On the 29th of November 2022, the European Studies Centre hosted a talk entitled “Italy and the Future of the European Union.” The panel was chaired by Anna Chimenti (Academic Visitor, Saint Antony’s College, Oxford) and was attended by three speakers: Timothy Garton Ash (St Antony’s College, Oxford), Giuliano Amato (former Prime Minister of Italy), and Maurizio Molinari (Editor in Chief, La Repubblica). The current Ambassador of Italy to the United Kingdom, Indigo Lambertini, said a few words by way of introduction. He reminisced about meeting Molinari in Washington after the 9/11 attacks and credited the influence of Garton Ash with inspiring his diplomatic career. He highlighted instability both inside and outside the EU, saying that within his eight weeks as ambassador to the UK, he had already seen two Italian and two British governments.
The first speaker, Garton Ash, noted that he himself is not an expert on Italy and attended the panel only upon Amato’s insistence. Instead of delivering a presentation, he posed a “set of European questions” to the speakers. He contextualised these within the framework of two books: Molinari’s Il ritorno degli imperii (The Return of Empires) and his own From the Ruins of Empire. The whole history of Europe in the last 30 years, he hypothesized, was contained between these two books.
The first set of questions regarded the war in Ukraine. Will Italian military, economic, and diplomatic support for Ukraine last under Prime Minister Meloni? And, taking a broader geopolitical view, what position will Italy take on the restructuring, reform, and enlargement of the EU? Garton Ash pointed out that former Prime Minister Draghi was one of the first EU leaders to propose admitting Ukraine into the organisation, and supported the EU’s eastward expansion into the Balkans, Georgia, and Moldova. Before the war, Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz shared only the ambition to admit the Balkan countries. In his recent Prague speech, however, Scholz espoused Draghi’s vision.
