BRUSSELS – In her latest State of the Union address, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reached back almost 80 years for inspiration, invoking the 1948 Congress of Europe, which brought together political leaders, intellectuals and civil-society representatives to debate how a devastated continent could build a peaceful European future. On that model, she wants to convene a new Congress of Europe next year to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome (which created the European Economic Community, the precursor to the European Union). The goal of convening Europe’s “most brilliant minds” to “produce a vision that can inspire the new generation and recapture the European imagination” is worth pursuing.
What Europe really needs, however, is not another grand vision, but a concrete plan for weathering this era of structural disruption.
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