He talks of war and peace and freedom and of the common European home but his message only

He talks of war and peace and freedom, and of the common European home, but his message only seems to send the crowd into a frenzy. The chubby man on the podium addressing an election rally in the university square in Heidelberg struggles to raise his booming voice above the cacophony of whistles and boos. “Italian political elites think they can integrate into Europe while continuing to act as they like at home,” he added.”They have largely had a free ride up to now, but that could all change.”Letters, page 18. “Italy’s enthusiasm for Europe is as unreal, in its way, as Britain’s scepticism,” said Patrick McCarthy, an Italian specialist at the Bologna branch of the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies.

Some businesses acknowledge their export performance has been enhanced by a weak lira, an advantage that they will lose if a single European currency comes into being.Italy faces other potential problems with Europe – the danger that it will fail to qualify for the single currency, and the likelihood that the sacrifices necessary to catch up will increase unemployment, raise taxes and damage already desperate public services.But these issues are rarely aired in public debate. Elsewhere, one hears bleats about European agricultural policy, especially in the deep south, which lives off less privileged olives and citrus fruit. Soon, the consortium hopes, it will be illegal in the EU to describe cheese as Parmesan if it is not made according to the traditional recipe in the Emilia Romagna region.Parma ham enjoys a similar privileged status throughout the European market. Thanks to Brussels, producers no longer have to seek health certificates to ship their hams across European borders.

Their only complaint is that they have no price protection, especially in the French market, where a few big players control supermarket distribution, pushing prices to rock-bottom rates. “But to solve this problem, of course, we will turn to Europe, not the Italian government,” said the Parma ham consortium’s export manager, Massimo Montuschi.Not all Italian food producers have the wealth and lobbying power of the Bologna region. “There’s no point us worrying about the consequences of a single currency when we don’t even have a reliable postal system.”Parmesan makers have done well out of Europe, not only because the single market has made foreign sales easier (Spain, for example, imposed tariff barriers on cheese imports until 1989) but also because the Commission has protected Parmesan and other specialised products from cheap imitations.Already, several British supermarkets have removed “grated Parmesan” labels and renamed their low-price plastic tubs “grated Italian cheese”. The Italian currency is so unstable it is outclassed by the Albanian lek.”Our problems are national problems, not European ones,” said Leo Bertozzi, the export manager for the Parmesan makers’ consortium, based up the road in Reggio Emilia. After all, what is there to lose? National sovereignty? That’s a good joke, with clowns running the show in Rome.