As U.S. President Donald Trump reported to journalists, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni could not join the Board of Peace because “she has to go to her legislature first.” Meloni’s argument is that the Board of Peace potentially conflicts with the Italian constitution, which admits participation in supranational/international organisms only “in conditions of parity” with other states. Such conditions are apparently not fulfilled by the Board of Peace.
However, Italy is already a member of a supranational organization that does not fulfill that requirement: That is the EU. Not only does the EU not do that, but it fulfills it less each day.
The late Professor Giuseppe Guarino, an eminent constitutionalist, exposed this in writings and speeches before and after the signing of the Lisbon Treaty, which gave birth to the EU. He used the same arguments to expose the so-called Stability Pact.
At a public event on May 19, 2008, in Florence, Guarino criticized the Lisbon Treaty, arguing that the treaty violates the Italian Constitution’s Article 11, which allows Italy to consent to limitations of its sovereignty only on conditions of equality with other states.
Guarino’s point was that the Lisbon Treaty does not satisfy this constitutional parity requirement because some member states (e.g., the United Kingdom and Denmark) had opt-outs from core elements of EU integration, like the euro currency. He contended that these asymmetries mean Italy is not in a situation of “equal conditions” compared with all other states when transferring sovereign powers to the EU framework.
In the same context, he also argued that the Lisbon Treaty alters the balance of powers within the EU institutions—notably increasing the powers of the European Commission—in ways that further erode sovereignty and democratic accountability, which, in his view, compounds the conflict with the constitutional framework.
