{"id":341140,"date":"2012-05-22T13:08:38","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T11:08:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/the-economy-of-giving-knocks-at-the-doors-of-europe\/"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:06:46","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T10:06:46","slug":"the-economy-of-giving-knocks-at-the-doors-of-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/the-economy-of-giving-knocks-at-the-doors-of-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Economy of Giving Knocks at the Doors of Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Together for Europe\u201d could not be missing a session on the economy. \u00a0In fact, in the prestigious headquarters of the European Parliament<\/strong>, at Pace de Luxembourg – \u00a0in the hall after Alcide De Gasperi<\/strong>, the noble father and co-founder of what would become the European Union, – a group of experts, politicians, business people, youth and citizens met for a conference on: \u00a0\u201cThe Economy: a Matter of Gift<\/strong><\/em>.\u201d Certainly the stakes are high: the current crazy course of the financially ill market has lost its direction for the Common Good.\"120512_Bruxelles_Bruni_rid\"<\/p>\n

Hendrik Opdebeeck<\/strong>, professor of philospohy and economy at the University of Anwar and a member of the Ethics Center, in opening the session, described in seven points the concept of responsibility and connected it to freedom, alterity, encounter with others, the responsibility of global institutions,the \u00a0limits of the market economy \u00a0and to globalization.<\/p>\n

The recent French and Greek elections, with their different societal tensions, according to the professor, pose a question: Is it the case to give merit-based salaries, according to the vision of liberalism, or to give everyone their part in conformity to their needs, according to the socialistic model? In our current European society, the economic, social, legal and financial aspects risk being shaped by egocentrical and irresponsible organized structures, at the national, international and global levels. From this point of view, Europe in crisis should look to another important \u00a0future paradigm: that of responsibility.<\/p>\n

Luigino Bruni<\/strong>, associate professor of Economy at the University of Milan- Bicocca and the Sophia University Institute of Loppiano, offered a clear analysis, without mercy for the current crisis, but also with a proposal: the Economy of Communion<\/strong>. He highlighted that right from its birth, the economy found strength and inspiration \u00a0in charism, from Monastic Communities that knew how to create living laboratories from which emerged the initial categories and the first institutions to give life to a market economy. \u00ab And it is undeniable that also Christian humanisms,\u201d he continued, \u201cwith their charitas and charis, played a decisive role.\u00bb \u00a0But more than \u00a0putting the economy on trial, it is the increasingly speculative finance sector that should be on the guilty bench. According to Bruni, we need \u00a0\u00abto do something\u00bb and bring back from the margins to the public square those charisms that encourage reciprocity, gratuity-gift and the common good. How? By bringing the finance sector and the economy into the \u00a0public debate because \u00abit\u2019s too risky to leave them only in the hands of those who work in those sectors<\/em>.\u00bb To begin again from the poor and to relaunch the idea of a new social pact, and to trust that the epochal changes can be a fruit also of a prophetic minority, as has already happened in the past. Finally, the young people: they are the ones who can bring a new turn to the economic and financial sector.<\/p>\n

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From the proposals, they then passed on to the supportive projects that can be carried out at a European level: a moratorium on advertising that targets children<\/strong>, which has to be taken away from those who seek profits: a moratorium on gambling games<\/strong>, a Tobin Tax<\/strong>, or something along that line, so that risky financial endeavors \u00a0pay the right amount; finally, a strengthening<\/strong>, also through adequate legislative tools, of the social and civil economy in Europe<\/strong>.<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

In the presence of the Vice President of Europe<\/strong>, Laslo Surjan<\/strong> from Hungary, responsible for dialogue with the Churches, \u201cbest practices\u201d for the economic sector were delineated: three businesses (one in Belgium and two in Croatia) shared how to convert these principles of gift into a commercial exchange where \u201cinvestors\u201d, share holders and workers, even though having different roles, have equal value. \u00a0Jan De Volder<\/strong>, from the Community of Saint Egidio in Belgium, shared on the\u201drevolt by gratuity,\u201d while \u00a0Claude Matz<\/strong>, from the Association for a United World (AMU) of Luxemburg, demonstrated the development projects sponsored and implemented throughout \u00a0these years.<\/p>\n

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Steve Vanackere<\/strong>, federal vice-minister and Minister of the Economy in Belgium, concluded the session by highlighting some critical points in the proposals, in order to encourage a dialogue even more pertinent to current economic systems, and he dared the political establishment \u00a0to give \u00abnot only answers, but the right answers<\/em>.\u00bb Then addressing Professor Bruni on the importance of a prophetic mionority<\/strong>, he underscored: \u00abthis audience is one<\/em>.\u00bb<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
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By Paolo De Maina<\/p>\n

Published in\u00a0Cittanuova.it<\/a>\u00a0on 13\/05\/2012<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The movements of \u201cTogether for Europe\u201dare bringing ahead concrete proposals on the economic level: a moratorium on advertising targeting children and on games involving gambling, a Tobin tax on finances, suitable laws for a socially responsible civil economy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[893],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-focolare-worldwide-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}