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Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"


Xenophobia and bitter denunciation mark closing session of convention on the future of Europe with its new motto: United in Diversity

John Hooper in Rome, Ian Black in Brussels and Ben Aris in Berlin
Friday July 11, 2003
The Guardian

With politicians and commentators in two of the EU's biggest states trading blatantly xenophobic abuse, the convention on the future of Europe yesterday decided at its final session that the soon-to-be-expanded bloc ought to have a motto.
It is to be: "United in Diversity".
The move came on a day when the head of Germany's ruling party followed the lead of his chancellor and scrapped a holiday in Italy to protest at an Italian minister comparing a German MEP to a Nazi guard; a Swedish party leader apologised for saying the German foreign minister had been a terrorist, and a Danish MEP bitterly denounced the convention for creating a "superstate".
The EU will also get an anthem - Beethoven's Ode to Joy.
Bringing to an end 17 months' work on a draft constitution for the EU, the former French president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, said: "I launch an appeal to politicians in Europe: citizens say 'yes' to our constitution. Do not respond by saying 'no'."
Yesterday, however, several of Europe's politicians were too busy snubbing or slating each other to take a lot of notice.
In Berlin, it was announced that Olaf Scholz, the general secretary of the Social Democrats, the senior partners in Germany's governing coalition, had cancelled a holiday in the Abruzzo region of Italy as the row between the two countries showed no signs of abating. An SPD spokesman said he had "now decided to go to France instead".
Mr Scholz's move, like that of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, followed an article published by an Italian junior minister, Stefano Stefani, who described Germany as a "country intoxicated by arrogant certainties" and its inhabitants as "stereotyped blonds with a hyper-nationalist pride".
An opposition motion tabled in the Italian parliament yesterday called for his removal from office because of the "gravity, inappropriateness and irresponsibility of his statements".
Astoi, a group representing Italian tour operators said it feared a further drop in bookings by German holidaymakers, who are already staying away because of the downturn in the German economy. "If another 5% of Germans spurn Italy because they feel offended or resentful we could have at least 350,000 fewer visitors this year," an Astoi official said.
Mr Stefani is the minister responsible for tourism.
While some broadsheet commentators in Germany deplored the chancellor's initiative, public opinion was overwhelmingly supportive of him. A survey by the Emnid polling institute found 66% backed his decision to stay at home. The same organisation said 14% of those questioned were planning to boycott Italian restaurants in Germany.
The tabloid Bild Zeitung yesterday headlined its front page: "Basta! The chancellor has had enough of pasta." It called on readers to join a mass protest by faxing Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, with demands for Mr Stefani's removal.
In an attempt to defuse the row, the German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, said the relationship with Italy was "so good and so close [that it] must not be damaged by irresponsible comments".
On the other side of the Baltic, meanwhile, the Swedish foreign minister, Anna Lindh, was deploring as "most painful" the description of Mr Fischer given to parliament by the leader of the Centre party, Maud Olofsson.
Responding to criticism for having invited a British Euro-sceptic to a seminar, Ms Olofsson noted that the fervently integrationist Mr Fischer had also addressed a seminar organised by the ruling Social Democrats two days earlier. She added: "He was a terrorist. Shouldn't he have been allowed to come either?"
Mr Fischer, once a radical leftwing streetfighter, played a leading role in channelling the extra-parliamentary German left away from violence. Ms Olofsson said yesterday: "It was a mistake."
Despite a mood of historic self-congratulation, there was some bad feeling in the convention too, with complaints that France and Germany had hijacked the agenda to suit their own needs.
Jens-Peter Bonde, the Danish Eurosceptic MEP, opened his speech with a sharp: "Congratulations on the new superstate!" What little harmony was to be found elsewhere in Europe yesterday came from the representatives of countries eager to cash in on the Italo-German showdown.
Pawel Lewandowski, the head of the Polish tourist board, invited Chancellor Schröder and his family to visit what was intriguingly described as Poland's "Tuscany", while the Austrian economy minister, Martin Bartenstein, urged him to consider a visit to Germany's southern neighbour where there was "no need to fear an orgy of insults".
Back at the convention, Mr Giscard steadfastly ignored the antics, preferring instead to strike an inscrutable note as the convention came to an end. He turned to the onyx Chinese tortoise with a dragon's head which has sat on the rostrum as a symbol of his stately but steady pace.
"She guided us as she did the first Chinese emperor until we reached the river banks," he said, and handed her some lettuce leaves.


To abate – to become weaker, słabnąć
Blatant – obvious, ewidentny
To defuse – rozładowywać
Denunciation – potępienie
To deplore – ubolewać
Downturn – spadek koniunktury
Draft – szkic, projekt, plan
Fervently – zagorzale
Inscrutable – zagadkowy, nieodgadniony
Inappropriateness – niestosowność
Resentful - urażony
Rostrum – mównica
To scrap – skasować, odwolac
Showdown – ostateczna rozgrywka
To snub – robić afront
To slate – zjechać kogoś (skrytykować)
Spurn – odrzucać
Steadfastly – niezachwianie, zdecydowanie


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