“Wand are truly alone together” (“We are truly alone together”). Mario Draghi said this in Aachen, Germanyin his acceptance speech for the Charlemagne Prize, on May 14. And that formula of his – alone, together – was immediately (and rightly) read in relation to the 27 states that are now part of the European Union.
In this historical phase, complicated by new conflicts and the fraying of alliances, the EU must think of itself as independent, autonomous, more united. But perhaps that appeal to leverage our European experience to regain strength and overcome bureaucratic obstacles, the limits drawn by old rules, the fatigue that proximity sometimes generates, concerns all of us. Not only, therefore, the governments of the member countries – How many times is “Europe” accused in a generic way when the responsibilities lie with individual states? – but also people which constitute the living body of that Union.
We are alone, together, truly and for the first time in history. The awareness of this belonging could be the door that opens another season. Which calls for the courage to participate, as it was in the post-war period when Europe emerged from two global explosions and was able to start dreaming. And to rebuild.
Barbara Stefanelli (photo by Carlo Furgeri Gilbert).
After all, it had been a bit like that also in 2012when the then governor of the European Central Bank delivered his “Whatever it takes” (“Everything necessary”), to indicate an exit strategy from the sovereign debt crisis. Then Draghi said that the ECB would do “everything necessary”, anything therefore, to save the euro from processes of speculation and fragmentation of the single currency. Five years later, Whatever it takes it would become the title of a song by Imagine Dragons (American from Las Vegas), with millions of views on YouTube, which in the official video shows the band playing and singing underwater.
These two sentences, deposited between the lines of the collective imagination, we could now place them side by side, reversing their chronology. We are alone and lonely, together. And we’ll do whatever it takes. For a stronger and more credible European identity within the blurred horizon of the West. To make sense of that territorial, cultural and economic proximity which is proving to be a dignified raft in the midst of the perfect storm that has been unleashed around us.
It’s up to the Commission, the Parliament, the Council and the Bank of Europe. But, fortunately, it also affects each and every one of us. It is a bet that has an urgent and perhaps unexpected meaning until a few years agowhen navigation seemed placid and obvious, the collective one and the individual one. We could soon find ourselves together on a sailing boat, with engine as support in case of unfavorable wind or complicated maneuvers.
What could or should be Europe’s role in this difficult period? Write to us at [email protected]
All articles by Barbara Stefanelli