1. At present, Europe gives the impression of being dominated by day-today political brinkmanship, accompanied by tactical manoeuvering of its Governments. What is dangerously lacking is a convincing vision of its role and responsibility in a globalising world. Europe badly needs a new Jean Monnet, who, from the experience of his lifetime, deeply understood the inescapable necessities of supranationality.
2. The ongoing discussion concerning the further development of Europe, its integration and its institutions, is characterized by a high degree of intellectual vagueness and evasiveness. Consensus seems to exist only where negative answers are concerned. Specifically, everybody, French, English or German, Italian, Spanish or Dutch, is eager to confirm that they do not intend to expand the authority of the European Commission, that any kind of federalistic European organisation will never be acceptable, that the power of national parliaments must not be superseded by a directly elected European parliament, that subsidiarity will be restored as an unquestionable principle etc. etc.
3. Indeed, Europe seems to face a tightening mountain of problems. Just to mention a few:

• Must all member countries in future be represented in the European Commission? And if yes, what system of representation?
• Election of the European Commission by an independent Parliament? Dependence on vote of confidence?

On the background of this heap of problems, the idea of European unification, which doubtlessly has contributed decisively to the peaceful development after World War II, seems to have lost its attractiveness.

Some fellow Europeans do not envisage such a development as negative or even dangerous. Anyone who has followed the postwar history will be aware that this kind of approach was especially at home in the United Kingdom; at present it seems to gain sympathy in many other member countries as well.

1. At the same time the necessities resulting from the process of globalisation cannot be denied. The advance of information technologies and the internationalisation of the capital and financial markets inevitably lead to the consequence that only regions which are big and homogeneous enough to offer not only a significantly important market demand but also viable and effective educational systems as well as a stable social and political structure will keep their chance to remain competitive. For Europe, it will not be sufficient to refrain itself to being nothing more than a common market backed by a common currency. Still less will it be enough to rely on the decisions of transnational corporations where to invest, where to develop new products or from where to recruit their workforce.
2. Never in history have political interests been clearly separable from economic interests. It would therefore be more than naive to rely on all partners of the ongoing process of globalisation to keep to the principles of order and fairness once they feel that their national or regional power might ensure dominance for themselves. Europe must therefore remain careful not to lose its economic weight by being disintegrated into the traditional interests of its member nations. This coin has another side, however: Europe will only be able to keep its international competiveness on the condition that it will also be ready and able - to share worldwide responsibilities with others, especially the US. This includes matters of foreign policy as well as of military involvement.
3. All these problems can only be overcome if the Europeans are willing and able to formulate a new vision of their future. This will be everything but easy. In general, the woman and the man in the street are increasingly losing their belief in the credibility of politically defined motives. Nobody wants a further increase of bureaucracy. The temptations resulting for politicians to follow policies of cheap populism seem to increase from day-to-day. But history leaves us with no choice. What Europe needs is a courageous revival of leadership. This always has meant to tell people the truth and at the same time to convince them that hurting sacrifies will be unavoidable. Leaning back in our chairs relying on international business to do the job will not be enough: without credible political leadership Europe's role in history will quickly come to an end.

Biography

Edzard Reuter is the former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler-Benz. He was born in 1928 in Berlin.

He studied mathematics, physics and law in Göttingen and Berlin. From 1954 to 1956 he worked at the Faculty of Law at the Free University, Berlin. He then had various management positions in German enterprises, e.g. in the Bertelsmann group.

In 1964 Edzard Reuter joined Daimler Benz. He had special tasks in financing first. After 1971 he worked in the Planning Department. From 1973 on he was Deputy Member of the Board of Directors, from 1976 on full member with responsibility for planning and organization. From 1977 on he was also responsible for technical planning.

A reorganization of the top management brought him responsibility for financing in early 1980. Edzard Reuter became Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors in March 1987 and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Daimler-Benz in September 1987. He retired in May 1995.

Edzard Reuter is a Member of numerous boards and institutions. His publications include ‘The Economy’s Spirit: Europe Between Technocrats and Mythocrats’, 1986, ‘Horizons of the Economy: On the Challenges of Our Times’, 1993, and ‘Appearances and Reality. Memoires’, 1998.