The Battle of Ideas for the Future of Europe

A new reality is taking shape in international economic and trade relations.

As the EU shapes its strategy in response to this shifting landscape, we must maintain our collective composure and unwavering confidence in our strengths. Our democracies have nothing to fear, as long as we do not lose our faith.

That is why the great trap we must avoid is fatalism and defeatism. Extremists and demagogues feed on despair, resignation and nihilism.

What we are facing before us is a battle of ideas and political narratives:

On the one hand, we have a distorting rhetoric that presents robust developed democracies as post-apocalyptic landscapes in irreversible economic and moral decline, lacking cohesion and solidarity. It is the narrative that advocates protectionism, cynical opportunism, tariffs, and "every man for themselves".

This is an approach to politics and economics that is patently wrong. As every first-year university student knows, international economic relations are not zero-sum games, nor do they look anything like football - goal for us, kick-off for them.

The history of European unification, built on the wreckage of the Second World War is the preeminent example of a different path to prosperity: life expectancy has increased by leaps and bounds, illiteracy has been reduced to almost zero, access to health care, education and welfare has become universal, we have managed to eradicate deadly diseases, science, industrial innovation and medicine have flourished.

How did we achieve all this? Thanks to peace, cooperation, free trade and solidarity. Not by bullying our neighbours, but by becoming an example to our neighbours.

The states of our continent are lining up to become equal members of our family by the free will of their peoples, not starting revolutions to break away, as was the case with the Warsaw Pact or the empires of the past. Only one state has ever left, and polls show that British voters have bitter regrets about their decision.

EU member states have seen their living standards soar thanks to the solidarity of European structural and cohesion funds. Anyone who's been in Romania before it joined the EU, almost 20 years ago, can clearly see that it is a very different country today.

It is worth asking how poorer EU member states would have managed to cope with the pandemic and its economic consequences if the then most robust economies of Europe had not backed the transfer of hundreds of billions of euros through the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism.

The same logic of shared prosperity and solidarity is a pillar of our external relations. The EU is today, together with China, the world's largest exporter. It has more free trade agreements than any other major economy. We know very well that when our partners prosper in a climate of peace, it does not hurt us, but on the contrary opens up new markets for our goods, provided there is reciprocity, fairness and equal access.

This applies to all of our member states. An example from my own home country of Greece: The two major contributors to the country's GDP, tourism and shipping, prosper when there is peace and economic growth in the rest of the world. The same applies to Romanian exports, from agricultural to manufactured goods.

This is why Europe is the world's largest donor of humanitarian and development aid. And it is why we are leading efforts to zero greenhouse gas emissions that are destabilising the planet's climate. Not because we are naive or romantic, but because we all get a "dividend" from collective prosperity and stability.

After all, the same 'peace dividend' was enjoyed by Russia until a decade ago. It was one of the EU's closest trading partners. We welcomed its tourists with open arms, and its fuels were powering our economy.

The fact that these relations were irreparably damaged is not due to the EU, but to the fact that Russia invaded an independent country, tried to change the borders of Europe by force and started the biggest military conflict on our continent since World War II. If Europe can be blamed for anything, it is not that it has cornered and isolated Russia, but that it has shown good faith and built such close economic relations with Moscow that made us vulnerable.

But the lesson has been learned and we are now building another Europe, based on the principle of 'Strategic Autonomy', without toxic dependencies. We have a lot of work ahead of us:

-Comprehensive reforms are needed in the EU to tackle fragmentation and finally allow our citizens to reap the benefits of a truly single market - from energy and telecoms to capital markets.

-We need to simplify the EU's rules and institutional framework to boost innovation, create wealth and make life easier for citizens and businesses.

-In particular, we need a significant increase in investment, especially in the areas of new technologies, social cohesion (such as affordable housing), and our collective defence and security.

The European Investment Bank Group will reinforce these collective objectives with at least euro95 billion in new financing this year, with a focus on projects that enhance our energy security by bringing clean and affordable energy to businesses and households, innovation and artificial intelligence, housing and agricultural production, and by more than doubling funds for projects that promote European security. Last year alone, the EIB Group supported investments totalling 5.3 billion euros in Romania*, helping to build a more robust, innovative and resilient economy.

The EU has got the message, we are mobilising resources and joining forces. There is no time to lose. Above all, we cannot afford to apologise for what we have achieved.

A world where borders change by force, of cynicism and empires, is the world from which we have been moving away - slowly but surely - since the end of World War II. In any case, it is not the world we want our children to live in.

The EU has been and will remain a beacon for all peoples who want to build a fairer and more peaceful world. And it is this beacon that we will have to defend - with our words and actions, but ultimately also by whatever means necessary.