The last Tango in Lisbon
The symbolical act of the formal ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon on the 1st December in the Portuguese Capital is at the same time a point of arrival and a point of departure. When the different leaders of Europe will sign this “contract for the future” in the beautiful Belem Tower from where some centuries ago the Portuguese Navigators started a very long trip to give new worlds to the existing world, a last tango will be danced in Lisbon. A tango of trust and confidence but at the same time a tango of responsability and hard working for the coming years.
In Lisbon we have in fact a point of arrival. Europe is in 2009 the result of a very strong work of all those that during all these years decided to give their best to construct a reality politically, economically and socially suitable for all the citizens that believe that the sum of the different countries is not and can´t in fact be merely the sum of the different countries. The European Project demands from the citizens a permanent contribution with ideas, solutions, answers for all the problems that day by day give life to a geographical space that has to have its identity, its personality, its capacity of belief and trust in a better future.
In Lisbon the sea and the land make a commitment with beauty and creativity. Lisbon is the city of the shining sun where we have a strong view of an horizon that it is reinventing itself permanently. That´s why this point of arrival that we are celebrating on the 1st of
December near the beautiful Tagus River is the effective demonstration that despite the mistakes, the lack of confidence, the misunderstandings, the strategic changes in the end, those that have to decide understood that there was no other way. No other solution. The Treaty of Lisbon is above all the vote of the Citizens of Europe in another opportunity for this Project that is more than everything a Project of all of us.
We celebrate in this way in Lisbon a new point of departure. Jacques Delors once said that “Europe is an idea that has to be permanently discussed and evaluated”. After Lisbon, Europe will be more Europe. But we can´t forget the words of the former President of the European Comission. The European Leaders must understand that in these complex days of uncertainty and crisis, in a global world that demands different answers to new problems, citizens expect a very effective and strong commitment towards the resolution of the problems and the capacity of obtaining more wealth, quality of life, social cohesion and a stronger collective identity.
That ´s why this point of departure means in a large sense the urgency of new “active contract” with the challenge of the future, based on an effective partnership between the State, the economic and social actors and the “contribution of difference” done by all those that are able to create value and incorporate talents. That is why the role of a more engaged and qualified civil society in the consolidation of this Europe after-Lisbon is an act of necessity. The European Leaders must more than ever understand that the challenge of the future is a global collaborative permanent process where all must be involved. With and individual and collective sense of trust and responsibility.
I believe in Europe. I believe that Europe isn´t a Project decided by law in Brussels, far away from the citizens. I believe that Europe is a point of arrival that had the capacity of reinventing its new point of departure. That ´s why I will be in Lisbon on the 1st of December. Dancing a last tango with all my heart in a better future for our collective society.