During the crises of recent years, politics and communications should have helped shape the European Union as a mutually supportive reality, yet they have proved to be weak. Albeit well-equipped to ensure that member states’ interests are supported at the European level, European institutions have been unable to develop an innovative and increasingly urgent vision of the Union’s common interest. When will courageous, far-sighted and inclusive proposals emerge? And will they be capable of reconciling different countries’ opposing needs for firmness, development and security?

Maurizio Cotta teaches Political Science at the University of Siena and has taught at the University of Texas in Austin and the Central European University in Budapest.