The Founding Fathers
Where Europeans look for inspiration
The founding fathers are always a source of inspiration, especially in hard times. Every institution, town or country looks at them with admiration. After all, they had the vision and energy to start something great, something that lasts, and so great that their members decided to be part of it or, if membership is by accident like being born here or there, are proud of it. In some way, the greatness of an institution, town or country reflects the greatness of their founding fathers. You can´t be a true American or a true European without admiring the founding fathers of America or Europe.
The Collection
Europe’s founding fathers, like most other founding fathers, initiated the founding process, the process which led through institutional reform and innovation to the creation of the European Union, even though at the time it was called something else. They not only crafted the foundational treaties but they had the vision to unite nations that have tried to killed each other a few years earlier. They saw that, beyond the division and hate spread by nationalism, the Europeans have more things in common that differences and that we share a history many centuries old that resulted in shared values and principles. We, of course, have fought and argued with each other as brothers usually do but, at the end of the day, we are brothers, we are family.
Families stay together to respond to external challenges. Beyond the blood ties that we, as Europeans, also have, this makes us a true family. We share the same blood, the same home, but, in the end, it’s the solidarity and love that makes us a family. Together can we overcome challenges that would be too big or too difficult for each of us separately and each time we are united we become more family than before.
The founding fathers saw this clearly. They offer timeless lessons in visionary thinking. They imagined a future Europe very different to the Europe they were living in, an impoverished Europe destroyed by war twice. They worked hard to make it happen, to create a Europe based on freedom, justice and equality instead of in nationalism. In summary, they offer timeless lessons in principled leadership that continue to resonate and should inspire us today.
Europe faces today challenges too big for nation states. The main actors in the global world of the XXIst century have populations of hundreds of millions, even billions, and economies many times that of the richest and biggest European nations. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Trump’s presidency in the USA, AI and the technology race, climate change, the migration crisis and an ageing society are challenges that we can only face together, challenges that put our prosperity and wellbeing, the European social model that we enjoy today, at risk.
In this series of presentations, we look at our founding fathers looking for inspiration. What would they do? How would Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer, Winston Churchill, Robert Schuman have responded to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine? How would the founding fathers have responded to the challenges Europe faces in the XXIst century? After a brief biography of each founding father, we will try to answer that question in an essay in policy-fiction. We will draw on their lives and accomplishments which are more relevant for each topic.