their characteristics and their main processes are described and analysed.
Rocco Romano
The idea of building a pipeline, on Egyptian territory, with the purpose of connecting the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea emerged before the 1967War, which was responsible for the prolonged closure of the Suez Canal. The pipeline was inaugurated only in 1977 because of regional security
issues. Despite the delay in its implementation, today the Sumed pipeline represents a strategic passage route which allows Middle Eastern oil to reachWestern markets.
Chiara d'Auria
On the base of the informative reports sent to the Vatican and kept inside the Archivio Vaticano Segreto, the Author presents the mission of mgr. Celso Costantini to China, where he founded the
first nunciature and served as Apostolic Nuncio during the 20th and the 30th years of the past century.
Celso Costantini is presented as a man of the Roman Church, as a missioner and as a diplomatic agent at the same time. His mission was not only to build a nunciature in the biggest country of
Asia but also to provide the Vatican with any information on the Bolshevik propaganda going on and the strength of the Chinese Communist Party.
The documents, mostly inedited, show the ecumenical spirit of the Nuncio and his deep
knowledge of the country, as well as the growing force of Ccp during those years.
