EUROPE, QUO VADIS?

The year starts with not clear signs of euphoria in the Old Continent. Certainly does not seem to be the best moment for Europe. The integration process is clearly going nowhere. There is no leadership and the new enlargement has not brought any joy to anyone, with the exception of those that are happy to see a far right group in the Euro chamber. The new German presidency has already announced that the debate on the Constitution will be back to the EU agenda. In the meantime the European citizenship does not seem very enthusiastic about such matters. The European states are more interested in their internal problems and in the economy, but little attention is devoted to the common European cause. With this panorama is not surprising that in many issues we the Europeans have no common position. Turkey, nuclear power, relationship with the US, harmonisation of taxes, immigration or the above mentioned Constitution. Good news come from Slovenia and its accession to the Euro currency area. It is a clear exception. But more than ever it seems that for our leaders Europe, either left or right, matters little more than a long free trade economic region. Financial Prosperity is intrinsically linked to the birth of European integration but so it is the whole political project that now looks meagre. Little shared our state men to those that re-founded Europe and whose sentiments and recent past history convinced them that the best way to secure the peace and prosperity of the continent was to tie the destiny of all the European peoples in a single project. Now the project has become less poetic and more mercantilist. Buying wills and persuading Euro-sceptics with a long bank check. This is not the way and it is a severe indication that the homework is left undone. It is necessary a reaction of those that still believe in a European project. It is necessary to put in the agenda those issues that will make our countries more politically and socially united. Some may argue that perhaps some countries are not ready to comply with it. To me the answer is simple. There is a door to enter that also serves for leaving.