The Russian military invasion in Ukraine raises awareness of how important a united Europe and a common defense are. Themes at the center of the speech delivered this morning by the President of the Italian Republic, Sergio Mattarella, speaking at the University of Trieste, which awarded an honorary degree in law to him and to the ex-president of Slovenia Borut Pahor.

"The European project is more essential and urgent than ever, also in light of Russia's brutal and unjustifiable aggression against Ukraine. This applies not only to Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, but above all to the countries of the Western Balkans which over twenty years ago they began this challenging process of integration", declared the President of the Republic.

"Europe's desire to free itself from the legacy of the past -concluded Mattarella- which had seen it as the theater of wars of power, had found significant moments in the two historical passages of the final act of Helsinki in 1975 and the Charter of Paris in 1990 which noted the end of the Cold War", which states that the era of conflict and division of Europe is over. "Compared with what has been happening for over two years, it is bitterly reasonable to ask ourselves how it was possible to forget it".

On the topic, see also the article published by AVIONEWS.