[vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/6″][vc_single_image image=”14738″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https:\/\/thinktank.vision\/en\/media-en\/events\/europe-beyond-the-union-in-a-post-pandemic-world”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][vc_single_image image=”11365″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https:\/\/thinktank.vision\/en\/media-en\/events\/europe-beyond-the-union-in-a-post-pandemic-world”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][vc_separator color=”custom” border_width=”6″ accent_color=”#ffffff”][vc_single_image image=”13430″ img_size=”” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” el_class=”logovision”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”2\/3″][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n
The MESSINA\/TAORMINA CONFERENCE \u201cTHE FUTURE OF EUROPE IN A POST PANDEMIC WORLD<\/b>\u201d has taken place from 2 to 4 October, 2020, in the very days while the continent was confronting the second wave of the Pandemic. While our Scientific Commitee was drafting the paper of the MESSINA\/TAORMINA CONFERENCE ON 10 IDEAS<\/a> FOR A 21ST CENTURY EUROPE, the continent was confronting its greatest crisis since 1945<\/b>, a crisis that not only promises to accelerate the pre-existing technology-driven mutations that have been overthrowing mainstream practices and assumptions but could also produce disruptive transformations in its own right.<\/p>\n As this still new crisis has been unfolding, it has become clear that the covid-19 pandemic has the potential to radically remake the fundamentals both of the European Union and of the whole Western European way of life<\/b>. It could do so in a dramatically constructive way. Or, equally, in a dramatically destructive way. Moreover, the pandemic has exposed fundamental weaknesses in what Europeans thought was their main strength<\/b>. Despite believing that they live in the portion of the globe that enjoys the highest quality of life, the most developed welfare and some of the best health-care systems, in fact many European countries \u2013 notably Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands \u2013 have been the worst hit in terms of casualties and cases, and now have to face a huge welfare burden with broken public finances. We believe that time has come for a new start.<\/b> Part of the Conference has been dedicated to solving events held in Taormina and Messina where conference speakers has continued the debate on the future of EUROPE with selected samples of public opinions and citizens (university students; entrepreneurs; majors from European cities). Here the videos<\/b> of the Plenary Sessions:<\/p>\n Among the participants<\/b>: [\/vc_column_text][vc_tta_accordion shape=”square” color=”sandy-brown” spacing=”5″ active_section=”” collapsible_all=”true”][vc_tta_section title=”New Messina Manifesto” tab_id=”1603364040250-53b77584-1b53″][vc_column_text]In Messina, 65 years ago, the founding countries decided to \u201cmake\u201d Europe (and the European Economic Community). After 65 years, perhaps the time has come to renew the dream. Vision’s paper proposes an approach, priorities and ten specific ideas that can fuel the debate – in Messina \/ Taormina and in the coming months – and promotes a new manifesto.<\/p>\n Here<\/a>\u00a0the new “Messina Manifesto”.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Working Group 1: Global Digital Platforms as the Raison-d\u2019etre of 21st century” tab_id=”1603364040291-c842a368-4296″][vc_column_text]In the 18th Century, the construction of modern nation States found its powerful economic motivation and then legitimacy in the need to develop transportation infrastructures. Roads, railways, squares, and ports would allow factories to exchange goods so that they could specialize and increase productivity using the marvels of mechanization. Digital platforms are the equivalent of those infrastructures. They are the \u201cpathways\u201d through which services, goods, ideas, and relations are channelled in the 21st<\/sup>\u00a0Century.<\/p>\n So far, though, Europe let its own future slip through its hands. A handful of private companies \u2013 some only recently made public in the US (and, as such, regulated by the SEC), others Chinese (and, as such, rigidly controlled by the Chinese Communist Party) \u2013 own the contemporary \u201cinfrastructure\u201d we all use.<\/p>\n It is, thus, a question of state-of-the-art regulations and policies, but also of investments: both in new, public European platforms and in start-ups that will create services for those platforms. A top priority for Europe be fostering venture capital through close-end funds to be created as partnerships between States and the financial operators with the skills to provide support and foresight to new companies.<\/p>\n The conclusions of the Working Group were redacted by Francesco Lapenta, Carlos Moedas, Paola Bonomo, Alfio Puglisi, Elvira Terranova.