We Need to be Able to Disagree on European Policies

This comment by Jean Pisani-Ferry is based on an intervention made at the international conference "Beyond the Crisis: Fifteen Proposals for Italy’s European Policy" organised in Rome by the Istituto Affari Internazionali on 23 and 24 January 2006.

Pisani-Ferry underlines the need to be able to find a consensus on Europe that would allow people to express dissatisfaction with specific policies adopted, which are partly the responsibility of the EU and partly the responsibility of member states, without questioning the EU itself. There is still not enough scope for political disagreement among those who favour European integration.