“We need a deepened and regenerated humanism if we also want to rehumanise and regenerate our countries, our continents and our planet,” writes Edgar Morin in the pages of his latest book, Encore un moment…, published in Italy by Raffaello Cortina (as Ancora un momento), a collection of “personal, political, sociological, philosophical and literary texts” written by one of Europe’s most long-lived minds, still lucid, open-minded and creative nonetheless.

“Implanting humanism in artificial intelligence,” argues Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi (la Repubblica, 9 February), explaining that “the radical difference is perhaps not in reason, in which artificial intelligence may be more sophisticated than man, but in humanism, that is, in conscience, in feeling, in passion, in tenderness,” following the “anthropological” calls of Pope Francis concerning ethics and the sense of responsibility that must also inspire those who work in the world of science and technology.

This is the key word to reflect on, therefore – humanism – in times when the extraordinary and controversial developments of generative artificial intelligence pose questions of meaning and perspective to all of us in the various fields involved: science and knowledge in general, politics, information and training, the economy and work, the very forms of civil coexistence that we have developed over time. Humanism as a vision of the world with the human person at its centre, with the complex of relationships between freedom and responsibility, rights and duties. (Morin’s call extends to a necessary rereading and reaffirmation of the “trinity of liberté, égalité, fraternité that becomes our rule of personal and social life and not the mask that covers an increase in servitude, inequality and selfishness”.)

Humanism as a cross between a sense of beauty and scientific rigour. Humanism, again, as a profound awareness of the complexity of being human, including a gaze into the abyss of the “heart of darkness” and as awareness “of the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me” according to the evergreen lesson of Immanuel Kant.

Morin, who has “complexity” as the key word in his philosophical lexicon (note Massimiliano Panerari in La Stampa, 10 February) recalls the writings of Michel Eyquem de Montaigne and reminds us, specifically, that “his character as father of humanism lies in the foundation of sceptical rationality,” insisting on the need to expand critical thinking skills to address the questions posed by an unrestrained and overwhelming modernity, with artificial intelligence among them.

Reflecting on Elon Musk’s announcement that Neuralink has implanted a microchip in a patient’s brain, Cardinal Ravasi recalls that “the classical tradition distinguishes between brain and mind, while the physicalist vision now dominates, reducing everything to neurons and synapses and considering the brain as an extraordinary computer.” He therefore asks: “And what about the self, conscience, freedom, aesthetics, the will, the soul?”

The answer can also be found in the words of a man of technology and business such as Steve Jobs, who Ravasi quotes to recall his attention to the “need for a union of science and humanism”, according to the lesson of his model, Leonardo da Vinci, “because,” said Jobs, “only through this union can we bring a song out of the heart.” Ravasi makes the following comment: “Beyond the somewhat populist image, Jobs states something which is true: technology proceeds in a binary fashion – take the case of Oppenheimer – but humanity must be present: humanism.”

From profound reflections to news of entrepreneurial initiatives: ARtGlass, of the Capitale Cultura group, with an office in Monza and another in the USA, makes high-tech products in the world of augmented reality and says it is looking for graduates in the humanities (artists, historians, archaeologists) to work with engineers and sophisticated technologists to create “interactive experiences” in the tourism and knowledge sectors (Corriere della Sera, 11 February): “Starting from our technological platform, based on five patents,” explains Antonio Scuderi, one of the founders of ARtGlass, “we have created a language that promotes culture through the tool of technology.” “Polytechnic culture”, we might add, as an original synthesis of scientific knowledge and humanistic knowledge, multidisciplinary algorithm writing.

Precisely because artificial intelligence is radically changing knowledge and work, mechanisms of social relationship, tools for political and social orientation, it is essential to ask ourselves how and why all this is already happening, how to attempt to govern the processes, how to make good use of their advantages and react to the consequences that do not meet with our approval, to the “negative externalities”.

