Europe needs a new narrative, a very simple and easy narrative. Just as a company has to reconsider its strategy from time to time, the same applies to Europe. Europe is neither a deus ex machina nor a scapegoat, but can make a real difference to European citizens in their daily life. Th ose citizens are the real stakeholders in the European story. A new impetus is only possible if Europe focuses on those areas where it can really make a difference for its citizens. Forget the cucumbers, the condoms and the tampons. Be pragmatic. Focus on the large, important works. We have called them the labours of Hercules.

Europe has proven that it can do so. The internal market and the euro have become feats that many envy. And yes, the process is slow. Rome was not built in a day. And yes, there have been construction errors, such as the decoupling of monetary and economic policy. But the European project has proven to be solid and able to navigate through turbulent waters and crises. Moreover, crises often appeared to act as an accelerator of the European integration process.

Crises like COVID-19 or the Ukraine conflict can also have this effect. The next-generation project is an unprecedented injection into the real economy. Financing through European loans would never have been possible without COVID-19, just like open strategic autonomy and the energy transition would never have gone so fast without the Ukraine crisis. Channelling that confidence, let us now commemorate Europe, not for its 65th anniversary, but by rethinking the role of Europe for the next decade based on the philosophy that Europe should be big in big things, small in small things. The twelve labours of Hercules can serve as a guideline here.

Let us be proud of our Europe instead of torpedoing it again and again. We are global players in Earth observation. We realized the monetary union. We have 450 million consumers with considerable purchasing power. We should not think of ourselves as the continent where the sun sets, but impose our legitimate wishes on other superpowers who are only interested in our market, but do not want to respect the environmental and social values that go with it.

Values, those are what matters. In the coming decades, values will be central. They will determine which economies have a future.