<\/p>\n Here<\/a>\u00a0the conclusions of the Working Group[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Working Group 2: The Next Generation EU and a Pragmatic Approach to Multiple Integrations” tab_id=”1603364299003-fcdb6d4d-a9be”][vc_column_text]The immigration crisis had exposed much before the COVID19 emergency the enormous (political) costs that half integration, half-hearted unions can have: technically speaking, an area of free circulation of people without a common immigration rule,\u00a0common\u00a0customs (and a strict coordination of the responses to confront emergencies like an epidemic coming from a third country and crossing borders) is unstable and exposed to fragmentation.<\/p>\n The same applies, in fact, to the other pillars of the European project, the common market, as well as to the Monetary Union. The bet of an entire generation of European leader (starting from JACQUES DELORS) was that asymmetric, incomplete integrations were supposed to create the political pressure towards their completion (or, at least, this was). That bet seems to not have worked. The conclusions of the Working Group were redacted by\u00a0Fabio Masini and Koert Deboeuf.<\/p>\n Here<\/a>\u00a0the conclusions of the Working Group.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Working Group 3: Europe as a Laboratory for transnational policies and ideas to save liberal democracies” tab_id=”1603364450093-1aaf3669-7a06″][vc_column_text]\u201cInformation is power\u201d. If it is true what Sir Francis Bacon states in the novel NEW ATLANTIS, the story of the INTERNET revolution is a powerful explanation of liberal democracy. The deluge of data has massively reallocated information, and, as a consequence, the forms through which power is achieved, limited, exercised should be reorganized.<\/p>\n At European level, the \u201cdemocratic\u201d question has been for decades the so called \u201cdemocratic deficit\u201d. The European Parliament – the only supranational institution elected by citizens \u2013 was seen not powerful, and even more not \u201cpopular\u201d enough to close the gap between European institutions and its citizens.<\/p>\n Today, we can probably re-frame the old question which we discussed hopelessly in so many think tank fora in a novel way. Not only Europe is suffering legitimacy; it is liberal democracy which may be experiencing technological obsolescence.<\/p>\n Europe may then become the laboratory for experimenting solutions to the latter problem so that we also find new ways to create a European political arena.<\/p>\n The conclusions of the Working Group were redacted by Sandro Gozi e Maria Costanza Cau.<\/p>\n Here<\/a>\u00a0the conclusions of the Working Group.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section title=”Press Release” tab_id=”1603364550829-ccd2f518-4027″][vc_column_text]Here the collection of the “physical” articles citing the Taobuk Festival and Vision<\/p>\n Here the collection of the online articles citing the Taobuk Festival and Vision<\/p>\n [\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_accordion][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/6″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_btn title=”🇮🇹 Vers. ITA” style=”outline” shape=”square” color=”danger” size=”lg” align=”center” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fold.taobuk.it%2Feuropa-mondo-postpandemico-ita%2F|title:L%E2%80%99Europa%20in%20un%20mondo%20post-pandemico|target:%20_blank|”][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/4″][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nThe Conference was co-organized and hosted by the Taobuk Festival <\/a><\/span>and Vision think-tank, thanks to the support of the University of Messina<\/b>, which offered the stage for this first day of the Conference , held in collaboration with Corriere della Sera<\/b> and moderated by Nicola Saldutti<\/b> (Chief Economics, Corriere della Sera).
\nThe numerous contributions in the debates recalled the theme of the 2020 edition of the Taobuk Festival, Enthusiasm<\/b>, highlighting the positive aspects inherent in the process of European integration.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThe European Commission\u2019s decision to propose an ambitious, unprecedented plan for recovery (the 750 billion euro NEXT GENERATION EU)<\/b> which will be financed by the European Commission own resources is certainly the sign that COVID19 has triggered a sense of urgency which we never experienced before. However, the EU needs more: it needs objectives and decision making mechanisms which can bring a great 20th century project in the new century.<\/p>\n
\nHistory teaches that after the global wars of the twentieth century, new \u201cworld orders\u201d have been crafted: the one conceived in 1919 after the first conflict around the \u201cLeague of Nations\u201d, was less successful than the one drafted in 1948 and culminated in the foundation of the UN, the IMF, the NATO and, ultimately, in Europe, of the European Economic Community (EEC) as the embryo of the current European Union.<\/p>\n
\nSixty-five years ago it was a conference in MESSINA to decide the creation of the institutions (the EEC and the EURATOM) which paved the way to the ROME treaty.
