RISULTATI RICERCA

This article is firstly addressed to countering the opinion according to which a European constitution can only follow, rather than precede, a widespread feeling of European identity across the continent. There are in fact solid common grounds and not only economic ones shared by the various European countries, first and foremost their secular character, based on a clear-cut distinction between civil life and religious beliefs. Secondly, the article points to some of the weaknesses of the text of the draft EU constitution being discussed by the Convention’s Praesidium. There is no consistent vision of citizenship, the role of the judicial system is overshadowed and the institutional structure still today largely undemocratic and based on the predominance of the member states remains virtually untouched. All this means that there is a risk that an important occasion for change will be missed. Yet the process needs to be completed, since the symbolic unification of Europe is urgent in the context of world politics today.

This note draws on a recent essay by Anne Dufourmantelle about the topic of hospitality (in J. Derrida and A. Dufourmantelle, Sull’ospitalità, Milan 2000). In Hebrew, the verb to invite is constructed as a compound, using the verbal phrase to create time: understanding this offers another way of penetrating the intimacy of the relationship between host and guest. Being a guest is tantamount to being with others: the possibility to exist because others exist, as a concept feeding on a time as well as a space.The place of the meeting, where the guest is invited, may not necessarily be physical: it may comprise the simple gesture of welcome, as the ability to welcome is the only house where guests will feel really tempted to meet. Dufourmantelle insists on hospitality as solidarity between people who vacillate. This alone does not exhaust the meeting, does not force understanding, risking unexpected consequences waiting in uncertainty. An understanding of the bond of hospitality may be useful for proposing new alliances and new rules.The effort made in this note is the attempt to understand the time dimension of hospitality, a time that is present but also postulates the future, establishes the premises for it and creates it.