Eu: Prodi, autonomy and an equal footing with the U.S.
Verona - "The European Union must regain its autonomy and act on an equal footing with the United States, because it often gets dragged into single-handed decisions even when these involve greater sacrifices for the EU than for the U.S. Driving Europe apart from Russia is a historically incomprehensible mistake on the part of the United States, and today we find ourselves crushed by a policy that wasn't decided by us." This was the message delivered at the opening of the X Eurasian Economic Forum in Verona by the President of the Foundation for Worldwide Cooperation and former President of the European Commission Romano Prodi.
"I am not at all satisfied with the relations we have with Russia and Eurasia - added the former Italian Premier -, Russia needs us and we need them, but despite our common interests the crisis in our relations has led to a reduction in trade between the EU and the Eurasian Union, which fell from 8.3 percent in 2012 to 4.8% in 2016. The recovery during the first six months of 2017 looks impressive but there's still a lot of work to be done before we return to 2013 levels. The result - Prodi went on to say - is that Russia and Eurasia are looking increasingly eastwards, and we need to be careful because if these trends last a long time then they will become permanent. Today, American policy creates a sense of insecurity, even though the tension with Russia is not something we have exclusively today with Trump but was also there with Bush and Obama. Therefore - he concluded - we should reflect on the challenges that reversing this kind of approach involves”.