Former Goldman Sachs manager, European Central Bank president and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called on Nov. 29 that the EU is at a “critical moment” and therefore the EU must urgently become a state in its own right, to overcome the crisis. “Let us hope that those founding values that have united us, will keep us united,” Draghi said (which values?). “Today, the growth model has dissolved and we must reinvent a way of growing, but in order to do it, we must become a state.”
The “model,” which Draghi says “dissolved,” is cooperation with Russia and China. He then put rearmament on top of priorities for his European state: “We, as Europe, are spending three to five times more than Russia and we are the second investor in military expenses after the United States. It is therefore a question of better coordination.
“Now, the most important thing is to understand how to create European funds to finance defense and fight against climate change. We also need a coordinated foreign policy, because Foreign Ministers meet but reach no agreement. We must think about a better political integration, about a real Parliament of Europe.”
The event at which “Britannia” Draghi made those Nov. 29 statements is not irrelevant. As a matter of fact, it is highly symbolic, especially because of the importance given to symbolisms by Draghi and his co-thinkers. Draghi was presenting a book on the Roman Empire by journalist Aldo Cazzullo, When We Were Masters of the World. The book insists that the roots of the Italian identity lie in the Roman Empire. (Please, inform Draghi that a certain Benito Mussolini tried that first, however unsuccessfully).
