“I think that the political class should make a serious examination of conscience. Politicians must act transparently, with competence and for the common good as a first step to rekindle the interest of young people and all citizens in public affairs”: the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, interviewed by SIR news agency, takes stock of the dialogue “(Re)thinking Europe”, held in late October in the Vatican, which gave him the chance to deliver a speech before Pope Francis. According to Tajani, “in order to strengthen the sense of belonging to our project, we must give European peoples concrete answers on the issues that concern them most: terrorism, illegal immigration, youth unemployment. We need strong European unity and appropriate tools to achieve our goals”. How can the European project be revived? “I would say that we need to hold together the ‘high’ dimension of values and the answers we need to provide to the needs of citizens, to ensure that they rediscover the European Union’s objectives and vocation, which is something we clearly cannot do without. What citizens, our young people and families need, first and foremost, is work, income security, and social security”.
What about immigration? “In my speech at the Vatican, I reiterated that Europe must not forget human dignity in the management of migration flows. Those who flee war and violence – as I clearly stated – must receive the protection they are entitled to in the EU, with true solidarity between European countries. Indeed, it is clear that this phenomenon should not weigh only on the shoulders of some States, Italy in particular”. On the other hand, “we need to combat human trafficking and illegal immigration. We also need to support the controlled immigration of qualified people who can integrate into our society and the labour market, and are protected and regularly paid”. What is your view on the nationalisms that Europe is facing? “I believe that the small homelands in which some people would like to withdraw make no sense at all, they are out of time. The case of Catalonia is clear proof of this. Instead, I am a supporter of the United States of Europe, where different homelands and identities come together in a common European home. In brief, we need to join forces to achieve greater goals than those that each country could set for itself”.