THE STATE OF THE UNION 2013
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project. Nevertheless, if it is time for a leap forward in the process of European integration, it would be unrealistic to attempt a wide-ranging modification of the institutional framework without the necessary political preconditions. Therefore, we must, first of all, unfold the full potential offered by the treaties and, through a courageous political initiative, we must provide the European political parties and the president of the Commission with larger democratic legitimacy. This could already be done on the occasion of the next European election, if each European party family presents, during the electoral campaign, a political programme shared by the national parties and a common candidate to the position of president of the Commission. This would surely help reduce the gap between European institutions and citizens, who would be actively involved – in a bottom up process – in the choice of the candidate to one of the most important positions within the EU and, therefore, would become engaged with the European project. Moreover, for the first time, we would have truly European elections and no longer the mere sum of national ones. Last but not least, this could counterbalance anti-European parties’ and movements’ weight during the campaign and the polls. The main goal must be to overcome that separation between policies and politics that is producing devastating effects. Without politics – which means debate, confrontation between different positions, exchange of opinions, search for a common ground, compromise between options – policies become a technocratic fact. Without policies, politics at national level risk to be more and more reduced to simple narrative, to propaganda. Therefore, away from people’s lives. If we think that in a country such as Italy, traditionally a very pro-European member state, the feelings against Europe have become so strong and widespread to induce the formation of an odd coalition between left and right, we can grasp the extent to which in Europe the pro-European areas are progressively shrinking. Without a bold action, the risk we run is to waste the remarkable achievements of the last decades. Achievements such as the single market or the common currency. At the end of the day this would damage even the strongest countries, including Germany itself. German sociologist Ulrich Beck recently expressed his concern that the European Union might increasingly become a ‘German Europe’. This, he argues, would be a risk not just for Europe, but for Germany itself. German democratic forces have always believed that Germany’s destiny was that of a strong country, firmly linked to the European integration project. Yet what we are witnessing today is no longer the development of a European Germany, but of a German Europe. This entails a detrimental hierarchical relationship between member states and, as mentioned, European people’s increasing loss of faith into integration. This is, therefore, high time for strong and bold actions. I think that, if we do not want the proEuropean forces and parties to become a minority in our continent, what we do need is a new social