“The pandemic has strongly influenced us, amidst grief and suffering, and has made our common vulnerability evident; paradigm of the many global problems that none of our countries is in a position to face in solitude. Furthermore, we cannot ignore the fact that the world – and our neighborhood – is beset by serious tensions. In recent weeks we have seen the situation in Afghanistan deteriorate. Even closer to us the crises do not subside: from Syria to the Eastern Mediterranean; from the unresolved Ukrainian question to the alarming situation in Belarus ”.
Thus the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, opened the proceedings of the 16th summit of the heads of state of the “Arraiolos Group”: the presidents arrived at the Quirinale palace in succession and, after the classic family photo, they gathered for the first working panel. Representatives from Bulgaria, Germany, Estonia, Ireland, Greece, Croatia, Latvia, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Finland are present in Rome.
Before the working lunch, Mattarella recalled that the situation “presents us with choices that concern both the internal and external dimensions of the European Union. On the one hand, it is necessary to reflect on what the shared interests of the Union are and what is needed to protect them, to achieve effective strategic autonomy; on the other, we must define the role that the Union must exercise in the international community: the crises have taught us how the protection of our sovereignty necessarily involves the defense and development of shared sovereignty in the Union ”.
Speaking about how the EU has responded to the crisis, the president stressed that Next Generation is not only «a resilience and recovery plan but a long-term program towards a double transition, green and digital. It is a question of building our future, to bring this perspective to life there will be a need for considerable investments, both in the industrial sector and in the retraining of the workforce; investments that no country alone can put in place ”.
According to the president, “the double transition, green and digital, would be enough to understand that this is a company from which a Union will emerge at the base of which will be shared sovereignty” and consequently the Conference on the future of the Union represents “a great historic occasion. We must not reduce it to a dull moment of ordinary administration ».
Insisting on the need for a common foreign and defense policy, Mattarella recalled how “the Afghanistan case has plastically represented an incomplete Union that inescapably needs to build – and I add quickly – its own autonomous credibility in the field of international relations. Also in this vision, the Union is in full complementarity with NATO, strengthening its role as a producer of security ”.