2 letters on Europe
New Narratives for Europe
Dear President Schulz,
It is very difficult to find today a synthetic metaphor to describe contemporary Europe, as proposed by the project NNFE, promoted by the European Parliament. Maybe the most effective metaphor is to describe Europe as a single large city.
A large polycentric city, composed of thousands of small, medium and large towns, without the megalopolis that can be found in other continents. A Europe/City that protects its natural areas as they were parks and cultivates its agricultural land as if it was a garden. A large city daily facing the great challenge of co-existence and integration of diverse and distant cultures within a common shared space. We should consider the Europe/City not only as a geographical fact occurrence, rather as a perception shared by thousands of people who move daily between Stockholm and Palermo, from Lisbon to Belgrade, within a (the) daily cycle of life.
This vision can be indeed fertile because it leads us to think about the rights of the citizens and the duties of government(s) in a multicultural urban community. What is your opinion?
Best,
Stefano Boeri
Dear Stefano Boeri,
I am deeply convinced that new narrative for Europe is indispensable in order to regain the confidence and consensus of our fellow citizens. We cannot leave the narrative of Europe in the hands of populists, Euro-sceptics and extremists who have made “Brussels” the scapegoat for everything, without having solutions to propose.
Although Europe as a guarantee for peace and stability is extremely important, it no longer speaks to our younger generations, who expect the Union to offer them new opportunities for the future, protection from runaway globalization, and competitiveness that is not based on the relentless lowering of salaries and prices, but on quality, respect for the environment, and the preservation of our elevated social standards.
In this respect, your model of a Europe with an “urban dimension” coincides with the values upon which I believe that we should construct the Europe of tomorrow — a Europe that integrates and puts people and cultures in relationship with one another instead of erecting new walls; a Europe that maintains the human dimension and develops its own city models instead of following the megalopolis model that is typical in other continents; a Europe that is open and keeps all its plural identities; a Europe that protects its natural resources and puts them to good use; and above all a Europe where resources, capacities and specificities are all in common and integrated in order to act together, because together we are stronger, and the solutions to the most serious problems of the present can only be found in a strong and integrated Europe, certainly not from our individual countries working against each other.
It is my hope that your activity will contribute to this “new” Europe, and thank you for informing me of your thoughts on this issue.
Best,
Martin Schulz
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