Europeans Seeking Trust and Solidarity

On the darker days of the financial crisis that have often occurred during the last weeks, one can legitimately wonder whether it's worth it to keep investing in the European construction. Would going back to the status quo ante, with national currencies and barriers to the mobility of goods, services, capital and labor, be preferable to the economic sacrifices invoked in order to stay in the euro? If we put the issue in terms of trust, we should ask ourselves on what our economic welfare and that of future generations depends. Can we manage by ourselves, in the sense that we can successfully compete in the new global scenario, marked by the ascent of BRICs? Or, conversely, aren't we better off in pooling our resources (including monetary power) with our European partners, and thus share in the costs of benefits of this? If we choose the latter, it becomes fundamental to build a bond of common trust vith other EU contries, and on the basis of such a bond reaffirm the need for the European construction to be renewed to meet the new needs arising from the post-crisis economic and financial scenario. Thus, more Europe, rather than less Europe, because we'll be out of the crisis only when the European Central Bank is able to act, like the Federal Reserve, as a veritable lender of last resort. This can in turn happen only monetary policy is complemented by a unified fiscal and budget policy, whereby states give reciprocal commitments and obligations. This is linked to the issue of Eurobonds, a solution which ultimately depends on the level of trust existing among member-states. On one hand, historically virtuous countries like Germany which are called to share hard-earned resources must be able to trust historically less virtuous countries like Italy, and this requires rigid fiscal discipline on the part of the latter. On the other hand, less virtuous countries, which are subject to strong conditionality imposed by virtuous countries, must be able to trust the fact that in exchange for the credit granted, there will be no vexatious conditions in terms of interest rates and repayment. It would seem an impossible equation to solve, but European citizens are ahead of politicians. In recent poll by Eurobarometer, which investigates the mood of Europeans in the crisis, 61% of of interviewees said that pooling part of governments' debts "would be necessary in the name of solidarity", 57% said "it could improve the financial stability of member states", while 50% thinks "it could held reducing the cost of the crisis". A veritable injection of trust in the process of European integration seems to be coming from citizens. This is political capital on which political leaders should have the courage to build a stronger EU. Paraphrasing De Gasperi, over these choices European citizens should not entrust to politicians who worry about coming elections, but statesmen and stateswomen, who worry about future generations.