Prodi, the two Gorizias send a message of peace to the world

(ANSA) - TRIESTE, 30 MAR - "Gorizia and Nova Gorica belonged to different political worlds, and even if they had only ten inhabitants, for what they did, they would be symbolic enough." "They must make people understand that the world can change even for the good, not only for the bad." Romano Prodi is convinced of this as he talks about Europe and enlargement in an interview with Il Piccolo and Messaggero Veneto today, as the two Gorizias prepare to become the European Capital of Culture in 2025.
    With Ukraine, Gaza, and the Red Sea crises, "it is doubly important" to spread this message, Prodi underlines, "because it is against the tide. There is war, but there are also peoples who have united instead of slaughtering each other. Today, it is symbolically vital to show how the EU has created peace within it. Then we go to the European elections. People will understand that Europe has made this possible." The former EU Commission president remarked that the Gorica border was the first barbed-wire border he saw during his university years "between 1959 and 1961." In 2004, Prodi celebrated its fall when Slovenia joined the EU.
    "I have always believed that the former Yugoslavia and Albania were part of Europe," Prodi added, speaking of enlargement, "we are very late because of the delays in negotiations caused by France with Albania and Macedonia. It is a process that must go on. There is no obstacle as these countries do not have such a great economic weight to create disturbances or problems. Certainly, they must be accompanied by a change in European institutions, but this should have been done with the 2004 enlargement," "instead it did not happen." (ANSA).