Letta closes Ventotene Summer School, calls for completing single market for EU autonomy

Enrico Letta, former Italian Prime Minister, has closed the eighth edition of the "Europe and strategic autonomy" Summer School and International Conference in Ventotene. He delivered a keynote address stressing that Europe's strategic autonomy hinges on the completion of its single market.

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One Europe, one market is not just an economic formula, but a political condition. Europe can become truly autonomous only if it overcomes national fragmentations, external dependencies, and structural delays in the decisive sectors of the present: energy, new technologies, digital, security.

Letta argued that "One Europe, one market" is not merely an economic slogan but a political necessity. He stated that Europe can only achieve genuine autonomy by overcoming national fragmentation, external dependencies, and structural delays in crucial sectors like energy, new technologies, digital infrastructure, and security. Without a unified European energy market, a common industrial policy for new technologies, shared digital infrastructure, and collective security capabilities, the EU risks being strong in regulation but weak in geopolitical influence.

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The completion of the common market, in this perspective, becomes both an objective and a prerequisite for strategic autonomy.

The conference, hosted on the island historically linked to the "Ventotene Manifesto," gathered academics, constitutionalists, jurists, international relations experts, institutional representatives, and young researchers. Participants included Ambassador Ferdinando Nelli Feroci, Francesco Tufarelli, and Roberto Sommella, alongside professors from various Italian and European universities. Letta's lecture, aligning with the conference discussions, reframed strategic autonomy as the imperative to end European dependencies and build a shared European sovereignty.

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Without a true European energy market, without a common industrial policy in new technologies, without our own digital infrastructure and shared security capabilities, the Union risks remaining strong in regulation, but weak in its effective ability to influence global geopolitical relations.