Altiero Spinelli – From Ventotene to the European Constitution

The life and political actions of Altiero Spinelli (1907-1986) reflect the eventful transformations that Europe underwent in the last century. A political opponent of Fascism since his early youth, Spinelli spent more than a decade in prison and confinement. During those difficult years, he synthesised classical federalist thinking into a theory and a blueprint for a federation of Europe. Spinelli was a close advisor to Alcide de Gasperi in the 1950s, a part-time scholar in the 1960s, a Commissioner in the early 1970s, a paramount figure of the European Parliament from 1976 to 1986, and an unrelenting critic of all orthodoxies.

In this volume the reader will find some of Spinelli’s key political texts, from the Manifesto of Ventotene to the farewell speech given to the European Parliament. This is RECON’s way of celebrating Spinelli in the year that marks both the centenary of his birth and the launch of the research project.