Mattarella: 'Absolute sovereignty intolerant of rules. It's up to Europe to say no'
The President of the Republic at the University of Salamanca for the conferment of an honorary doctorate
"The international order is, by its very nature, dynamic, new players are appearing, new challenges present themselves. What can Europe do in the face of the recession of the multilateral cooperative model in the management of relations between states? Accept that it is being supplanted by a contractualist vision based on competition? It is up to Europe to say no'. So said the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, in a lectio magistralis at the University of Salamanca.
Absolute rule-insufferant sovereignty
"The frequency of systematic violations of human rights, encouraged by the attempt to marginalise the United Nations, weakens the effectiveness of the international order and its principles. A condition that has ended up favouring the current counter-tendency, compared to the spirit of San Francisco, and which sees the re-emergence of a growing impatience with the agreed rules and the resulting commitments freely signed by states. This is happening in the name of an alleged absolute sovereignism,' Mattarella urged.
Restoring ambition, EU indispensable for peace
"We must rediscover the ambition of the leaders who, in 1951, in the preamble to the Coal and Steel Community Treaty, placed these words: 'Convinced that the contribution that an organised and living Europe can make to civilisation is indispensable to the maintenance of peaceful relations'. A Europe therefore an indispensable nucleus for the maintenance of those peaceful relations that six years earlier the San Francisco Charter had placed at the heart of the United Nations' identity mission,' the President of the Republic added.
EU foundations will not yield to those who want to dismantle Europe
"As Maria Zambrano wrote, 'Our soul is criss-crossed by the sediments of centuries, the roots are bigger than the branches that see the light' In these foundations we have confidence: they will not yield to the attacks of those who would like to dismantle the European construction," the Head of State recalled.
We are witnessing the delegitimisation of international courts and their judges
"It is happening today that - in opposition to what is claimed to be necessary for the orderly life of individual national communities - we are witnessing the delegitimisation of the International Courts and their judges, denying the value of international law, removing the historic choice of civilisation to set up authorities to verify its respect and to sanction its violations," Mattarella said.
