A few days before the International Day of Non-violence, no need to look further to see that this call remains valid. I would make people laugh if as a Corsican, I pretended not to feel concerned! And the first of them would be my friend Jean-François Bernardini and the members of his foundation Corse Umani who welcomed me many times.
Last June, the European Economic and Social Committee has been able to show that Europe is swarming with concrete examples of non-violence initiatives such as the one of Tonio Dell’Olio whose network of associations «Libera» provide civic education against the Mafia in Italian schools, or the engagement of Michael Boyd to fight against violence in Northern Ireland through football’s love …
This day dedicated to the non-violence is as well the opportunity to look somewhere than home. When I look around me, I see what Europe provides us: the ability to create out of its diversity, an opportunity to unify, an effective way to avoid conflict. Europe is above all a community of life, a desire to live together. These are the foundations that we must protect while dealing with a crisis, whose treatment raises forms of violence whether economic, social or political.
