This morning your author found himself at a meeting and discussion about political foundations and their importance. Needless to say, I was there more by accident than design. It was organised by
ENoP, European Network of Political Foundations
Whilst it would be reasonable to suggest that political and civil society groups are not where my expertise lies, it was certainly interesting. Their keynote speaker was some chap from the EU… What was his name? Ah yes, Barroso, that was it!
He certainly held his audience well and I would suggest that he might have done a little public speaking in the past.
Whilst there were a number of interesting areas that he touched upon, he became impassioned and left his script completely when he began speaking about what Europe meant to Portugal after 48 years under firm control. He suggests, and it is hard to avoid his point, that the same thoughts were held in Spain and Greece and then later in Central and Eastern European countries.
And those thoughts?
That as democracy formed, the people wanted freedom and democracy. For many millions of people,
Europe = Freedom & Democracy
Isn’t that an equation! No straight bananas, fishing rights, CAP or whatever else is argued about so frequently to the Brussels ‘bubble’, but instead, freedom and democracy. To me at least, that brings everything into perspective.