Napolitano says crisis calls for European political union

Rome, May 27 - The European Union must respond to the ongoing economic and social crisis by pushing harder towards political union, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said Monday. "The crisis that the European structure is going through had laid bare the need to promote coordinated policies for growth and to proceed towards political union," Napolitano said in a message to students at an EU event on the island of Ventotene. "Europe's political union is our future... We planned and built much more than a common market and a single currency - it's a community of the rule of law based on freedom, democracy and diversity. But it's not enough". GDS