1. EUROPE: PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS AND CULTURAL UNITY

2.  This project is about the public institutions and the cultural unity of Europe.

3.  The Roman Empire kept Europe united for centuries. It relied over a region that today is occupied by more than twenty countries.

4.  People used a single currency and had a common language, Latin; there was a single system of laws, the Roman Law.

5.  There weren’t any frontiers; men, goods and money circulated freely along the Roman road network.

6.  However, historians think that the Roman Empire can’t be considered the origin of modern Europe, because it included many African and Asian regions.

7.  The word “European” appeared for the first time during the battle of Poitiers, in 732 A.D.. The Arabs were ruling Spain, trying to invade France and threatening Istanbul. Charles Martel led the army that defeated the Arabs and blocked their way to Europe.

8.  A reporter of this battle appointed the word “European” in his description of the final fight: “The Europeans, as they left their tents, saw the Arab camps in front of them.”

9.  The first attempt to create an European area was Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire (800 A.D.), that extended from Spain to the Rhine and the Black Sea.

10.  Charlemagne promoted culture with his “Schola Palatina”, a network of educational institutions. Christianity became very important, and the scribes copied a lot of important texts in the monasteries using a new type of writing, the “Minuscola Carolina”.

11.  However, when Charlemagne died (814 A.D.) this unified vision dissolved and the European countries suffered from wars and conquests.

12.  UE is a supranational and intergovernmental political subject that includes 27 indipendent and democratic countries.

13.  The European institutions are:  The European Parliament  The Council of Ministers  The European Commission  The European Council

14.  The Court of Justice  The Court of Accounts  The European Central Bank

15. “The European Federation is not intended to color in this way or that an existing power. It was the sober proposal to create a democratic European power.” (Altiero Spinelli)