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Italy's Renzi: EU needs more vision in foreign policy

Xinhua, September 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

The refugee crisis has put the European Union (EU) at a crossroads, and the bloc would lose its reasons to exist if its member states will not do their part and find more vision in foreign policy, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said on Friday.

Only a wider vision of the factors behind the current crisis would help the continent find the right answer. "We need more vision in foreign policy," Renzi wrote in an open letter addressed to Italy's La Repubblica daily and other European dailies.

"Let's say how things really are: the international community, and Europe, have underestimated the impact of their own initiatives in Libya and Syria. And they have overrated their own capacity in building a future for those territories," Renzi said.

"Simply forcing out a dictator, or bombing an enemy, is not enough, if you are not able to win the educative, cultural, and economic challenges in those countries (thereafter)," he stressed.

"This is a political task, in the Middle East of course, and in Libya. We (also) need to pay more attention to Africa, which is the core of our future, has an extraordinary growth potential, and represents the hope for all those who believe in a global world," he added.

The Italian leader also suggested that after making the enlargement to Eastern Europe a top priority for a long time, it would be now time for the EU to focus its strategy on the Mediterranean, using all available tools such as international cooperation, development aid programs, and moral suasion.

"Europe is at a crossroad, and not because media or politicians say so: this is before everyone's very eyes, every day," Ronzi said. "Either Europe will find again the ideal reasons of its staying together, or will become a tedious condominium built on abstract and sterile rules," he added.

Renzi's letter sounded partially as an answer to a joint appeal made by major European newspapers on Thursday, which called for all leaders of the EU member states to "take decisive actions to deal with this humanitarian tragedy (of migrant crisis), and prevent further loss of life."

The appeal was launched by La Repubblica daily of Italy, the Independent of Britain, the Zeit of Germany, Liberation of France, El Pais of Spain, and 10 other European publications. It came shortly ahead of a crucial meeting on Sept. 14, in which the EU's 28 member states will try to agree on a response to the crisis. Enditem