Union's fifth decade is ushered in by ~`Monty Python' and Beethoven

THEY met in the splendour of the Campidoglio, the mother of all town halls. Designed by Michelangelo to mark the return of Charles V to Rome in 1539, its council chamber hosted the ceremony in 1957 which launched the ship European Community.

And the foreign ministers were back in the same room yesterday with the original treaty, though the 15 found they had somewhat less space than their six predecessors.

Outside, the band of the Rome traffic police struck up the Monty Python theme and then delivered itself of the strangest of medleys - a composite of all 15 national anthems which juxtaposed, with a harmony not suggested by history, God Save the Queen, the Marselllaise and Amhran na bhFiann.

Then Beethoven's Ode to Joy, in a strangely joyless rendering that certainly lacked the passion its author intended and scarcely matched the sense of occasion which Europe's leaders were trying to conjure up inside.

"Life begins at 40!" proclaimed the irrepressible Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell. Then, thinking the better of such frivolity, he lectured The Irish Times about 40 years of peace in Europe and the potential for peace in the new millennium within an enlarged EU.

The President of the Commission, Mr Jacques Santer, spoke inside of "a gamble that has paid off, a gamble on peace", and of the courage of the founding fathers in the face of states which had never before conceived of power except through force of arms.

Italy's Prime Minister, Mr Romano Prodi, spoke for the country that still believes in the dreaded "F" word - federalism - of the need to create a European state.

Free trade in 1957 had been seen as the means to overcome conflict and create peace. But the Union now had to be seen to mean more than money.

There was a danger that with unemployment in many member states above 10 per cent, many would be left behind. "To build a new Europe everyone must contribute."

Europe had been excessively weighted, he said, in favour of those in the labour market - "We must redesign it to create opportunities for all our citizens". This was an ethical as well as an economic duty.

Earlier at the foreign ministers' meeting, the Tanaiste Mr Spring, had tested the patience of the Dutch chair by coming up with a most novel excuse for exceeding his seven-minute speaking limit. Ireland, he told amused colleagues, had not been at the 1957 meeting and so he felt it was only fair that he should be able to make up now for what he would have said then.

Reuter adds:

The German Chancellor, Dr Helmut Kohl, in Bonn yesterday praised the European leaders of 40 years ago for their foresight in signing the Treaty of Rome, and called for renewed efforts to fit the continent for the challenges of the future.

Dr Kohl said the treaty had paved the way for decades of peace, freedom, prosperity and social security. It had also given Germany a historic chance as an equal partner to help shape the unification of the continent.

Dr Kohl said Europe must develop further but would not become a centralised superstate. "For me, one thing goes without saying: the Europe of the future will not be a centralised, uniform state. It will build on the principle of subsidiarity, respect national and regional traditions and promote cultural diversity," he said.