REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP

IN SEARCH OF THE NEW

EUROPEAN BUSINESS

LEADER

1

High culture is nothing but a child of that European perversion called

history, the obsession we have with going forward, with considering the

sequence of generations a relay race in which everyone surpasses his pred-

ecessor, only to be surpassed by his successor. Without this relay race called

history there would be no European art and what characterizes it: a

longing for originality, a longing for change. Robespierre, Napoleon,

Beethoven, Stalin, Picasso, they ’ re all runners in the relay race, they all

belong to the same stadium.

— Milan Kundera

Introduction

The founding fathers of the European Union, Robert Schuman and Jean
Monnet, dreamed of creating a community of nations that would become
more directionally convergent as the years went by. The result of their
vision is the EU, the most far - reaching plan for economic integration
ever to be attempted among a group of sovereign countries. Its founding
covenant, the Treaty of Rome (1957), aimed at the establishment of a
common market, progressively bringing the economic policies of its
members into alignment, in order:

to promote the harmonious growth of economic activity in the Commu-

nity as a whole, regular and balanced expansion, augmented stability, a

more rapidly rising standard of living, and closer relations between the

participating states.

CHAPTER 14