At a time of radical and dramatic crisis in Europe, when even its former traditional allies are reaffirming its irrelevance through sarcasm and, at times, contempt, we must seek to understand the meaning and role of Europe. We must not accept the Financial Times’ pessimistic prediction that Europe will be reduced to a grand hotel for the luxurious holidays of the world’s new rich and powerful.
Commenting on the Charlemagne Prize he has just received for his commitment to European unity, Mario Draghi said: ‘Europe has many enemies, perhaps more than ever before, both internal and external. And we must become stronger militarily, economically and politically’. Europe must undergo a new shake-up if it is to get back on its feet and become the political player it must be, both quickly and effectively.
In other words, we must follow Italo Calvino’s lesson in ‘The Invisible Cities’ and ‘seek and learn to recognise who and what, in the midst of hell, are not hell, then make them endure, give them space’.
But what is not hell? Consider, for example, reading history from the perspective of the ‘mothers of Europe’, valuing female soft power, and embracing the culture of relationships and governance of complexity, quite the opposite of the display of ‘male’ power and arrogance that is so fashionable today (as discussed in last week’s blog). A radical change of political culture, a ‘new sense of duty’ and future to pursue.
Or follow ‘the infinite thread’ – a cultural and spiritual path of ideas and values – that lead Paolo Rumiz on his journey among the Benedictine abbeys (those in which the roots of Europe were born, following St Benedict’s ora et labora rule). Try to understand how to move forward in a time of ‘disintegration’ and attack on ‘the Europe of rights’, while also exploring how to build ‘a bank against its dissolution’, a spiritual, cultural, civil and therefore political cause. Rumiz proposes a hypothesis: ‘In my wanderings, I discovered that I am a Christian, but a Christian with a Greek mindset, belonging to a civilisation of free speech, patient listening, perpetual truth-seeking and the supremacy of dialogue over the Old Testament’s temptations of the sword and revenge’. This is ‘the synodal and democratic Christianity of the origins’. A new edition of The Infinite Thread has just been published by Feltrinelli and is well worth a read. This is a radical reinterpretation of the methods and cultures of togetherness, offering a ‘spirituality’ to inform choices and relationships. It presents a dimension of civil values (the ‘polis‘, the ‘civitas‘), and so on, that cannot fail to inspire a new kind of good politics, as well as a religious dialogue whose values are not inspired by the ‘Gott mit uns‘ of new and old extremists of faith. Instead, it takes into account the living legacy of Pope Francis, who emphasises the need to build bridges, not walls.
There is also a third direction one can take, knowing full well that roads full of assumptions about a good future end up converging. This is another Benedictine lesson, this time about where to build abbeys. The third direction is that of greater and better involvement of new generations.
The challenge for Europe is clear: it must invest heavily to become an attractive destination for its young people, who have grown up as the ‘Erasmus generation’ and are therefore accustomed to moving to work in various European countries as part of a ‘single market’. This objective has long been included in the recommendations of the report edited by Enrico Letta for the EU Commission, alongside the other ‘single markets’ of goods, capital and services. Europe must also attract young people from the vastness and variety of its culture, freedoms and opportunities. These potential migrants come from the Mediterranean basin, Arab Gulf countries and Africa, and now also the USA, as political choices in the White House limit freedoms of research, experimentation and study at the world’s leading universities (Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Berkeley).
EU policy choices are needed to make progress in this area, particularly with regard to protectionism, scientific research and education. Substantial investment in laboratories and high-tech companies is required, as well as encouragement of labour market mobility reforms. However, it is also necessary to raise salaries, which in Italy in particular are too low compared to the rest of Europe (a German graduate earns 80% more than an Italian graduate with the same level of education and professional experience).
The challenge is clear: a grand EU plan similar to Next Generation EU to make Europe an extraordinary economic, scientific and technological platform where cutting edge manufacturing, sophisticated knowledge processes and artificial intelligence tools coexist in a novel way that differs greatly from the models that have prevailed so far in the USA (a large market with few rules and large amounts of capital) and China (state-led economic planning with significant public support). In short, Europe has an extraordinary social and cultural capital at its disposal and must be able to quickly transform this into an economic and political force capable of competing with both major states and Big Tech itself.
In a feature-length article in Il Foglio on 17 January, Stefano Cingolani wrote about how ‘between the giants of China and the USA, there is an Italian way to artificial intelligence’ and exploring ‘how to humanise algorithms’. He noted that ‘the European model is gaining ground and that Italy has a unique position’. There is a swarm of new ideas and brilliant minds emerging from universities, laboratories and companies. Practical examples of companies, even small ones, are given, which demonstrate the link between sophisticated robotics products and the shrewd use of AI in processing data and building useful algorithms for research, production process control, predictive maintenance, security (including cyber security), logistics, and so on.
La Stampa tells a similar story in its extensive series of articles on ‘The forest of the future’. One of the many testimonies featured is that of Andrea Bellini, a professor at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. ‘We are working to create the cells of the future. Artificial but intelligent’ (18 January).
From this point of view, Europe is moving forward in the areas of science, technology and enterprise, but is held back by a tendency towards bureaucracy and inefficient regulation (as are many processes in the EU). However, it is also strengthened by an extraordinary diversity of cultures, significant manufacturing strength, and an awareness of the need to quickly establish its own role in the context of a privileged alliance with the US and other dynamic regions of the world. The recently signed agreement with Mercosur is confirmation of this, breaking down trade barriers and building bridges for better trade.
In this context, Italy has a lot of work to do to keep up with the rest of the EU. It must pay close attention to the advice that the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, gave with great clarity in his speech at the inauguration of the academic year at the University of Messina a few days ago (including with a tribute to an exceptional teacher from the University, Gaetano Salvemini). He said that we must spend more on education, increase the productivity of our companies and, above all, of the Italian system as a whole, starting with the public administration and public services. This will enable us to increase salaries and wages, which are currently among the lowest in Europe. After all, productivity in Italy has been stagnant for a quarter of a century.
There you have it, then, the path of Europe and Italy in the European context is clear: invest in knowledge. Leverage this to attract our young people (stopping the ‘brain drain’ and encouraging them to return), as well as to recruit new international talent, expand the labour market and stimulate innovation and economic growth.
It’s a difficult challenge, of course, but far from impossible. If anything, there is a need for clarity and political foresight: less money on pensions and subsidies for electorally relevant groups and more on education, training and innovation.
‘Now that we have the public accounts in order, we must invest in young people’, argues Elsa Fornero, economist and former Minister of Labour in the Monti government (La Stampa, 17 January). She is quite right.
(photo Getty Images)
At a time of radical and dramatic crisis in Europe, when even its former traditional allies are reaffirming its irrelevance through sarcasm and, at times, contempt, we must seek to understand the meaning and role of Europe. We must not accept the Financial Times’ pessimistic prediction that Europe will be reduced to a grand hotel for the luxurious holidays of the world’s new rich and powerful.
Commenting on the Charlemagne Prize he has just received for his commitment to European unity, Mario Draghi said: ‘Europe has many enemies, perhaps more than ever before, both internal and external. And we must become stronger militarily, economically and politically’. Europe must undergo a new shake-up if it is to get back on its feet and become the political player it must be, both quickly and effectively.
In other words, we must follow Italo Calvino’s lesson in ‘The Invisible Cities’ and ‘seek and learn to recognise who and what, in the midst of hell, are not hell, then make them endure, give them space’.
But what is not hell? Consider, for example, reading history from the perspective of the ‘mothers of Europe’, valuing female soft power, and embracing the culture of relationships and governance of complexity, quite the opposite of the display of ‘male’ power and arrogance that is so fashionable today (as discussed in last week’s blog). A radical change of political culture, a ‘new sense of duty’ and future to pursue.
Or follow ‘the infinite thread’ – a cultural and spiritual path of ideas and values – that lead Paolo Rumiz on his journey among the Benedictine abbeys (those in which the roots of Europe were born, following St Benedict’s ora et labora rule). Try to understand how to move forward in a time of ‘disintegration’ and attack on ‘the Europe of rights’, while also exploring how to build ‘a bank against its dissolution’, a spiritual, cultural, civil and therefore political cause. Rumiz proposes a hypothesis: ‘In my wanderings, I discovered that I am a Christian, but a Christian with a Greek mindset, belonging to a civilisation of free speech, patient listening, perpetual truth-seeking and the supremacy of dialogue over the Old Testament’s temptations of the sword and revenge’. This is ‘the synodal and democratic Christianity of the origins’. A new edition of The Infinite Thread has just been published by Feltrinelli and is well worth a read. This is a radical reinterpretation of the methods and cultures of togetherness, offering a ‘spirituality’ to inform choices and relationships. It presents a dimension of civil values (the ‘polis‘, the ‘civitas‘), and so on, that cannot fail to inspire a new kind of good politics, as well as a religious dialogue whose values are not inspired by the ‘Gott mit uns‘ of new and old extremists of faith. Instead, it takes into account the living legacy of Pope Francis, who emphasises the need to build bridges, not walls.
There is also a third direction one can take, knowing full well that roads full of assumptions about a good future end up converging. This is another Benedictine lesson, this time about where to build abbeys. The third direction is that of greater and better involvement of new generations.
The challenge for Europe is clear: it must invest heavily to become an attractive destination for its young people, who have grown up as the ‘Erasmus generation’ and are therefore accustomed to moving to work in various European countries as part of a ‘single market’. This objective has long been included in the recommendations of the report edited by Enrico Letta for the EU Commission, alongside the other ‘single markets’ of goods, capital and services. Europe must also attract young people from the vastness and variety of its culture, freedoms and opportunities. These potential migrants come from the Mediterranean basin, Arab Gulf countries and Africa, and now also the USA, as political choices in the White House limit freedoms of research, experimentation and study at the world’s leading universities (Harvard, Columbia, Stanford and Berkeley).
EU policy choices are needed to make progress in this area, particularly with regard to protectionism, scientific research and education. Substantial investment in laboratories and high-tech companies is required, as well as encouragement of labour market mobility reforms. However, it is also necessary to raise salaries, which in Italy in particular are too low compared to the rest of Europe (a German graduate earns 80% more than an Italian graduate with the same level of education and professional experience).
The challenge is clear: a grand EU plan similar to Next Generation EU to make Europe an extraordinary economic, scientific and technological platform where cutting edge manufacturing, sophisticated knowledge processes and artificial intelligence tools coexist in a novel way that differs greatly from the models that have prevailed so far in the USA (a large market with few rules and large amounts of capital) and China (state-led economic planning with significant public support). In short, Europe has an extraordinary social and cultural capital at its disposal and must be able to quickly transform this into an economic and political force capable of competing with both major states and Big Tech itself.
In a feature-length article in Il Foglio on 17 January, Stefano Cingolani wrote about how ‘between the giants of China and the USA, there is an Italian way to artificial intelligence’ and exploring ‘how to humanise algorithms’. He noted that ‘the European model is gaining ground and that Italy has a unique position’. There is a swarm of new ideas and brilliant minds emerging from universities, laboratories and companies. Practical examples of companies, even small ones, are given, which demonstrate the link between sophisticated robotics products and the shrewd use of AI in processing data and building useful algorithms for research, production process control, predictive maintenance, security (including cyber security), logistics, and so on.
La Stampa tells a similar story in its extensive series of articles on ‘The forest of the future’. One of the many testimonies featured is that of Andrea Bellini, a professor at the Max Planck Institute in Berlin. ‘We are working to create the cells of the future. Artificial but intelligent’ (18 January).
From this point of view, Europe is moving forward in the areas of science, technology and enterprise, but is held back by a tendency towards bureaucracy and inefficient regulation (as are many processes in the EU). However, it is also strengthened by an extraordinary diversity of cultures, significant manufacturing strength, and an awareness of the need to quickly establish its own role in the context of a privileged alliance with the US and other dynamic regions of the world. The recently signed agreement with Mercosur is confirmation of this, breaking down trade barriers and building bridges for better trade.
In this context, Italy has a lot of work to do to keep up with the rest of the EU. It must pay close attention to the advice that the Governor of the Bank of Italy, Fabio Panetta, gave with great clarity in his speech at the inauguration of the academic year at the University of Messina a few days ago (including with a tribute to an exceptional teacher from the University, Gaetano Salvemini). He said that we must spend more on education, increase the productivity of our companies and, above all, of the Italian system as a whole, starting with the public administration and public services. This will enable us to increase salaries and wages, which are currently among the lowest in Europe. After all, productivity in Italy has been stagnant for a quarter of a century.
There you have it, then, the path of Europe and Italy in the European context is clear: invest in knowledge. Leverage this to attract our young people (stopping the ‘brain drain’ and encouraging them to return), as well as to recruit new international talent, expand the labour market and stimulate innovation and economic growth.
It’s a difficult challenge, of course, but far from impossible. If anything, there is a need for clarity and political foresight: less money on pensions and subsidies for electorally relevant groups and more on education, training and innovation.
‘Now that we have the public accounts in order, we must invest in young people’, argues Elsa Fornero, economist and former Minister of Labour in the Monti government (La Stampa, 17 January). She is quite right.
(photo Getty Images)
