Twenty Years Ago: The Assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino

Abstract

The assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino not only had a huge impact on Italy's policy on organized crime, however. They also drove the European Union to launch more specific efforts to combat organized crime, in line with measures that had already been introduced within the context of the Schengen Agreement or incorporated into the Maastricht Treaty. Falcone himself believed that the problem of the Mafia was not confined to Italy, but in fact affected all of Europe, and in particular the European Union. He also pointed out that by eliminating its internal border controls, the European Union would inevitably ease the spread of Mafia-like practices in these and other European countries. He emphasized that a European version of the Cosa Nostra would not be an exact copy of the Italian original because it had to operate in a different cultural and political setting. Keywords:Cosa Nostra; Giovanni Falcone; Italy; Paolo Borsellino