Former Prime Minister Says Europe Needs a Change

By: Tim Hanrahan
Posted In: News

NEWPORT, R.I. – Dr. Romano Prodi, former prime minister of Italy and president of the European Commission delivered a speech on Oct. 21, 2009 at Salve Regina University stating that Europe has the potential for having a strong role on the world stage, but it is too disjointed to have a significant impact.

The former Italian statesman drew a large crowd, completely filling Salve Regina University’s Bazarsky Lecture Hall. Many eager students had to file into an overflow room on the second floor, directly above Bazarsky Hall, in the O’Hare Academic Center to watch the hour long lecture on a closed circuit television screen.

After leaving office in 2008, Dr. Prodi became Professor-at-Large at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies.

Dr. Peter Liotta, director of the Pell Center, introduced Dr. Prodi as a president, a prime minister and a professor.

“I’ve watched the best of Europe and the worst of Europe,” Dr. Liotta said. “The best of Europe occurred under the leadership of European Commission President Prime Minister Prodi from 1999 to 2004.”

Today the European Union is made up of 27 members, 496 million people and one currency: the Euro. Also, the EU makes up roughly 30 percent of the world’s overall gross domestic product. However, according to Dr. Prodi, the EU budget is less than 1 percent of gross domestic product for all member countries.

Many other countries in Europe are in line to join the EU, but some countries, such as Turkey, must do some internal reform before admission to the Union. Many EU member state leaders see admission of countries like Turkey as a risk because they require a large amount of resources to bring them up to the standards of the rest of Europe.

“Europe is a spectator, but why?” Dr. Prodi said in regards to the vast amount of resources and high quality of life within the European Union, but has a relatively negligible impact on the world as a whole compared to the U.S. and China.

Even though after European nations join the EU, armed conflicts between members are nonexistent, there is no common decision in Europe and no common foreign policy. Nations such as China and India are on the rise and the U.S. remains as one of the most significant military and economic power in the world.

The many languages spoken within Europe, according to Dr. Prodi, also present a problem for complete cooperation within the EU.

“For Europe to give its contribution to the world, it must unite,” Dr. Prodi said.

In his closing remarks, Dr. Prodi used his own native Italy’s history as an anecdote for his vision of what Europe must become. He stated that during the Renaissance Italy was technologically and intellectually superior as a whole in contrast to other European nations, but was splintered into small nation states. The result: Italy was irrelevant compared to other European countries for centuries.

“Europe can change the world, but first of all, we must change Europe,” Dr. Prodi said. “This is the first step in changing the world.”