An outstanding personality of the Italian political life, Alcide De Gasperi was through the essence of his thinking a follower of the democratic-Christian doctrine, an adherent to ecumenism and Catholic universalism, completed in time by a Europeanist conviction and federalist accents. The nuancing of De Gasperi’s involvement in the fight for European integration leads to the finding of his transition from "a simple observer of a problem that did not seem to be topical for Italy to his decision of supporting European unity".