IBA Rome - Former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi: “When Europe is united it has a voice in the world”

Publicado el 12 oct 2018

Romano Prodi, who led the commission from 1999-2004 and was twice prime minister of Italy, warned delegates that liberal democracies everywhere were under threat. “From the Philippines to China, from the EU to the US, people seem to be increasingly unsatisfied with the traditional political parties and their decision making - he said. Everywhere there is a desire for authority.”

On the rise of populism around the world, Prodi said that fears of loss of identity at national level have led to a transfer of power from the European Commission to the European Council comprising heads of state, he added. “The European Union was the symbol of shared progress in the defense of rights and the visible instrument of a new social justice in a continent devastated by wars. But things changed, he said. The dream of Europe was the dream of Union of the minority.”

Prodi could not imagine the possibility of a second Brexit referendum, but even if it were to occur, he doubted the outcome would be any different. “Brexit is a loss for Europe,” he stated.

The European project has now been ‘frozen,’ after Brexit all efforts need to be focused on reshaping Europe, as we have no alternative, he pointed-out, “It will be a tough road ahead where the only compromise is to save trade which will be a win-win situation for Europe and beyond,” he noted, but in the meantime the world has changed. The rise of Chinese and US companies has made Europe absent from the line-up of the most powerful companies in the world even if Europe is number one in industrial production. Europe need a wake-up call if it isn’t to end up like Italy after the Renaissance, when it disappeared off the map. The first globalization process was the discovery of America, but Google, Apple, Alibaba and Amazon are the new caravels, and none is European. Even the strongest European economies, such as Germany and France are very small caravels in the new economic reality.

At a time of increasing tension in the international arena, Prodi stressed that the moderating role of Europe is necessary, and that we needed an European spring in order to fight against the spread of anti-European sentiment. “When Europe is divided it has no voice in the world,” he added, concluding that the true barometer of public sentiment in Europe would be revealed in the European Parliamentary elections taking place next year.

 

Roberta Veronese