The answer is political” “

First the Twin Towers, then Iraq, now Madrid. The challenge of terrorism and of the violent threats to peace and democracy is changing the agenda of the European Council that is due to meet in Brussels on 25/26 March. The economic questions (Lisbon strategy) and the institutional issues (drafting of the constitutional Treaty) are having to give way to the joint campaign against international violence. On the eve of the EU summit even EU competition Commissioner MARIO MONTI is sounding the alarm: “We need to move together on various fronts. Overall I would say that globalization must be governed through political action and in this the Union can play a key role”. “GOVERNING GLOBALIZATION”. Professor of political economy, first rector and now president of the prestigious Bocconi University in Milan, Monti is considered one of the major experts on monetary and fiscal policy. Commissioner of the single market since 1995, he now sits on the executive headed by Romano Prodi as Commissioner for competition. “Globalization – explains Monti – presents many positive aspects, but also many possible dangers. It does not concern only the markets, but also communications and culture. There are also ethical and political aspects… Now, I’m convinced that we can draw benefits from this international process if we govern its causes and its effects. Just at the present time, for example, we need to take the necessary counter-measures to combat terrorist violence, that causes death and tragedy and threatens peace”. In this process “the Union holds an advantage, even over the USA. In the first place, this is because we boast of a heritage of precious values along this road. A perspective of sustainable development has been developed in our continent in the course of time. In Europe it is by now a firmly entrenched principle that economic growth needs to be pursued by taking into consideration the social repercussions linked to it. The second aspect, connected to the first, concerns the fact that for us in Europe public policies are a tradition and their task is also that of guiding development, without penalizing the market and competition”. Round these concepts – says Monti – “a Europe that has common values and objectives has been, and continues to be constructed”. POLITICAL ACTION IN THE FOREGROUND. This potential, however, warns the economist, “risks remaining a dead letter if we don’t proceed with greater courage along the road of European integration”. The fields indicated by Monti in which we need to pursue this policy include foreign trade, competition, currency and public finances. “At the present time – adds the Commissioner – the most urgent need is represented by common security and foreign policy, in which the need to act in unison and speak with one voice is becoming increasingly clear”. Monti therefore puts political action in the forefront, though without ignoring some dangers linked to it, such as “centralism” and “excessive bureaucracy”. “We are now approaching a major enlargement of the EU, which will represent a success of political action – explains the Commissioner –. But we must be careful not to exaggerate, nor to impose anything. The ten new members of the Union have only recently emerged from a system in which the decisions were assumed in Moscow; they will hardly be willing now to succumb to the impositions of Brussels!”. “OVERCOMING THE IMPASSE, APPROVING THE CONSTITUTION”. Monti does not spare other criticisms of the current situation: “There are those who maintain that monetary Europe crushes or takes precedence over political action. That’s not true: the single currency itself is a great achievement of political initiative, i.e. of the intention to tackle problems at the right level. Today no State is able to ‘do it yourself’ at the level of foreign policy, in many sectors of justice and security, or in the field of population control and immigration; in the same way we must find close forms of collaboration and integration in the economic and financial field. That too is politics”. Yet is not the impasse registered in the process of drafting the European Constitution there for everyone to see? “Yes, that’s true. We registered a failure in Brussels in mid-December. Nonetheless the work done by the Convention and by the intergovernmental Conference has not been wasted: it remains. Many problems have already been solved. What we now need to do is resume our efforts, and that’s why the summit this weekend, under the Irish presidency, is so important. I am convinced that if European interests prevail over national ones, the Constitution will be within our grasp”.