The European Union is more unique than rare. There is no international institution like it in the world. It is less of a sovereign state than a federation, but undoubtedly stronger than its constituent countries. If we were to compare the EU to the United States, we could say that the difference lies in this: the European Union is a union of European states, while the United States is an American union of states. Who is stronger today? Over the past seventy years, the EU has evolved from a simple community of a a few states
Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
The nemesis of those events today is the unconscionable anti-European policy of Hungary's Orban, who, just twenty years after that country's acceptance into the European Union and NATO, dares to obstruct Ukraine's accession to NATO and the EU in every way possible.
The new European Union is now threatened precisely in its geographic and political integrity and safety by the aggressor country of Ukraine and the policies of its dictator Putin, wanted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for the most heinous war crimes: the kidnapping and deportation of thousands of innocent Ukrainian minors since February 24, 2022. This, above all, is the principal global challenge facing the European Union today: peace. Because if so many migrants, from North Africa and Asia, continue to prefer the European Union to other countries, it is because the Union is free, prosperous, and equal democracy and it defends the values and rights of civil coexistence, without any ifs or buts.
Our goal today is to keep it this way. Forever.
Francesco Nicola Maria Petricone is a full professor of Sociology of Political and Legal Phenomena, and a former associate professor of General Sociology. He teaches EU Policies and Global Challenges at LUISS University and LUMSA University in Rome.
Parliamentary Advisor to the Chamber of Deputies a former magistrate and lawyer - he was awarded the honor of Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana. He lectures and participates in conferences in Italy and abroad, most recently in the United States, Cuba, Eritrea, Iraq, Mexico, Vietnam, and Ukraine. He has published monographs and essays in Italian, English, French, and Spanish on legal, sociological, and political subjects, a a literary work, and a music album. He served as advisor for social policies to the President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic.
A columnist, he collaborates with several national newspapers and radio and television stations.
