In a series of portraits of the stars who started European integration, meet Altiero Spinelli. A great thinker and a very famous MEP.

Eureka: Altiero Spinelli, a famous European

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/15593089/J003-0025-EN.srt

Welcome to Eureka  for a series of old-fashioned portraits

of the stars who started  European integration.

The best-known are Robert Schuman  and Jean Monnet,

Alcide De Gasperi, Paul-Henri Spaak  and Konrad Adenauer.

They're the famous founding fathers,  all remarkable people.

But first of all, I'd like to introduce  a great thinker:

one of the most famous MEPs,  Altiero Spinelli from Italy.

1939-45: Europe was torn apart  by the Second World War.

The conflict and the intensity  of the bombing left it in ruins.

Seeing this disaster, several politicians  sought a lasting model for peace.

But that required a thorough revision  of the organisation of European countries.

In 1941, Altiero Spinelli was one  of the first to dream of a united Europe.

The young Italian journalist  was an antifascist.

He opposed the authoritarian powers  controlling Italy.

In prison he wrote a manifesto  for a free and united Europe.

To prevent war the European countries  should be joined into one federal state.

The countries would have  to hand their independence

At the end of the war,  peace movements multiplied

and the idea of European federalism  grew in popularity.

In 1946, the Union of  European Federalists was formed.

Spinelli was one of its leaders. He thought  a common constitution was needed

to organise and to make  a political Europe work.

He devoted all his energy to that project.

and in 1948 the European Movement  was created.

Paul-Henri Spaak  and Konrad Adenauer were members.

They started European integration  a few years later,

but they would choose the economy,  not politics, as the link.

Altiero Spinelli didn't give up  the idea of a political Europe.

In the 1970s, he was a member of  the European Commission and of the EP.

He worked to strengthen the union  between European countries.

To persuade his MEP colleagues,  Spinelli formed the Crocodile Club,

named after a restaurant  in Strasbourg, France.

He organised meetings of the club  for more and more MEPs.

His goal was still to create a federal union

and to strengthen  the EP's and Commission's powers

in all decisions on the future of Europe.

In 1984, Spinelli presented a draft bill  in the EP to create the European Union.

He wanted to give a real boost  to the construction of a political Europe.

To him it was like the adventure  of "The Old Man and the Sea".

Mr President, you all know  the novel by Hemingway

where he talks about an old fisherman  who catches the biggest fish of his life.

so that he arrives with just the backbone.

So, Mr President, with the vote that  the Parliament will take in a few minutes,

it will have caught  the biggest fish of its life.

We still have to take it back to port,  but we must be careful,

because sharks will always be there  to try to devour it.

Let's try not to arrive  with just a backbone.

The big fish, the Spinelli Plan,  was popular with MEPs.

The bill was adopted with a large majority  in February 1984.

The Council, representing  the Member States, didn't approve it.

Countries didn't want to hand  political power to the EU.

Only in 2004 was the European  Constitution signed by the heads of state.

But in 2005 it was rejected  by French and Dutch citizens.

But we still find the ideas of Altiero  Spinelli in the future great laws of the EU,

The EP's powers have been strengthened  but not as much as he had imagined.

Incidentally, one wing of the European  Parliament in Brussels bears his name.