It is a question that calls upon ethics, the value system, the basic judgements for directing the tools at our disposal. It makes profound sense, now, that the president of the Italian Commission for Artificial Intelligence for Information is a theologian of great wisdom, like Father Benanti, a technology expert, the only Italian member of the United Nations High-level Advisory Body on Artificial Intelligence and advisor to Pope Francis on technological ethics issues. In the same way, it is particularly valuable that excellent jurists such as Giusella Finocchiaro, professor at the University of Bologna and founder and partner of DigitalMediaLaws (a boutique law firm specialising in new technology law) reflect on national and EU regulations attempting to govern phenomena of complex international regulation in the pages of Intelligenza artificiale. Quali regole? (Artificial Intelligence: what rules?) for the Il Mulino publishing house.

Ethics, critical culture and law are at the forefront, looking for a road, arduous though it may be, that allows science, tech research and business activity to move forward competitively with respect to other more relaxed areas of the world, without neglecting the sphere of rights and of the interests of the social classes and people for whom developments in technology and markets pose the greatest difficulties or in any case disadvantages.

This is why it is essential to reflect deeply on humanism, on freedom and responsibility, development, quality of life and thus critical freedom of thought. It means humanism modelled on Galileo, as humanist scientist, or indeed as Steve Jobs would have it, on Leonardo and his intelligence of the heart. Such an intelligence is anything but artificial. If anything, it’s profoundly human.

(Photo Getty Images)

The ability to learn from mistakes as a key resource for a good manager

Learning to make mistakes and to learn from mistakes are essential tasks for everyone. It’s also true, above all in fact, for those with responsibility. Achieving this goal helps build a truly complete corporate culture that evolves, grows and develops. It’s not easy to learn how to make mistakes, however. Reading Gli errori del manager. Come evitarli e costruire una leadership consapevole (The manager’s mistakes: how to avoid them and build conscious leadership) by Andrea Lipparini, Massimo Franceschetti and Massimiliano Ghini (lecturers in HR issues in various capacities) is a good start in understanding how to “make good mistakes” and learn better.

The authors start from a consideration: what makes a manager great is not infallibility, but their attitude towards the mistakes made. In contrast to those who tend to avoid or minimise them, seeing only their negative aspects, a successful manager is determined to understand and make use of error as a crucial step in learning and growth.

In their book, Lipparini, Franceschetti and Ghini therefore guide readers to see mistakes as an opportunity to stimulate innovation, consolidate processes of change, develop psychological safety and perfect leadership skills.

The book starts from the foundations, from defining error, a positive definition provided that the value of error is appreciated. Making mistakes can therefore be an opportunity to learn, to change, to be more psychologically confident, to practise being a point of reference. Having established the definitions, the authors proceed to explore what happens when managers “don’t see”, “don’t hear” and “don’t speak”, that is, when the people that have to govern or direct don’t see error in their behaviour or decisions. The causes, consequences and corrections of defects in perception or behaviour are described for every aspect. It’s not theory alone, but also many concrete examples and practical suggestions that aid reflection and action on the main causes of personal error. Specifically: a perception deficit, which hinders a prompt, accurate understanding of different situations; an emotional deficit, which leads to an underestimation or denial of emotions, of both oneself and others; a communication deficit, related to a lack of clarity, respect and constructive criticism in interpersonal relationships. The conclusion highlights the benefits of a conscious state of mind, which prepares a manager for leadership through attention focused on events and people.

It’s a book to keep on the work table, perhaps with a few marks on the pages related to readers’ most frequent errors. The quote from Karl Popper at the beginning of the first chapter is also wonderful: “No one can avoid making mistakes: but the important thing is to learn from them.”

Gli errori del manager. Come evitarli e costruire una leadership consapevole

Andrea Lipparini, Massimo Franceschetti, Massimiliano Ghini

il Mulino, 2024

Three years have already gone by since the Fondazione Il Campiello and the Pirelli Foundation launched the Campiello Junior. The idea behind the award for Italian works of fiction and poetry written for boys and girls, was to foster a love for reading and to promote books among children.

This year the event is once again gearing up for the crucial moment when a jury of 240 young readers will vote to select the winners in two age categories: 7-10 and 11-14 years.

