Italia

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed everything. Also in Europe. Before this nightmare ends (and, unfortunately, we are not there yet!) we have to build on the lessons learnt and create something new and positive out of this this dramatic experience. This was the message of the call for a European Health Union that we launched on May 9^th – 70^th  anniversary of the Schuman Declaration - with the "New Europeans" group of the former labourist Roger Casale. 

In 2019, a Florida rock snail journeyed across the Atlantic on the plastic sole of a discarded shoe. Arriving on England’s south coast as an invasive predator, the snail posed a threat to native molluscs. On the same beach, a Columbus crab from the Caribbean crawled out of a plastic pipe, scavenging food needed by native species.

A Greener Europe

The circular economy has gained increasing prominence amongst policymakers as an innovative approach to sustainable development. Many countries have included circular economy commitments in their national development plans and climate programmes. In Europe, the new Circular Economy Action Plan;has been promoted as a central pillar of the EU’s European Green Deal.

A little over a year ago, China’s cooperation with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was brandished as a real feather in China’s foreign policy cap.

Following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, “building back better” quickly became a global rallying cry holding the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development as an important reference point. The slogan acknowledges how our societies’ health, environmental, and economic crises are all interconnected. These profound interlinkages are also defining the Sustainable Development Agenda, with factors such as the access to clean and affordable energy at its core. 

When it comes to governing the world’s market economies, business as usual needs to become more unusual. Markets have proven a great coordinator of economic activity that promotes human well-being. But markets are not usually perfect, and their shortcomings are becoming more apparent, urgent, and unprecedented in scale. What’s needed now is a transition to greater emphasis on sustainability—where public policy guides market economies to take greater account of the balance between economic, environmental, and social concerns.

Brilliantly conceived by Herbert Morrison as a “tonic for the nation”, “The Festival of Britain” has been inaugurated in London and in several cities of the United Kingdom six years after the end of the Second World War.