More Europe or less Europe? What is the best recipe for getting out of the crisis? A crisis that continues to grip the 28 member states of the EU to a more acute extent than in other countries of the advanced and “emerging” world; and, among these, more particularly those who have adopted the euro (therefore not excluding, to some extent, not even Germany).
For five years, since the Lehman Brothers pot was uncovered and its toxic content spread throughout the planet, government leaders, legislators, bankers, economists, savers have been trying to give an answer to this question. Obviously in Europe, where the obligatory path (certainly, but not decisive) of financial rigor has been taken. The positive effects of which (essentially rebalancing of state budgets) have been progressively outweighed by the negative ones (recession, unemployment, social hardship).
So, in order to overcome the crisis, it is more productive to intensify the process of European integration which began more than half a century ago or, taking into account the sharp decline in citizens' confidence in a united Europe, it is better to slow down this process or even reverse the running direction? Around this not irrelevant question has developed, in the Room of the Protomoteca in Campidoglio in Rome, East Forum 2013, a conference organized by the homonymous study center with the partnership of the European Council on foreign relations, the sponsorship of UniCredit and the patronage of Roma Capitale and the Representation in Italy of the European Commission.
Five hours of passionate debate during which not even the most convinced pro-Europeans, while supporting the need to move forward, spared criticism of the ways in which lame European integration has been achieved so far. However, it undeniably needs to be corrected and brought back into balance, as Giuliano Amato, Romano Prodi, Guy Verhofstadt, Giorgio Squinzi, Emma Marcegaglia, the chairman of UniCredit Giuseppe Vita and the managing director Federico Ghizzoni underline, albeit with different accents, Foreign Minister Emma Bonino.
On the other front, that of the Eurosceptics, isolated but no less combative than what has been shown on many other occasions, Vaclav Klaus, for two terms president of the Czech Republic, staunch opponent of the Treaty of Lisbon. He argued that European integration is unable to grow further because “monetary convergence and the consequent birth of the euro were a mistake, the promised benefits did not materialize, therefore it is necessary to change the European agreements; the sooner the better”. Conclusion: "Less Europe".
Contradictory to Klaus an equally combative Euroenthusiast: Guy Verhofstadt, since 2009 president of the Alde, the parliamentary group of liberal democrats in Strasbourg. “We have to look to tomorrow, let's say in about twenty years, when – he says – the world will be dominated by empires. And the leaders of the United States, China, Russia, India will sit at the G-8 table. Mexico, Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa: not nation-states, but continents”. With the European Union outside, and also the current nation states.
The former Belgian prime minister acknowledges that “Klaus is right: the system doesn't work. And it was a serious mistake to have started the process of European integration with the single currency, which should have come to an end instead. Furthermore, monetary union cannot work if fiscal union and then political union are not created. And within this framework, the banking union is indispensable since it finances the economy”. So, despite the criticisms, Verhofstadt votes for "more Europe".
Also a long-time pro-European ("The idea of Europe has existed for two thousand years. We have European citizenship within, an expression of a community of shared cultures and values"), Julian Amato he acknowledges that "there have been organizational errors around the single currency, which is why the crisis is more acute in the Eurozone". He then laments the fact that "no anti-cyclical instruments have been set up to counter cyclical events". He defines the role of the European Council as "excessive" which, in his opinion, paralyzes the decision-making process in the EU. He underlined that "there is no single market outside Europe without a single banking system". And he provocatively asks: "But who said that we have to live on recession?". In conclusion therefore, for Giuliano Amato we need "more Europe", but a leaner Europe and far from the current system of "parliamentary democracy-like".
Even more critical with current EU mechanisms and policies is Romano Prodi. “The crisis that Europe is going through – he says – is extremely serious, but the alarm signal has not been sounded and we are not dealing with it with economic policy actions. We are divided on everything, and we run the risk of the system breaking down. We are also uncertain, on the theme of integration, whether to go forward or go back”. However, Prodi's pessimism is tempered with a proposal. “A Germany which, pending national elections, keeps all of Europe blocked – argues the ex-president of the European Commission – should be opposed by a credible alternative. Not from a single Member State, which would emerge shattered in a two-way confrontation, but from a group of countries. That they propose a credible political alternative formed by Italy, France and Spain, with the probable addition of other southern European partners, capable of presenting a platform for economic growth that is not bogus”.
As for the president of Confindustria George Squinzi, who declares himself a pro-European, his criticisms of the current management of the European integration process are very harsh. “Wrong recipes have been applied – he says – which have caused internal demand to collapse. Thus the thesis according to which austerity kills the economy was confirmed”. Then what to do? “We need a turning point – he says – that brings industry back to the centre, a new course that focuses on the real economy; financial services are not the main axis of growth”. And it is also necessary "to strengthen economic governance and stabilize the debt/GDP ratio (but not its reduction at the moment)".
Emma Marcegaglia, fresh president of the Association of European Industrialists, does not seem to share the opinion of her successor in viale dell'Astronomia on the austerity-growth conflict. “If we go down that road, we risk hurting ourselves,” she says. And he adds that, "if the State liquidated its debts to companies, it would implement a financial package of unprecedented dimensions, which would have an extraordinary impact on restarting the economy".
Not even Emma Bonino, a longtime federalist, is satisfied with the status quo in the field of integration. “It's not adequate. And, not wanting to go back, the only alternative – she claims – is to go forward, therefore more Europe. However, we need to have a vision of the point of arrival, and we now need a courageous step forward towards stronger European integration. I am thinking of a light federalism, suitable for the European situation, to which a limited number of policies can be entrusted: foreign, economic and financial, defense and very few others”.
