“I don't think we can underestimate the financial issue. In a few moments I will say it in a decisive and convinced way. There is a major financial issue, but Italy maintains that the great challenge of the semester is not just listing a series of appointments, which will also take place and I hope with the participation of the parliamentarians, but the great challenge is to rediscover the soul of the 'Europe, the profound meaning of our being together. If we have to unite bureaucracies, ours is enough for us in Italy. There is an identity to rediscover”. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said this in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, inaugurating the Italian semester at the helm of the Union.
“If Europe took a selfie today, what image would emerge? - he added -. The face of tiredness, in some cases of resignation, would emerge. Europe, today, would show the face of boredom in the selfie”. As for Italy, the Premier underlined that our country “doesn't come to ask Europe for the changes it is unable to make, but to say that we are the first to know we have to change. I represent a founding country that makes an important contribution to the European institutions every year: we give more than we take, and we are happy and proud of it. But I also represent the party that got the most votes of all: and we got them not by saying that it's Europe's fault, but that our problems originate in Italy, that we have to change the institutions, the justice system, the PA We know that before we must ask ourselves for the strength to change if we want to be credible. There is no Italy that asks for shortcuts, but an Italy that offers its willingness to do its part”.
Consequently, according to Renzi “it is clear that the economic question and the discussion of the last Council are not reduced to the request of some countries to change the rules. We want to respect them, but those who remember that we signed the 'Stability and Growth Pact' respect them. Not just about stability. Without growth there is no future. And the request is not for a single country, but for all of Europe. We don't ask for a judgment on the past, but we want to start the future right away. The world runs double: do we want to close this gap or not? On Ict, on climate change, on human capital. There will be no space for Europe if we remain only a geographical expression”.
Finally, the Prime Minister devoted a brief passage to the threats to leave the EU arriving from London: threats linked not only to the Eurosceptics of UKIP, but also to the increasingly intolerant positions of the conservative premier David Cameron towards Brussels, above all following the appointment of Jean Claude Juncker as head of the European Commission. “There is no Europe without Great Britain”, commented Renzi.
