The VI EDP Congress, held in Brussels, has just concluded after two days of discussion. More than 100 delegates, coming from 17 different countries have attended. The Congress took place during a signifying period for Europe and Italy.

With regards to Italy, the previous days had been marked by a controversy between Italian and German governments about the Italian debt; controversy arisen from the words of Angela MERKEL against Italian policies about debt reduction animating the last few weeks of the Italian semester.
Regarding the Italian presidency of EU Council semester, Matteo RENZI said that “we faced a big challenge: to find the soul of the EU and to find the deep sense of European togetherness” and “this challenge inevitably affected our results”. Indeed, the Italian presidency results seem below our expectations – as Matteo RENZI admits – but in consideration of the hard troubles we had to tackle, we still managed to achieve important results such as the review of tax policies and a better coordination among member states. Anyway, these achievements have not been perceived by the population: Europe is still identified as foreign institution.
At present time, the quotation of a former President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio CIAMPI, is still topical: he defined Europe mainly “a political project”.

For such reasons, we must be aware that EDP role is very important: a crucial role because we – as EDP members – are concrete politicians and we have tried, even during our conference, to bring a human dimension to EU policy and policies. Our way to be politicians is intended not just as “muscle power show”, but mainly as the courage to suggest the right solutions, even if they could be difficult to understand at a first sight. We really believe that such behaviour will bring European people closer to our party.

On November 23rd, local elections in Calabria marked an amazing achievement for us, by electing Flora SCULCO, a young woman who joined the EDP project, as Congress delegate and Calabria MRP. During her electoral campaign, we talked a lot about European Institution and about all the issues we recently discussed in Brussels EDP Congress: economic growth and employment recovery, fiscal convergence, common foreign policy, immigration and fight against human trafficking. We have the proof that such topics are not unrealistic and they stimulate the debate among people and between our party and people.

In conclusion, a short hint about a crucial theme, the sustainable development. Lima’s summit (COP20), the environmental summit preparatory to Paris Conference, has just ended without gaining significant results, nevertheless reaching some progress in the fight against climate change that, we all know, represents a real challenge for the future.
The Young Democrats for Europe (YDE) will surely engage with passion these challenging issues. Together we can realize the project of Europe as a political union.

By Laura Venneri