18-21 June 2021

The first MESSINA/TAORMINA CONFERENCE - (participants and main conclusions are available here) - was held at the beginning of October 2020, a time when the general perception that the worst the COVID19 pandemic would bring, was over. It looks like we were wrong instead. In fact, the conference took place just in time before Europe was overwhelmed by a second wave which has proven longer and more damaging than the first.

The pandemic “war” and the ensuing dramatic economic and political crises, even more today than a year ago, force us all at a crossroads of history, where the need to radically reform the Union seems to be even stronger.

The historical (“Hamiltonian”) decision of drafting an unprecedented plan for recovery (the Next Generation EU), which will be financed by the European Commission own resources, seems even too little, (vis-à-vis the fiscal stimulus provided by the US, the UK and even individually by EU national States, as we will later articulate in the paper when introducing the “Next Generation EU” working group) and too late (not even a Euro was spent spent last May 2020, one year after the the European Commission proposal to the Council).

Europe seems to be still structurally slow to respond to shocks and this may even become a permanent feature of the 21st century (the pandemic was the fourth of these crises after the euro crisis in 2013, the financial collapse in 2007, the attack to the world trade center in 2001 and the ensuing wars). It even seems paradoxically that things might have been better managed at single-member states level, in some instances. This may be the dramatic example of the vaccination campaign in 2021.

Time has come for a new start, for a new metamorphosis of Europe; history after all has taught us that after the world wars of the twentieth-century, new “world orders” were crafted: the “League of Nations” conceived in 1919 after the first conflict, was less successful than the one drafted in 1948 and culminated in the foundation of the UN, the IMF, the NATO and, ultimately, in Europe, out of the European Economic Community (EEC) as the embryo of the current European Union.

The EEC and the EURATOM institutions, which paved the way to the Rome treaty, were created at the 1955 conference in Messina. It is time now for a new start and this is why Vision and Taobuk decided to scale up the conference to key debates in what promises to be a decisive year.

The first conference in Messina/ Taormina produced a manifesto and an agenda on three specific themes: the role of Europe in the battle for global digital leadership, new forms of participation to make the EU the democracy of the future lab and a cluster of integrations as a new institutional mechanism, to provide the EU with both increased efficiency and legitimacy.

The manifesto and the WGs conclusions have been further discussed within the Next Generation Series, a series of events that Vision launched on Christmas 2020. This will be the starting point of the conference and the objective will be to produce more ideas that have a real impact.

Vision together with Taobuk is thus calling a four-day meeting – from 18th to 21st June - in Messina where thirty intellectuals, policy makers, journalists, historians and visionaries will gather to generate and discuss ideas which may trigger a debate on the future of Europe, aiming to give a contribution on “crafting the future.”

The conference is based on a Vision Concept paper and structured in accordance with the Agenda.

Chairs will be: Stefania Giannini, Assistant Director of the Paris based UNESCO where she is in charge of the Education directorate; former minister for Universities, Research and Education in Italy; and Bill Emmott, former editor of The Economist and author of "The Fate of the West."

The debate will be articulated in seven plenary sessions plus three workgroups discussing issues which seem now crucial on how to start thinking about a new European project. They will be followed by book presentations and reports on the future of Europe within the Taobuk festival.

All the WGs will be presented by those responsible for the "Introduction" of each one on Friday, on 18th June at 11:30 am in Messina, just after the second plenary session (see attached agenda); on this occasion, all the details regarding the various WGs (both logistic and contents) will be provided.

The working groups will then be: 

• Global digital platforms and the European approach to the battle for the 21st century;
• Next Generation EU and completing the EU Hamiltonian moment;
• The COVID-19 pandemic and adapting the welfare and health systems to the 21st Century.

Results from the WGs, will be reported back to the plenary on Sunday 19th at 9:30 AM as a tentative agenda and will become an input towards the Conference new manifesto which will be conveyed to the President of the Commission and to the Council and which will nourish the next upcoming events. In addition to the above three discussions, we also envisage that specific proposals on “positive actions” meant to enlarge the participation of public opinions to the European project will be debated at the conference; this will be tackled within one specific plenary.

Each WG will be prepared in specific webinars before the conference and in the next web pages we will be providing the background for each of them, albeit the entire conference will be presented first at a press conference.

Among the participants: 

Alexandra Geese (MEP, Alliance 90/ The Greens), Angela Giuffrida (Rome correspondent for The Guardian and The Observer), Antonella Ferrara (President and Founder Taobuk - Taormina International Book Festival), Antonio Tajani (President of the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the European Parliament), Bill Emmott (Author of “The fate of the West” and former editor of The Economist), Enrico Giovannini (Minister of sustainable infrastructures and mobility), Ernest Wilson (Former Dean of Annenberg School of Communication in LA and Director of the USC center for Third Space thinking), Francesco Bonfiglio (Chief Executive Officer GAIA-X), Giorgia Meloni (President of the European Conservatives and Reformists Party), Giuseppe Ippolito (Member of Italian Scientific Committee for COVID related policies), Jan Piotrowski (Business Editor The Economist), John Hooper (Italy and Vatican correspondent of The Economist), John F. Ryan (Director Public Health, Commissione Europea, DG Health and Food Safety), Lorenzo Fioramonti (Italy’s MP and Former Minister of Universities, Schools and Research), Luciano Fontana (Editor in chief, Corriere della Sera), Lucrezia Reichlin (Professor London School of Eocnomics), Manuel Vilas (Columnist El Mundo and El PAIS), Maria Cristina Messa (Italy’s Minister for Universities and Research), Mario Nava (European Commission DG REFORM – Director General) , Mikel Landabaso (Director of Growth and Innovation at the Joint Research Center of the European Commission), Paolo Gentiloni (European Commissioner for Economy), Paul Nemitz (Data Ethics Commission, Global Council on Extended Intelligence), Romano Prodi (Former Prime Minister of Italy and Former President of the European Commission), Sandro Gozi (Former Prime Minister of Italy and Former President of the European Commission), Sergio Abrignani (Professor at University of MILAN, Director of the National Institute of Molecular Genetic and member of ITALY’s SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE advising the government on COVID19 PANDEMIC), Stefania Giannini (Assistant Director for Education, UNESCO and former Minister for Universities, Research and Education in Italy), Steven Everts (Senior Advisor on strategy and communications at the European External Action Service).