“Italy has a strong need for Europe and Europe has a vital need for Italy. I believe no one would benefit from a hypothetical estrangement”, said Card. Gualtiero Bassetti, Archbishop of Perugia-Città della Pieve and President of the Italian Bishops’ Conference (CEI). According to him, “today, with the global axis shifting ever further away from the Old Continent”, “there is a crucial need to revive a European project in which Italy can play a leading role”. “To revive also means to rethink, to improve, to reform: but it does not mean to destroy”, Card. Bassetti explained, as he took the floor at the conference “Our Europe”, organized by ACLI, Catholic Action, the Community of Sant’Egidio, CISL, Confcooperative, FUCI, and the Luigi Sturzo Institute. “We – he said – can discuss how to be together politically, but Europe and Italy share a thousand-year journey that precedes the process of political unification of the last decades”. According to the president of the CEI, “we do not need division and fragmentation, but unity; we need more Europe, not less Europe”. “We need – he said – a Europe of the people, a Europe based on the principle of subsidiarity and on solidarity, a Europe that is sensitive to the needs of its citizens and is respectful of cultures, religions and identities. A Europe that is truly political and not just economic”. That is why it is important to promote “a new European awareness”.