For nearly 50 years now, since the signing of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 1957, Europe has been built with success. It has anchored peace, freedom and democracy in the Continent, to the point that this incredible success story seems so natural that it is sometimes forgotten by the young. We should always remember that unless they are defended those precious gifts will never be retained. But we should also be aware that our peoples’ expectations of Europe, far from diminishing, are in fact broadening and diversifying into areas for which Europe was not originally intended. Ensuring energy independence, combating climate change, reducing inequalities of development around the world, fighting terrorism: in each case, all eyes turn spontaneously to Europe, and justifiably so, looking for drive, decisive action.

Given this, it seems to me that the guiding thread for these new expectations, the new mission we must assign to Europe, along with peace and democracy, is to make Europe into a powerful player in the context of globalisation. The twenty-first century is an opportunity waiting for Europe to grasp it.

A Europe Open to the World

Globalisation is not an ideology, it is a fact of life, and it brings with it a metamorphosis not only in international trade, work and points of balance, but also in our daily lives. And Europe is just the framework we need to adjust to globalisation: its size, its space, its population–it is the third biggest human grouping after China and India–and its rank as the world’s number one economic power, ensure that its views are listened to and respected in international forums such as the World Trade Organisation and environmental conferences.