NAPLES -- I must say, with regret and great worry, that the impression of Europe today would be of a mere handmaid to the USA and therefore of NATO: it lives and acts in the presence of American power, now revealing the loss of its own identity and its vacuous emptiness. 

 The image that I construct of our Europe is of a train which has started to run and then lost its speed; it still lets off its puffs of steam in front of the America that stands before it. It is a Europe that obeys and responds to the overbearing commands of American power. Like a little bird, drenched and defenceless, Europe has fragile wings which do not allow it to fly, but attempts awkward flights, flailing. 

 Still, I am certain that, reorganised from the social, economic, and military point of view, Europe could attempt to salvage its strength and express its potential. What is certain is that America shows itself, especially when it comes to military organisational systems, as a large umbrella under which it protects Europe and other countries. But what advantages does this relationship of dependency contain?

 I am increasingly aware that Europe serves America to strengthen its own interests in the old continent and to extend its decision-making power. I will not omit, in the reflection, the historic bond between Europe and America deriving from the Second World War, nor will I forget that the first forms of the European Single Market were achieved in a system in which the European economy was bound to the American one.

 So, I deduce that there has always been, on the US side, the will to control Europe for a specific purpose: to precisely expand and manage its foreign policy by creating NATO ad hoc. It is not irrelevant to remember that, as if it were an unwritten rule, those who would have wanted to enter Europe would have had to be a part of the Atlantic Alliance.

 The same use of the euro, without doubt, can be considered a way to make trade between the US and Europe easier, facilitating the circulation of goods in a global market always, alas, regulated by America. Their foreign policy objective is - and I say this with conviction - to create, extend, and strengthen not only the free market, but to connect social, cultural, and organisational values to it.

 The fact is that America succeeds, with strength and determination, to dictate the pace of the economy and in politics, but overall has great decisional power thanks to its own military strength. 

 And Europe? Europe must come out of its state of torpor and also act with regard to the progressive threat that America may also be central and alone in its management of energy, nuclear weapons, terrorism and cyber-attacks.

 In relation to the latest events in geopolitical terms, Europe must assume its responsibility; it must not be a servant, but master of itself, acquiring an autonomous position and constituting itself as a state with its own powers and resources, especially in matters of foreign policy and defence. It must be responsive to the challenges which characterise the complexity of the contemporary world. 

 The economic crisis, the disparity of the states, the war, nationalism and populism: all of these must be in Europe’s grasp and not exposed to the decisions of the United States and of NATO. Enough! 

 “Today’s world lives between false allegories and uncontrolled economies which overwhelm the weak and fortify those already strong. As long as this world endures, there can be no poetry, therefore there can be no freedom.” 

 jp-lw