To introduce the six finalists chosen on 10 November 2023 by the Selection Jury chaired by Pino Boero, the Pirelli Foundation has produced six video interviews. These will be available from today on this page and on the Premio Campiello YouTube channel, featuring:

13 February: Angelo Petrosino, Un bambino, una gatta e un cane, Einaudi Ragazzi (7-10 years shortlist)
20 February: Alice Keller, Fuori è quasi buio, Risma (11-14 years shortlist)
27 February: Elisa Ruotolo, Il lungo inverno di Ugo Singer, Bompiani (7-10 years shortlist)
5 March: Andrea Molesini, Storia del pirata col mal di denti e del drago senza fuoco, HarperCollins (11-14 years shortlist)
12 March: Fabrizio Silei, Il grande discorso di Cocco Tartaglia, Emme Edizioni (7-10 years shortlist)
19 March: Daniela Palumbo, La notte più bella, Il Battello a Vapore (11-14 years shortlist)

The Winners Announcement Ceremony will take place on Tuesday 26 March 2024 at 11 a.m. in the Sala del Ridotto of the Teatro Comunale di Vicenza – and will be presented by the journalist Valentina De Poli with the participation of Davide Stefanato. The speakers will be Mariacristina Gribaudi, chair of the Management Committee of the Premio Campiello and Antonio Calabrò, director of the Pirelli Foundation.

The ceremony is open to all young reading enthusiasts and their primary and secondary classes. Admission is free, while places last, with booking required at the following link.

For updates on the Premio Campiello Junior and its associated events, please visit www.fondazionepirelli.org and www.premiocampiello.org.

A thesis recently defended in Padua focuses on the advantages experienced by B Corps

It is no longer merely an acquired direction for companies not to be detached from the social and environmental context in which they operate, but fully committed to respecting and improving the ecosystem they inhabit: it has frequently become mandatory. Understanding what all this means in depth is an important imperative, one which Edoardo Sbrogiò attempts to address with his thesis, defended at the University of Padua.

His research, “Employer branding and B-Corps” starts with a snapshot of theory in this area and moves on to two business case studies. At the outset, Sbrogiò highlights the fact that companies can no longer afford to ignore their impact on the environment and society and, as we said, that including sustainability among company targets becomes imperative. This assumption is the starting point for research that focuses on the B Corp landscape. Its history, evolution of the certification and steps to obtain the certification are analysed. He then addresses the subject of advantages and complications that arise from Benefit Corporation status. The second section is instead dedicated to Employer Branding, presented as a key discipline in the vast world of marketing, focused on attracting and retaining talent in the company. Here too, the theoretical framework of the topic is presented first, with the aim of understanding – explains Sbrogiò – the dynamics of a process which is fundamental to a company: building a reputation that makes the corporate brand more attractive to employees, and to stakeholders more generally. The investigation proceeds to venture to the furthest confines of the topic, the use of artificial intelligence and “4.0 technologies”. This brings us to the last part of the research, a discussion of two business case studies: Patagonia and Perlage. The corporate mission and labour market profile of these two B Corps are discussed. The focus here is on the role that B Corp certification plays in the process of promoting corporate image, according to the different contexts in which the two companies operate.

One of Edoardo Sbrogiò’s conclusions focuses on the importance of the links between paying attention to the environment and to people and to communicating them correctly, with the aim of promoting the company’s image and acquiring new market space. Sbrogiò’s investigation does not introduce new theoretical elements, but has the merit of presenting two good examples that illustrate it clearly and precisely.

Employer branding e B-Corp

Edoardo Sbrogiò

Thesis, University of Padua, M. Fanno Department of Economics and Business Sciences, Degree in Economics programme, 2023

A new edition of a book restates the idea of listening as a tool for learning and growing culture as a priority (including business)

It’s important to listen: to ask and not to tell, listening to learn, humility and therefore to grow. It’s no less true for those “in charge”, and consequently for businesspeople and managers who truly want to inhabit their role. Nonetheless, it’s an attitude that doesn’t always come naturally, which is often actually easier to forget than to remember. It’s a question of culture (also of business). All this makes it important to read the revised edition of Humble Inquiry: the gentle art of asking instead of telling, jointly written by Edgar H. Schein and Peter A. Schein and just published in Italy as L’arte di far domande. Quando ascoltare è meglio che parlare.

From the perspective of companies and corporate existence, but also of the economy and civil life, the premise to start from is simple: it can be difficult for a manager to recognise their dependence on co-workers and colleagues, to understand that they don’t only need to know how to direct, give instructions and express values, but also understand when it’s time to ask and listen with humility. But that’s not all, because you can even go so far as to say that an ability to listen may be the most important thing you need to learn: it’s the only way to increase your knowledge and build strong, valuable relationships, to acquire the building blocks for developing your business the right way – to become complete as a leader.

The book from the Scheins is a guide to listening that starts from the concept of humility and makes it the cornerstone of a powerful capacity for management. A good part of the book develops around this very concept of humility. It starts with a response to the question of the true meaning of “humble inquiry” and continues with reflections on the distinction between “telling decisively” and “asking humbly” before exploring the dynamics of a conversation, thus seeking to understand how to develop an attitude of listening in the workplace but also beyond. Their book sets a series of practical cases and genuine listening “exercises” that are an integral part of its lesson alongside the theory.

Edgar Schein and Peter Schein’s book should be read carefully, a book capable of changing and enriching the culture of a business that truly wants to promote development. So humility actually stimulates competitiveness, as a good passage from very early in the book states: “Our cultural stereotypes keep pushing us in the wrong direction, leading us to believe we know the answer and that it’s appropriate to ‘sell’ it as the truth.”

L’arte di far domande. Quando ascoltare è meglio che parlare

Edgar H. Schein & Peter A. Schein

Guerini Next, 2024

What do we mean when we say we need an “industrial policy”? What are the political and economic categories that we need to refer to in order to offer a concrete response to the need to reinforce the competitiveness of the Italian system, in a world marked by the “polycrisis”, the US-China conflict and the difficulties of Europe? In attempting to answer, we could start with a phrase circulating in the world of BMW in a year of record car sales, more than 2.5 million on international markets: the ‘Italian Touch’. It’s a way of referring to beauty, elegance, design, but also cutting-edge technology and a tendency towards sustainability (Il Foglio wrote about it on 30 January, in a dialogue with the Chairman and CEO of BMW Italia, Massimiliano Di Silvestro).

The fact that the ‘Italian Touch’ is a positive expression in Munich, in the headquarters of one of the most sophisticated and innovative car manufacturers, doesn’t only imply celebrating a tribute to Italian brands like Giovanni Michelotto and Giorgetto Giugiaro, who collaborated with BMW’s success from the 1960s to the 1980s, or confirming an appreciation for Italian automotive components (which contribute a good third to the value of a BMW on average). Above all, it means acknowledging Italian industry’s winning tendency to maintain a combination of “beauty and the well made”: quality, aesthetics, innovation and sustainability.

The point is this: a ‘Made in Italy’ industrial policy must of necessity have strategic support for these four “factors” of competitiveness as its foundation, rather than indicating specific sectors to receive the investment of public resources and fiscal support.

In short, an industrial policy that helps Italy, in the context of effective EU industrial policy choices, should now insist on those factors capable of making our companies – both Italian and European – more competitive. That means that they’ll be able to maintain a position on markets that are increasingly demanding and selective in the face of the power of US and Chinese businesses, and in certain sectors also Indian ones.

An economist who is attentive to new competitive challenges, Daniel Gros, explains how the US economy is growing more than expected because it has been able to focus not so much on industry – even if there’s no shortage of measures from the White House that are clearly protectionist in nature – but on new technologies above all. (This emerges in an interesting issue of the journal Aspenia, dedicated to America a year after the vote and entitled “La debolezza della potenza” (the weakness of power), a cutting oxymoron inviting us to move past the current readings of this controversial season in America.) These new high technologies, starting with the spread of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and digital services, are factors that are radically changing production, work, consumption, lifestyles, knowledge and the environment: a genuine “fourth industrial revolution”, following the steam engine, electricity and the Internet.

It’s the economy dominated by big tech – Google, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft – and Elon Musk’s companies, with special attention to Generative Artificial Intelligence and the repercussions for research, culture, information and communication (with all the attendant ethical, social and political problems). It’s the economy that lays waste to millions of jobs and creates others. It’s the economy, in short, where the US–China clash plays out and according to which new global balances are determined. (We should never lose sight of India, also in this respect.)

And what about Europe? It’s a big industrial player, the richest market in the world. It’s at the heart of a system of values that so far have inspired an original and truly invaluable synthesis of liberal democracy, the market and welfare, and of freedom and social solidarity. But it’s not a decisive political player – it’s still seeking a role and balance – and in new technologies specifically, it’s far behind the big players in the “new globalisation”. Its recent system of rules, the Artificial Intelligence Act, has been given the green light by the European Commission, Parliament and Council, but it can’t count on European companies of a size that can compete with the strength of the giants of American business.

The EU therefore faces a choice on the horizon: how to maintain a combination of industrial strength and high-tech innovation and how to become more compact, unitary and effective, a global player at last – and not a jar of clay among stronger vessels as usual. It’s a radical challenge, which the new Parliament we elect in June and the new Commission will be called to answer (hoping for the defeat of nationalist, populist and sovereignist forces who consider Europe merely a market for balancing the local interests and advantages of countries, not as a political and cultural space for developing values and to propose as a paradigm of democracy in dialogue with the rest of the world).

From this perspective, talking about European industrial policy (we wrote about it in last week’s blog) means defining policies for energy, security and therefore defence, the supply of strategic raw materials, sustainability (and so also industry and agriculture, overcoming the limitations of the current CAP, the Common Agricultural Policy which is the object of unsettling protests by farmers). It also means defining the financial instruments to support it, from eurobonds to strengthening the EU budget and the rules and prospects of the new Stability and Growth Pact. It means a “competitiveness strategy, but one that isn’t at the expense of welfare and the green transition”, in the words of Mario Draghi, who has been tasked with preparing a report on the issue by President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

And what about Italy? The factors of competitiveness, in addition to the ones for Europe in general, are connected with the need to overcome the weaknesses in our industrial sector. First come measures to stimulate innovation, with tax benefits for those who invest, innovate, patent and work on the digital transition, according to the scheme of measures that were formerly Industry 4.0 and are now Industry 5.0 (The PNRR represents €6.3 billion, to be spent well). Then there’s the spread of applications connected with Artificial Intelligence and algorithms for both production processes and products. It’s long-term work that also involves collaboration between business, universities and public and private research centres.

The second industrial policy factor to invest in involves the environmental transition, overcoming the restrictions of regulatory and administrative constraints typical of bureaucracies, both European and national. A connection to issues of energy is essential, with the return of atomic energy, as is the choice of technological neutrality. For example, electric cars are one option, not everyone’s destiny, leaving the option of using hydrogen, biofuels, etc. open.

The third factor relates to the responses required to address the shortage of skilled workers with the necessary training strategies: from metallurgy to furniture, and from tourism to construction, in the North-West and North-East companies struggle to fill an average of 1 in 2 roles among those in demand (Il Sole24Ore, 29 January).

We need long-term training, on the job but also characterised by positive relationships between companies, company academies and qualified training agents (universities, first and foremost). And also need to clarify a basic concept concerning the ever greater spread of Artificial Intelligence, which we mentioned: who writes the algorithms?

It’s essential that the answer is connected with the features of Italian industry and its competitive capacity: its “polytechnic culture” that combines humanistic and scientific knowledge, a sense of beauty and technological quality, cutting-edge design and engineering. So the algorithms need to be written by engineers and cyber-scientists, economists and sociologists, physicists and statisticians, philosophers and jurists, people with a profound knowledge of technological issues but also sensitive to ethical questions: the complex wisdom of a changing world.

The horizon of competitive transformation, and therefore industrial policy, is broad. Our horizon is the new Renaissance, but this horizon is anything but tranquil.

(Photo Getty Images)

MuseoCity is back: from 1 to 5 March 2024 the multi-venue event, which is promoted by the City of Milan, will be putting the spotlight on the museums and cultural venues of the city and its surroundings. The theme of the 2024 edition is “Mondi a Milano” (“Worlds in Milan”). The Pirelli Foundation is participating again, for the eighth year in a row, this time with two events on Friday 1 March 2024. One of the events is specially designed for children.

Focus on Milan: Pirelli and the City through the Eyes of Photographers

4.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. (two tours – lasts about 60 minutes)

This guided tour shows the city of Milan through photographs and historical and contemporary documents in the company archives. A whole range of different faces of the capital of Lombardy will be on display: Milan as a city on the move, in Pirelli magazine photo shoots showing the changing forms of mobility from the post-war period through to the present day; Milan as a city of work and innovation, in photos of its research and production centres, of  its universities and of the Pirelli Tower; Milan as a city of the arts, in the cultural activities of the Pirelli Foundation, in the Pirelli HangarBicocca contemporary art exhibition space and in a host of local institutions; Milan as a city of the “Made in Italy” label, of fashion shoots and international fairs and exhibitions.

Please book by filling in the form at this link. Booking is required for the event. Admission free while places last. Registration ends on Wednesday 28 February 2024.

A Flying Visit to Milan

Workshop for children aged 7 to 11

5.30 p.m. (lasts about 60 minutes)

A journey through the past and present of some of the most iconic places in Milan, as seen through the eyes of great photographers. We will follow them to the top of the Pirelli Tower as it soars up over Piazza Duca d’Aosta, and we’ll dive down to see the people digging the Milan metro. We’ll see them out in the traffic in Piazza del Duomo, at the Central Station, and among the works at La Triennale and at Pirelli HangarBicocca. We’ll set our imagination free and, with paper and crayons, we’ll colour one of their shots and bring it to life in a pop-up work with ourselves as the stars. In the meantime, accompanying adults will be able to visit the Pirelli Foundation and its exhibitions.

Please book by filling in the form at this link. Booking is required for the event and is subject to availability. Registration ends on Wednesday 28 February 2024.

Visitors’ entrance: Pirelli Foundation, Viale Sarca 220, Milan

For more information, please write to visite@fondazionepirelli.org.

The relationship between social and economic system, between progress and freedom described in a dense, original book

Doggedly looking beyond the contingent (often suffocating or misleading) at all times, seeking an outlook other than the one you see, and having faith in humanity (even when it really doesn’t seem possible): these aren’t the building blocks of a futile utopia but for marking out a better life and social system (today and tomorrow). It’s a task that applies to everyone, including those with the responsibility of governing a company, an institution, or a family. This is confirmed by reading Generare libertà. Accrescere la vita senza distruggere il mondo (Generating Freedom: increasing life without destroying the world). It was co-written by Chiara Giaccardi and Mauro Magatti and begins with a strong yet nearly obvious observation: “We are in an interregnum.” That is, we are in a period of crisis, in which “the old is dying and the new cannot be born” (quoting Antonio Gramsci), so we occupy an area of “light and shade” in which “monsters are born”. It is precisely in order to forestall the birth of monsters and aid the birth of “more life” instead that Giaccardi and Magatti lead the reader in a journey comprising suggestions and analysis, but also proposals and instructions.

The two authors start from the reality that reacts to our model of development and urges us firmly to change. They consider it necessary to redefine the relationship between individual freedom, society and the environment. To put it another way, while it is true that there are more of us than before and that we are living better and for longer, the whirlwind economic growth of the last century is now clashing with its contradictions – climate change, migration, demographic imbalance, inequality – which threaten the life of the planet itself and pose the urgent problem of sustainability.

How are we to respond? Not only with technology, but by taking another look at the premises on which growth is based, bridging a cultural delay in the realisation that no living form exists outside of relationship. This is the message of science and it has always been the message of religions: only in relationship with others do we become ourselves and exercise true freedom, in a transitive, generative way rather than a subtractive, predatory one. To demonstrate this, the book establishes a number of cornerstones along the way – the concept that life means relationships, but also creation, intelligence and ethics – and finally achieves an outline of a “supersociety” that models productive coexistence.

Giaccardi and Magatti therefore propose a different logic, one which is not so obvious and not particularly acceptable in many circles. Rather than being a logic of opposition to someone or something, it is for all. The authors have produced a book which is far from simple in certain passages, challenging in many others, and which is an intellectual adventure to read. It will also do good to all readers.

Generare libertà. Accrescere la vita senza distruggere il mondo

Chiara Giaccardi, Mauro Magatti

Il Mulino, 2024

An address from the Governor of the Bank of Italy indicates the common thread running through economy, civil life and production.

Business culture extends beyond factories and offices, to the economy more broadly speaking and, on closer inspection, to every expression of the world. It means awareness of where you are, where you came from and where you’re going. This is why good businesspeople and good managers need a capacity for observation, knowledge of the past as well as the present and, above all, the curiosity to look out from their office windows – to broaden their horizons. Reading one of the latest contributions from the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, serves precisely this purpose.

He addressed the subject “Beyond money: the euro’s role in Europe’s strategic future” on 26 January 2024 in Riga as part of Ten years with The euro, a subject only apparently distant from the topics of production organisations and the culture of production. Talking about the euro, and talking about it beyond its scope as currency, instead means talking about a community that has built up over time and its great significance in all facets of civil life. This also relates to the economy and well-being.

Panetta considers three aspects in his discussion of the euro: the importance of its international role beyond the economy in the strict sense, the change in this role over time and, finally, the path that needs to be taken to strengthen it.

The Governor of the Bank of Italy explores each of these issues, looking at them above all in terms of their significance for European cohesion and security. He describes how they have evolved and become stronger, attempting to outline the potential tools to consolidate precisely the “strength” of the euro as an instrument of cohesion and protection.

Panetta concludes: “In times of geopolitical tensions, [the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union)] functions as a collective defence clause: any attack against a member affects the single currency, a crucial aspect of our shared sovereignty, and is consequently an attack against the entire Union.” The Governor’s final statement is also wonderful: The euro “embodies [the] desire to walk and work together on the world stage.”

Oltre i confini della moneta: il ruolo strategico dell’euro nell’Europa del futuro (Beyond money: the euro’s role in Europe’s strategic future)

Fabio Panetta

Address at the Ten years with the euro conference

Riga, 26 January 2026

“It’s time to talk about Europe” is the plea that Lucrezia Reichlin, as a far-sighted and competent economist, addresses to Italian political leaders, looking ahead to the upcoming European Parliament election on 8 June (Corriere della Sera, 28 January). That means talking about changes in global geopolitics and therefore international conflicts and tensions and the so-called “polycrisis” (the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are its most obvious and dramatic aspects, but certainly not the only ones) and about major environmental and social issues. It means talking about this time of crisis and risks of decline among Western democracies, taking the blows of sovereignism and populists and hostility from the arena of the Global South. And of course of it means talking about economics: how to configure a common economic policy on the issues of competitiveness, innovation and labour, at a time of radical transformations dominated by the unstoppable spread of artificial intelligence and its impact on knowledge, research, production, consumption, and the evolution of economic and social relations.

It’s a challenge that needs to take priority and that can’t only be addressed through the tools of legislative regulation, where the EU is making the first moves, but which requires attention from the perspective of competitiveness, scientific and tech research, investment and support for European industrial policy: up until now, the biggest companies in global markets are US companies, and it’s essential to grow European companies able to rise to the challenge.

