Starting with what have been defined as “the lessons” to be learned from the financial crisis that has swept Europe, 7 European ministers visited Berlin at the invitation of German Foreign Minister, Guido Westerwelle, to discuss the “strategic goals” of the European integration project. The Foreign Ministers of Italy, Giulio Terzi, and of Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Poland and Portugal sat down at the same table for talks with their host, Westerwelle
In Minister Terzi’s analysis, certain factors can be identified that concern both the single market and the institutional level.
“We need to invest in growth and increase the competitiveness of the single market”, said Terzi, “as we have already begun to do with the last European Council, prompted by Prime Minister Monti”. Budgetary agreements too “should be included in a more general framework that reflects our vision of the role of tomorrow’s Europe”.
At the purely institutional level, there is a need to strengthen the institutions, a goal that can be achieved by following an “authentically Community-based method”. We also need greater solidarity in Europe, as well as a security strategy that responds better, in functional terms, to the new challenges. More generally, “we need to once again inject the European project with that higher political spirit that inspired the vision of the founding fathers of the United Europe”.