\nIn 2020, the think tank Vision together with TAOBUK has called a 3 days meeting \u2013 on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th October – in MESSINA\/TAORMINA where thirty intellectuals, policy makers, journalists, historians and visionaries has been gathered to generate and discuss some ideas which may trigger a debate on the future of EUROPE with the objective to provide a contribution to \u201ccrafting the future\u201d.
\nThe conference was based on a Concept Paper<\/b><\/a> redacted by Vision and structured in accordance to the Agenda<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n
\nBelow the new Messina manifesto<\/a> and the conclusions of the three tematic Working Groups<\/b>.<\/p>\n\n
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\nAntonella Ferrara<\/b> (President and artistic director Taobuk Festival), Stefania Giannini<\/b> (Assistant Director for Education, UNESCO and former Minister for Universities, Research and Education in Italy), Bill Emmott<\/b> (Author of the FATE of the WEST and former editor of The Economist), Sebastien Maillard<\/b> (Directeur Notre Europe, Institut Jacques Delors), Romano Prodi<\/b> (Former Prime Minister of Italy and Former President of the European Commission), Paolo Gentiloni<\/b> (European Commission for Economy and Former Prime Minister of Italy), Giuliano Amato<\/b> (Judge of Italy\u2019s Constitutional Court, Former Prime Minister and Former Vice President of the Convention on the Future of Europe), Luciano Fontana<\/b> (Editor of Corriere della Sera),\u00a0Maria Costanza Cau<\/b> (Researcher, VISION), Nicola Saldutti<\/b> (Editor-in-chief Economy, Corriere della Sera), Mario Nava<\/b> (European Commission DG REFORM \u2013 Director General), Cleo Li Calzi<\/b> (Professor Leadership Management, LUMSA University), Elvira Terranova<\/b> (journalist, AdnKronos), Francesco Lapenta<\/b> (Founding Director of the John Cabot University Institute of Future and Innovation Studies and Mozilla-Ford Research Fellow), Carlos Moedas<\/b> (former European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation and Member of the Advisory Board of the \u201cFutures of Education\u201d Initiative), Paola Bonomo<\/b> (Former Principal McKinsey, Vice Chair Italian Angels for Growth),\u00a0Koert Debeuf<\/b> (Director of the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy Europe), Fabio Masini<\/b> (Jean Monnet Chair for European Economic Governance, Roma Tre, Secretary of the European Federalist Movement),\u00a0Sandro Gozi<\/b> (Former Italy\u2019s Minister for European Affairs and MEP elected in France), Kalypso Nicolaidis<\/b> (Professor of International Relations and governing body fellow at the St Antony\u2019s College \u2013 European Studies Centre, OXFORD University),\u00a0Xu\u0113 X\u012bnr\u00e1n<\/b> (Writer of The Good Women of China and Journalist), Matthew Caruana Galicia<\/b> (Investigative Journalist, MALTA), Franziska Brantner<\/b> (Member of the Bundestag and leader of Alliance 90\/ The Greens), Stefania Baroncelli<\/b> (Professor Public and European Union Law at Free University of Bozen-Bolzano),\u00a0John Hooper<\/b> (Italy and Vatican correspondent of The Economist), Michele Geraci<\/b> (New York University and head of Italy \u2013 China workforce), Elizabeth Strout<\/b> (Pulitzer Prize 2009), Alexandra Borchardt<\/b> (Head of Digital Journalism Fellowship Hamburg Media School, Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford) , Lorenzo Fioramonti<\/b> (MP and ITALY\u2019s Former Minister for Schools, Universities and Research).<\/p>\n
\nOne possibility is that European institutions reverse the current approach: fewer partnerships but with complete allocation of power and responsibility. These fuller integrations need also to be freely and wholly accepted by Member States, so that they transparently delegate their sovereignty on matters that will have become European authority. One further possibility would be to always pragmatically ask citizens to approve the union so that public opinions are not, then, played against the agreement at a later stage. This would help avoid ambiguous \u201cshared jurisdictions.\u201d
\nSuch a design would be different from the federalist vision because it would be organized around clusters with different memberships (as for today\u2019s \u201cvariable geometry\u201d) and built on a flexibility that Nation States of the eighteenth century excluded.<\/p>\n\n
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