Europe is a great economic reality but also a weak political assembly, and it is as fragile as ever in the face of US and Chinese choices, their conflicts but also potential convergence of interests and will to dominate. That’s without mentioning the growing role, economically and therefore also politically, of India, a player that aspires to transition from a position as regional power to global power, but also Russia’s neo-imperial and Turkey’s neo-Ottoman expansionism. In a multipolar world, it is precisely an authoritative European presence that can make a difference and suggest viable ways to define new and better balances of peace and development.

“Europe will have to decide whether it has the strength to make the leap of cohesion necessary to face the new international context, in which it is now exposed on several fronts,” says Reichlin, adding that “economic issues are usually important,” because “it is difficult to imagine a common foreign and security policy without greater sharing of economic instruments,” and “without choices that will not be painless”, both economically and socially.

What are these choices? They concern economic and fiscal policies in order to address the problems of security, economic growth, managing all the complex artificial intelligence challenges we mentioned, and therefore competitiveness and employment with one vision. Nor should the issues of health be overlooked: “Health is wealth,” Mario Draghi often repeats, well aware of the relationship between quality of life and widespread well-being, social wealth, and the possibility of a fairer, more balanced future.

Let’s look at some figures, to understand better.

According to a study by the think tank Bruegel, from 2021 to 2027 the EU has had and will have €1.8 trillion (€257 billion a year) from its budget for investments dedicated to the prioritised topics of the green and digital transition, defence and security, health and the reconstruction of Ukraine (a responsibility that will fall mainly to the EU and other European countries). Lucrezia Reichlin maintains that this is not enough, even considering only that the EU’s Green Deal alone is estimated to require 356 billion per year.

It is also shrinks alongside the economic policies that the US and China have put in place: the 737 billion of the IRA (Inflation Reduction Act) adopted in Washington to support businesses investing in clean-energy technologies (also an extraordinary element of attraction for international companies prepared to go and produce in the US); and Beijing’s huge resources to stimulate Chinese companies in high-tech sectors.

Therefore? The EU budget needs to be expanded, and an instrument which is the subject of increasing discussion must be implemented: eurobonds (the latest voice to urge that they be adopted was Fabio Panetta, Governor of the Bank of Italy, last week). The legacy and lesson of Jacques Delors, a great man in European government, is finally being heard.

The Recovery Fund led the way, gathering EU resources on the financial markets to allocate to the post-Covid recovery and the reforms and investments needed to improve the development condition for the “next generation”. (The new economic policy instrument was actually named after them, and Italy benefits from its most substantial allocations.) The EU can move with success through a common debt to finance a shared destiny of sustainable development.

Now, it is necessary to continue along this path, to build, precisely with eurobonds, a fund to finance investments for a joint army and a more robust security policy. (Manfred Weber of the People’s Party and Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Antonio Tajani have spoken insistently about this in recent days.) This fund should also be for all investment choices related to the supply of strategic raw materials and products indispensable to European industry, starting with microchips. Italian, German and French business associations are aware of this, and it was precisely Confindustria that insisted the most, for a long time, in calling for common investment and intervention instruments in Brussels. It’s a path that requires insistence.

From this perspective too, the outlook required and according to which the proposals of political forces should be judged is to have “more Europe and a better Europe”, with more cohesion and competition, growth and sustainability policies. Europe should finally be able to be a global player, measuring up to its interests and values, thanks to its ability to sustain a combination of democracy, market and welfare, freedom and well-being, a model of relevance to the rest of the world.

These are recurring themes also in view of the Italian presidency of the G7, which must feel a commitment to making the choices needed to try and heal the evident differences within the West (the US on one hand, and nearby Great Britain and the EU on the other). They are also themes that businesses, gathered together in the B7 led by Emma Marcegaglia on behalf of Confindustria, have already began to discuss.

A further point of reference will be the documents on competitiveness and the market that EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen entrusted to two Italians who are well acquainted with the conditions of Europe and its prospects, Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta – prospects that must be discussed in depth, beyond localist and provincial quarrels.

(photo Getty Images)