The leaders of 28 present and future European Union states have opened a summit in Rome to thrash out a constitution that will govern how former foes from across the continent will work together in an enlarged EU.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi greeted the leaders on the steps of Mussolini's grandiose marbled Palazzo dei Congressi in the fascist-era suburb of Eur, as a helicopter hovered overhead as part of draconian security measures.
Berlusconi told the opening session that the birth of the European Economic Community in Rome in 1957 had been an act of faith.
"I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that today is a truly historic event," he said. "Today we need more than an act of faith, we need an act of willpower."
But the goodwill created by the ambitious project to write a first constitution for an expanded union of 450 million citizens cannot disguise the fact that the talks will be tough, as many states seek aggressively to defend their interests.
The charter is meant to prevent paralysis and ensure EU leadership and decision-making function more effectively after 10 new members join the existing 15 on May 1, 2004. Candidates Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey were attending as observers.
Voicing the demands of many smaller states which fear being steamrollered by Europe's big powers, Austrian Foreign Minister Benita Ferrero-Waldner demanded that each country be allowed to keep a full voting member of the executive European Commission.
A Convention of 105 lawmakers and national representatives drawn from across Europe agreed a draft constitution in June after 16 months of debate under former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing. Among its proposals was slimming down the EU executive to 15 members from 20 at present and 25 next year.
"The Convention simply went too fast on this point," Ferrero-Waldner told Germany's Die Welt newspaper, insisting that each country be allowed to reopen areas of the draft constitution unacceptable to it.
Italy, holder of the EU's rotating presidency, is determined to wrap up the negotiations by the end of the year and has tried to put tight limits on renegotiation, insisting no country may introduce amendments without a consensus for an alternative.
"Improvements can be made but anything changing the balance of the proposal will reduce the likelihood of it being ratified in one or more member states because it would break the consensus," Giscard told the French daily Le Figaro.
But the signals are not encouraging that the draft will pass smoothly through the Intergovernmental Conference, launched by Saturday's one-day summit in a spectacular hall crowned by a ring of lights.
The six founding members - Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg - plus Britain and Denmark want it left largely intact. But Poland and Spain are leading a charge to stop proposed changes to the voting system.
The Irish Government is broadly happy with the draft text, but wants to make sure that there is no threat to the national veto on taxation, foreign policy and some areas of justice and home affairs.