"Europe. Avoid decline” is the title of the economists' new book Marco Buti and Marcello Messori, published by Sun 24 Hours. Yes, avoid decline, but how? It is Buti and Messori themselves who indicate the way by relaunching the "triangle of Delores“, one of the fathers of Europe, but updating it in light of the changes that have occurred in the Old Continent. The three sides of the triangle consist of: 1) macroeconomic stability, combining market discipline and common rules; 2) relaunching the European social model, defining a balance between efficiency and equity; 3) dynamic conception of subsidiarity, articulating national and community responsibilities.
Recovering the spirit of Jacques Delors would be essential to relaunching Europe in times of epochal changes, as he likes to recall Mario Draghi. But, Buti and Messori wisely observe, we need to add policies that update the triangle. In particular three: A) a new industrial policy that supports the single market and is based on the production of common goods, starting from cross-border investments for the double transition, green and digital; B) reform of cohesion policy through an insurance solidarity approach; C) credible implementation of the new fiscal rules by individual countries to guarantee an effective connection between the national and community dimensions of policies on the basis of a balanced monetary-fiscal combination.
How nice it would have been if the Italian electoral campaign for the European Parliament, instead of falling into mediocrity and vulgarity, had made use of these wise considerations. But nothing is lost if, after next weekend's vote, the political will to truly relaunch the spirit of Delors emerges.