With the formal announcement of the next candidacy for the European Electoral Competitions of Elly Schlein for the Democratic Party and Antonio Tajani for Forza Italia, it would seem that we are starting to tangibly perceive the imminence of the next important appointment, that for the renewal of the European Parliament.
What makes the difference in the preference expressed by the electorate could be the content of the program carried out by the individual political forces for the redefinition of a European Union that can be defined as citizen-friendly and that is expressive of the needs of the same. And this alone should come into primary consideration, beyond and beyond any consideration of the opportunity to nominate different party leaders.
The circumstance, in the current geopolitical context, agitated, so to speak, by the ongoing conflicts, i.e. the Russian-Ukrainian one, and the Middle Eastern one involving Israel and Palestine, appears in all its relevance and would seem to pose quite a few questions regarding what the role of the European Union will be in the immediate future, without however neglecting what already seems to be the role currently being played. Meanwhile, because on a geopolitical level, the European Union does not appear to have had, considered as a whole, the political and diplomatic strength necessary to guide the other protagonists on the international scene towards a convinced path of peace.
Therefore, because it would probably be simplistic to attribute the limited impact of the European Union in the context considered to the sole fact that it is not equipped with its own defensive military apparatus, given the decisive role which, rather, the diplomatic circuit should assume, and considering the further circumstance, not negligible, for which the so-called "Frugal States" do not seem to show any interest in relation to the creation of a European military apparatus and/or the possible active participation in war scenarios as recently declared by Viktor Orban himself. Finally, because, even if everything is considered, at present, the European Union seems to be able only to exercise a sort of so-called soft power, which, on the one hand, does not seem even abstractly sufficient to exercise any efficient influence, on the other towards, if appropriately exercised, could even contribute to promoting the de-escalation of existing conflicts.
Let us then agree on one point: once again, and perhaps today more than yesterday, in the current situation, the geographical question strictly understood would seem to be the fulcrum of the conflicts.
The territorial question strictly speaking, considered, would seem to continue to fuel misunderstandings between peoples, both in the Russian-Ukrainian context and in the Middle Eastern context between Israel and Palestine. Today as yesterday we could say: nothing seems to have changed over the years. The European Union which could emerge in its consistency as a consequence of the results of the next imminent polls, if we wanted to discuss it in these terms, will most likely have to take an active part in the process of resolving the existing disputes even beyond the difficulties caused by the essential principle of unanimity in the assumption of common decisions. Principle, that of unanimity, which far from being considered a limit, would rather seem to constitute a "glue" within a Union that is not yet a Federation.
Putting it differently: the European Union itself would seem to be going through a moment of transition as it would seem to require, due to its very composition and the differences existing between the real Member States, a phase of adjustment and redefinition useful for addressing the whole a series of problems of a humanitarian, health and climate nature, as well as naturally of a political nature. Saying it even more clearly, in current times it would be important to find a point of contact between the need to coordinate those purely strategic interests of a military and economic nature with those inherent to the defense of human rights which, evidently, should not be ignored.
The European Union, faced with these situations, may find itself needing to go beyond the mechanism of building bilateral relations with third countries, to build, or at least attempt to do so, an engaging and respectively binding multilateral relationship.
Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro