Napolitano asks Europe unity after Paris

(ANSA) Pavia, November 27 - Former Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said Friday he is "profoundly shocked by the recent attacks in Paris" and called for Europe to be ever more united to face similar threats.
    "This is an alarm to which Europe must react in a united fashion," the respected former head of state said at a ceremony for the start of the Pavia University academic year.
    Napolitano received an honorary degree in international relations.
    The European crisis, he said, is due to "the missing perception, by our countries, of the radical change that has happened in the world context".
    "The fulcrum of world development has shifted far from Europe and the Atlantic. We are faced with big new economic and political players".
    "The emerging countries are worth 60% of global GDP. Since 2000 three quarters of world growth is due to them".
    "Unfortunately one has allowed reactions of rejection and isolation to ferment, anachronistic illusions of retaining what exists and prolonging expectations cultivated in the past. This is the responsibility of the political world through the weakness and ambiguity that has marked it for years".
    "A moral and ideal renewal and re-launch, especially in Italy, of political parties is needed through their Europeanisation".
    Napolitano called for the construction of "an ever more united Europe. If one thinks of the world that is changing and seething around us, the world that has transmitted its most sinister signal to us from Paris on November 13, one is inspired to ask - Europe, if not now, when?"