Altiero Spinelli (1907–1986), European federalist and rapporteur for the Institutional Committee of the European Parliament charged with drawing up, between 1981 and 1984, a Draft Treaty on European Union.
Altiero Spinelli, Rapporteur for the Draft Treaty establishing the European Union, on the benches of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 14 February 1984.
On 16 September 1955, after the Noordwijk Conference, Altiero Spinelli, co-founder and Secretary-General of the European Federalist Movement, expresses his scepticism at the way in which the revival of the European integration process is taking shape.
On 2 January 1981, Altiero Spinelli sends a letter to Egon Klepsch, Member of the European Parliament and President of the EPP. Spinelli answers his colleague’s questions on the ‘crocodile resolution’ and, more broadly, on the procedure for institutional reform and the strategy it prescribes.
At the closing session of the European Movement’s Congress, held in The Hague from 8 to 10 October 1953, Altiero Spinelli, general delegate from the European Federalist Movement, presents a report on the political future of a united Europe and analyses the links between the Cold War and European unity.
On 5 March 1985, Altiero Spinelli, Italian Chairman of the European Parliament’s Institutional Affairs Committee, writes an aide-memoire on the procedure to be followed so that the Intergovernmental Conference, responsible for drawing up the Treaty on European Union, may reach a successful conclusion.
At the Paris Summit of 9 and 10 December 1974, the meetings of the Heads of State or Government are put on a formal footing. After that date, such meetings are known as meetings of the European Council. Altiero Spinelli, Member of the European Commission, fears that this constitutes a step backwards towards a situation where intergovernmental conciliation procedures will be given precedence over the Community method. Spinelli sees the determination of the Heads of Government to arrogate to themselves the determining of ‘the overall concept of the EU’ as a threat to the role of the Commission as the originator of political initiatives.
