His last book, Un’anima per l’Europa (A soul for Europe), posed some key questions about the future of the Union. 2 Four years ago he urged Europeans to ‘pool their virtues rather than their vices’ – something they had often done in the past – and his words still hold true today.
But first and foremost, Giacomo was a friend I had the good fortune to work with on several occasions. Our conversations were an opportunity to look more closely at problems and analyse them rigorously, but also a way to defuse situations, tongue-in-cheek.