What kind of story does Europe want to be part of? This is the narrative that must be constructed.
Relations with the United States, which defined the Western world even after the fall of the Berlin Wall, are no longer what they once were. Distrust of European integration, doubts about NATO’s role, and attacks by JD Vance, or more recently in a document I mentioned last Monday, are all weaknesses that must encourage Europe to rethink itself (see here).
And even if the USA subsequently reverses its apprehension of Europe with another president, Europe must gain autonomy so as to no longer be conditioned primarily by decisions taken in Washington.
The story to be constructed is threefold: economic, political and cultural.
Economics is certainly the simplest. It was in this area that the Common Market first relied to create European power. The progress of the single market and the single currency has, above all, economic foundations.
The economic narrative is based on three dimensions on which there is a form of collective agreement in principle.
The first is the integration of the European market to create a market with large scale effects. This would make companies more competitive on a global scale.
The second is catching up through innovation and mastery of one’s own capacity to grow.
The third is the unification of capital markets. The idea here is to move closer to the conditions that made the American economy successful.
The Letta and Draghi reports have already shed light on this story.
The political narrative must reflect the story we want to tell about what Europe should be like in the future.
Europe was the place of the Enlightenment, the place that, through the free movement of people and ideas, made it possible to become the cradle of the industrial revolution. This dimension must be rediscovered in connection with the first point developed on the economy.
Above all, we must agree on the institutions that have been in place for several decades and in which significant distrust is perceived. Recent elections in Poland and Slovakia, as well as Hungarian activism against Brussels, all raise questions about the ability to create a form of coherence on a continental scale.
The other political dimension is that associated with climate change. Europe has demonstrated exemplary behavior in making choices that prioritize sustainability through the fight against global warming. This approach is being challenged by the Commission and by governments that were committed to this issue. The European narrative cannot be told without putting the climate issue front and center.
The ECB, moreover, was recently concerned about this, concerned by the political positions taken at all levels.
To be continued