9 Maggio 2012
Grazie Presidente, sono molto grato all’Istituto Universitario Europeo e al suo Presidente Borrell per quest’invito in una sala, momento e occasione così importanti.
Questa è la mia prima visita a Firenze nella posizione che attualmente occupo e sono veramente lieto di portare in questa veste il mio saluto al sindaco di Firenze, Matteo Renzi e al Presidente della Regione Toscana, Enrico Rossi, così come a tutta la città e a tutta la regione.
As we are invited to discuss the state of the Union, I think it is necessary for us Europeans to combine candid pride with genuine concern. I don’t think one should find a mediation between these two attitudes, but rather be almost brutal in identifying weaknesses only to address those with hope and pride, which is indeed justified because what the European Union has achieved over sixty years is considerable.
I will start by addressing the question of the day, which is economic growth, to move afterwards to more political remarks on the development of Europe. I believe that growth, in general, and growth in Europe and at this stage should be considered with an open mind and three components or chapters. The first one is the precondition for sustainable growth with particular emphasis on fiscal discipline. The second chapter is structural reforms, both at the EU level and at the domestic level for each member state. The third chapter and most debated chapter these days is should one seek to have a demand-led stimulus or not.
Of course this is a debate that is not confined to Europe, but has intensified following the election of the new French President and electoral results in other countries. I’m sure that we are going to have much of the same debate at the end of next week at the G8 in Camp David.
What are the different views? Oversimplifying in a way that fails to do justice to any of the positions I will describe, there is a view which can be characterised as Anglo-Saxon and relies rather heavily on demand, maybe also because in the Anglo-Saxon economies, on both sides of the Atlantic, structural issues are a bit over because those are economies with a high degree of flexibility. Then there is a more continental view, particularly in Germany, which is an important component of the European continent, which reflects a different conception of economics in my view - economics is, after all, a branch of moral philosophy – in which growth is the reward for merit and for good behaviour at the micro level as well as at the macro level. So any creative, imaginative, thought-provoking theory and policy that ‘subverts’ this ‘moral economy’ identity needs, in the very least, to be well explained in order to gain German minds and even more difficult German hearts; I’m not even speaking of German pockets.
