European Identity - Individual, Group and Society - HumanitarianNet

336 EUROPEAN IDENTITY. INDIVIDUAL, GROUP AND SOCIETYdanger which is ringing Europe´s doorbell should be solved by Statesand businesses. Both must walk together to solve it. The platform ontop of which they should walk must be founded on responsibility andsolidarity.The role of the Entrepreneur is on the rise. In the Monterrey WorldSummit on Financing for Development, a major role was alreadygranted to it. Its task of creating and distributing goods and especiallyjobs allows him or her to relate to people from different countries,enabling him or her to lay the foundations of a really human community.We believe that, due to all the principles that have been listed,businesses do indeed play a very important role within the EuropeanUnion. However, we also recognise that, given the economic powerthey have, businesses should be regulated by ethical principles that,within a framework of transparency and equal opportunities, contributeto common good, respecting the dignity of all people. We deem itimportant to make an appeal for the establishment of a publicauthority of universal competence.Before I conclude, let me refer to two final quotes. The first belongsto Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel prize for Economics 2001, at a recent interviewpublished in “El Cultural”, weekly supplement of the Spanishnewspaper “El Mundo”. Mr. Stiglitz was asked the following questions:“Are we going through a period of shift of paradigms? In thepast twenty years we have witnessed how politics becamesubordinate to the economy. Has the time come for politics torecover supremacy as an instrument for social regulation? Do we notneed a moral revolution yet?”To which Mr Stiglitz answered:“In our decision making we must incorporate lasting valuesystems. Some of the decisions that have been made lately haveshown that not only is an economic basis necessary but also a moralbasis, above all with regards to human rights. As an economist I donot believe that the economy should go before politics. What iscurrently sold as Economic Science is, in reality, an ideology, areligion. It is for this reason that we would be taking a great stepforward if we paid more attention to scientific or theoretical aspectsof the economy in the decision-making process.”The second quote comes from a letter sent to a group of businesspeople by the School of Business Administration of Ramon LlullUniversity, Barcelona, last summer: