Regarding the unbelievable events in the Greek-Turkish border

What is happening at the Greek-Turkish border along river Evros the last few days is highly alarming and extremely concerning for several different reasons, like:

• The hyper-evident lack of common foreign and defense policy within the EU. Nobody seems to be taking Europe seriously, quite an embarrassing situation for ‘the world’s largest economy’

• The way that EU is treating Ankara’s regime and Erdogan in particular is unacceptable. I remember the front page of “Le Point” asking “Le Dictateur — jusqu’où ira Erdogan?” — Given the tolerance he apparently enjoys, he’ll probably go very far.

• The Greek government’s reaction has been more disappointing, more shameful, more mistaken than one could ever imagine. One can witness ‘group of angry citizens patrolling the border — with their guns — to help the law enforcement forces’. It alarmingly resembles to scenes of the Greek civil war. Who could ever expect Golden-Dawn-ish policies from Mitsotakis and a North-Korea-style propaganda machine supporting them? 

Le Pen, Salvini and Orbán must be very jealous of the Greek PM.

The events that take place the last few days along river Evros go far being the wildest — and ugliest — imagination.

Νομοθετώντας για μια τεχνολογική επανάσταση: Μια πρόκληση για την ΕΕ!

Αναδημοσίευση από το ΕΜΕΑ.gr

Ο όρος «distributed dynamic web service composition» πιθανότατα να μην είναι ιδιαίτερα κατανοητός στους περισσότερους από εμάς, δεν παύει όμως να αποτελεί την επιστημονική περιγραφή μιας επερχόμενης επανάστασης στην πληροφορική που θα αλλάξει την καθημερινότητά μας περισσότερο από οτιδήποτε άλλο. Η «νοημοσύνη» των υπολογιστών δεν θα είναι πια περιχαρακωμένη στον Η/Υ, το tablet ή το smartphone μας αλλά θα βρίσκεται κυριολεκτικά παντού και οποιαδήποτε στιγμή θα μπορεί να κάνει τη ζωή μας ευκολότερη, επιτρέποντάς μας να επικεντρώνουμε την προσοχή μας στα θέματα που μόνο ο ανθρώπινος νους μπορεί να κάνει τη διαφορά.

Το τριετές ερευνητικό έργο CHOReOS (www.choreos.eu) που πρόσφατα ολοκληρώθηκε με την υποστήριξη της ΕΕ συνεισέφερε σημαντικά στην περεταίρω ανάπτυξη των τεχνολογιών αυτών, φέρνοντας τες ένα βήμα πιο κοντά στην εμπορική τους αξιοποίηση. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί πως στο CHOReOS, τη διαχείριση του οποίου είχε ο Γαλλικός όμιλος THALES και την επιστημονική ευθύνη ο επίσης Γαλλικός ερευνητικός οργανισμός INRIA, υπήρχε σημαντική ελληνική παρουσία με το Πανεπιστήμιο Ιωαννίνων και τις επιχειρήσεις MLS και Virtual Trip.

Η πρακτική εφαρμογή του «distributed dynamic web service composition» όπως αναφέρθηκε θα φέρει επαναστατικές αλλαγές τόσο στη βιομηχανία της πληροφορικής όσο, κυρίως, στην καθημερινότητα όλων μας. Για να μπορέσει όμως να γίνει πραγματικότητα η επανάσταση αυτή υπάρχει ανάγκη νομοθετικής μέριμνας, μιας ρύθμισης που θα δημιουργήσει το κατάλληλο έδαφος για τη νέα αυτήν πραγματικότητα.

Εδώ και αιώνες υπάρχουν νομοθετικές ρυθμίσεις που υποχρεώνουν επιχειρήσεις για δημοσιότητα συγκεκριμένων πληροφοριών σχετικές με τις υπηρεσίες που παρέχουν. Επί παραδείγματι θα έχουμε δει στα χωριά μας ότι στα καφενεία υπήρχε στον τοίχο ανηρτημένος τιμοκατάλογος με ότι προσέφεραν οι μικρές αυτές επιχειρήσεις ενώ ομοίως όλα τα εστιατόρια μας δίνουν τιμοκατάλογο μόλις καθίσουμε σε κάποιο τραπέζι τους. Παράλληλα, οι επιχειρήσεις μέχρι πρόσφατα δημοσίευαν υποχρεωτικά σε εφημερίδα τους ισολογισμούς τους, ενώ ακόμα και σήμερα σύνδεσμοι και σωματεία ανακοινώνουν υποχρεωτικά σε εφημερίδα τις γενικές τους συνελεύσεις. Επίσης, αν και ο συγγραφέας το αποφεύγει επιμελών, όσοι συνάνθρωποί μας αποφασίζουν να ενωθούν με τα δεσμά του γάμου, υποχρεούνται σε δημόσια ανακοίνωση του γεγονότος σε εφημερίδα.

Η ίδια υποχρέωση, με ακριβώς την ίδια φιλοσοφία, επεκτάθηκε στην εποχή του διαδικτύου. Για παράδειγμα οι εισηγμένες στο χρηματιστήριο επιχειρήσεις υποχρεούνται να έχουν στην ιστοσελίδα τους πληροφορίες για την τιμή της μετοχής τους και παρόμοιες υποχρεώσεις δημοσιότητας πληροφοριών υπάρχει για πλήθος πληροφοριών σε μεγάλη ποικιλία επιχειρήσεων και οργανισμών. Έχει γίνει ήδη λοιπόν ένα βήμα όσον αφορά τη δημοσίευση πληροφοριών στο διαδίκτυο.

Το βήμα όμως αυτό μέχρι σήμερα έχει γίνει μισό και είναι ανεπαρκές. Παράλληλα είναι υποχρέωση του νομοθέτη να το ολοκληρώσει για να δημιουργήσει όπως είπαμε τις κατάλληλες συνθήκες για την επανάσταση του «distributed dynamic web service composition». Ποιο είναι το πρόβλημα; Είναι απλό: Η υποχρέωση δημοσίευσης πληροφοριών στο διαδίκτυο αφορά την ανάγνωσή τους από χρήστες και μόνο αυτό. Αυτό που θα έπρεπε να γίνεται επιπλέον είναι η δημοσίευση των πληροφοριών να γίνεται έτσι ώστε να μπορεί να «διαβαστεί» από άλλα προγράμματα (που χρησιμοποιούν οι χρήστες, π.χ. στο κινητό τους) αλλά και πέραν της ανάγνωσης να υπάρχει η δυνατότητα αλληλεπίδρασης, όπως ερωτήσεων και συναλλαγών.

Με πολύ απλά λόγια, όταν περπατώ από την Ομόνοια προς το Σύνταγμα το κινητό μου τηλέφωνο (οι εφαρμογές που εκείνο φιλοξενεί, για την ακρίβεια) θα πρέπει να γνωρίζουν ποια είναι τα κοντινά μαγαζιά που έχουν cappuccino freddo σε τιμή μικρότερη των 2 € ή που είναι η πλησιέστερη επιχείρηση που έχει κάποιο job opening για προγραμματιστές που γνωρίζουν Java αλλά και σε πόση ώρα θα περάσει το επόμενο μετρό από τον σταθμό πανεπιστήμιο με κατεύθυνση το Ελληνικό. Ιδανικά, εκτός από το να έχω πρόσβαση από το κινητό μου σε όλες αυτές τις πληροφορίες θα πρέπει, όπως είπαμε παραπάνω, να μπορώ να κάνω και συναλλαγές, π.χ. να πάρω το ηλεκτρονικό μου εισιτήριο ή να υποβάλλω το βιογραφικό μου για το job opening.

Το ιδιαίτερα ενδιαφέρον στο παραπάνω σενάριο είναι ότι πολύ σύντομα θα αντιληφθούμε πως δεν χρειάζεται να μείνουμε στο smartphone αλλά οι «υπολογιστές» που χρησιμοποιούμε για τέτοιου είδους αλληλεπιδράσεις θα μπορούν να είναι στο αυτοκίνητο, στο ρολόι ή ακόμα και στα ρούχα μας. Μόλις αρχίζει να εφαρμόζεται η παραπάνω πρακτική, η ζωή μας ποτέ ξανά δεν θα είναι η ίδια και, παρά τα θρυλούμενα, θα είναι πολύ, πολύ καλύτερη. Θα πάψουμε να ανησυχούμε για τα τετριμμένα και θα μπορέσουμε να αφιερώσουμε τον ούτως ή άλλως λίγο χρόνο μας σε εκείνα που πραγματικά έχουν σημασία.

Είναι μεγάλη η ευκαιρία για την Ευρωπαϊκή Ένωση να βρεθεί στην παγκόσμια πρωτοπορία, αφήνοντας πίσω ΗΠΑ, Κίνα, Ιαπωνία και τους άλλους παίχτες της διεθνούς αγοράς, νομοθετώντας για το «distributed dynamic web service composition». Τεχνικά, τα πράγματα είναι πολύ απλά. Δεν χρειάζεται παρά να συμφωνηθεί το πρωτόκολλο βάσει του οποίου θα δημοσιεύονται οι πληροφορίες ώστε να είναι κατανοητές από προγράμματα τρίτων κατασκευαστών καθώς και να καθοριστεί πως θα γίνονται οι συναλλαγές και πως θα υπάρξει ένας κοινός «κατάλογος» όλων αυτών των υπηρεσιών. Υπάρχουν ήδη πολλές σχετικές προτάσεις τόσο από το CHOReOS όσο και από άλλα ερευνητικά consortia. Ας επιλεγεί μια και να νομοθετηθεί για όλη την ΕΕ. Είναι απολύτως βέβαιο πως τόσο η βιομηχανία όσο και οι χρήστες θα ανταποκριθούν θετικά και οι – θετικές! – εξελίξεις θα είναι ραγδαίες!

Entrepreneurship and Universities: More on my IVLP / ANB13 experience

New York City

October 1st, 2013

Tom Leighton, the SAT problem and changing Universities in Europe to support entrepreneurial growth and job creation

Tom Leighton is a very special person. Being a Professor of Applied Mathematics at MIT, ranked as the best university in theworld in Computer Science & Engineering, he also is the founder of Akamai, the company which revolutionized multimedia delivery over internet in the late 90s, actually creating the unified video-voice-image internet experience that most of us enjoy today.

The "SAT problem" is one of the most difficult mathematical problems in the field of Boolean Algebra, which largely forms the core of Computer Science. At many Universities around the Globe, SAT problem is taught at the final year of the curriculum as an advanced topic.

Before starting my IVLP/ANB13 program in Washington DC, I paid a visit to Boston, Massachussets. I was informed there about the following two facts:

1. Tom Leighton teaches the SAT problem to MIT students during their 1st or 2nd year of studies (!)
2. The notes which Leighton distributes to his students mention his affiliation both to MIT and to Akamai . In other words, the MIT students while studying one of the hardest topics of their curriculum, proudly learn that their Professor has been the Co-founder of Akamai.

As far as teaching the SAT problem at 1^st year students is concerned, I will only comment that MIT’s ranking as No1 in the World in Computer Science & Engineering is anything but accidental. Many European Technical Universities used to include very strong mathematics in their curricula. Some of them still do so. It is rather obvious that keeping doing so and even increasing the difficulty level of the offered studies will only be good for Europe, in the new super-competitive global landscapes. Practical experience and learning tools, which must find its way to the Universities, must always be accompanied with solid theoretical background.

In this article however I shall focus to point [2], which in my opinion has a terribly high importance in understanding the changes that must take place in higher education in Europe in order to boost entrepreneurship and, via it, quality jobs creation. As a matter of fact, Universities in Europe have always been of high academic quality and more orless remain as such. Unfortunately though, in Europe we observe low entrepreneurial activity directly related with the academic and research ecosystem, which has created at least the following two consequences:

1. A “start-up migration wave”, where most of the high-potential start-ups in the EU have either moved to the US or plan to do so, and ,
2. A terrible opportunity cost has occurred in terms of quality jobs which could have been created, but actually they haven’t.

A rather disappointing fact is that linking the academic & research world with “the industry” has been a top priority for the EU Commission since quite a long time. Tens of billions have been spent in the RTD support programs in a number of “Framework Programs”, results however have been anything but satisfactory. In my opinion the main cause of this phenomenon is the following contradiction:

“While funding rules actually ask for “commercialization plans” and “partnerships with the industry”, in real terms the academic and research community simply does not appreciate entrepreneurship. If Tom Leighton had been a Professor in Barcelona, Munich, Lisbon, Toulouse, Athens or Milano, it is very likely that many of his students, as well as many of his fellow professors, would not like at all his double affiliation on his notes, as Professor of the University and Co-founder of Akamai.”

A so-much-19^th-century philosophy of not “mixing academic with for profit activities” is actually the highest barrier of European universities in their way towards being the knowledge hubs of sustainably growing entrepreneurial ecosystems.

During my IVLP/ANB13 program I had the privilege of visiting a number of leading American Universities, such as Georgetown, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Denver, Southern Methodist University and Columbia University. At all of them, literally ALL, it was very obvious that the academic environment not only is entrepreneurship-friendly but it actually is designed to boost entrepreneurship and to promote the "culture of failure". Very few European Universities can really make a similar claim - If any.

Being in the fifth year of the financial crisis in Europe and having general unemployment in the South higher than 25%, as well as youth unemployment is some cases (Spain, Greece) higher than 50%, it is now the time to look at the ugly truth and do something about it. The ugly truth is that while the number of well educated young Europeans increases constantly, very many of them fail to find a quality job, while on the same time the industry complains for having difficulties to find the right talent to cover their needs. It’s rather safe to conclude that there’s a growing gap between market needs and education provided by our educational system, both in terms of formal knowledge, and, more importantly, in terms of culture.

Donald Rumsfeld had talked about “Old Europe” almost one decade ago. It was probably one of the very few cases where I had agreed with this US politician. Europe is old, indeed. Behaves like an old person, it is slow moving and ultra-conservative. If we don’t do today some radical changes in our educational system, in economic terms Europe can only hope to a slow death. In that unfortunate event, the best-case scenario for Europe will be to become a huge open-air museum for Chinese tourists. The game is not over (yet) however, there still is time for changes which can bring Europe back to global leadership, given that these changes will be implemented soon and with high level of determination.

The World’s economy becomes increasingly knowledge intensive. We have to adapt to this reality and turn our universities to the knowledge hubs necessary to boost the “economy of creativity and collaboration”. NYC, the rising star of the tech world, does exactly the same as discussed in our recent meeting with Nancy Ploeger, President of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, during my IVLP/ANB13 program in the US. 

It is quite interesting that, although NYC launched its start-up strategy only few years ago, now it is an almost equally developed ecosystem with the San Francisco Bay Area and rather more developed than Boston - Where there is a huge tradition of high tech universities. That is probably because the City of New York made a wise choice: They played on their strength! 

Unfortunately, we Europeans do not play on our strength but seem to prefer the copycat way - that is to dream for many of our regions to become "the Silicon Valley of Europe". One can easily name 10+ European regions dreaming/aiming to become the Silicon Valley of Europe. On the other hand in NYC nobody ever dreamed of becoming "the Silicon Valley of the East Coast". What is the result of those two different choices? Today NYC competes with the Silicon Valley at -almost- equal terms while those European regions still remain miles behind. This situation could easily be described as the "Silicon Paranoia".

Many analysts in Europe have suggested a number of necessary measures for promoting high growth and innovative entrepreneurship aiming to the sustainable creation of quality jobs. They refer to increasing seed/risk financing, improving bankruptcy legislation, adding entrepreneurship courses in all of the educational levels and realizing the single European market for businesses. The analysts are right in their recommendations; however such measures will unfortunately fail unless a major cultural and political shift take place.

Students and fellow professors in Barcelona, Munich, Lisbon, Toulouse, Athens or Milano, as well as anywhere else in Europe, not only shouldn't be skeptic with seeing a European Professor having an entrepreneurial affiliation together with an academic one, like Tom Leighton does with MIT and Akamai, but they should strongly encourage and be highly proud of academics and researchers who managed to create sustainable, growing companies on the basis of cutting edge technology and research in European universities.

If we reach that point, if every European student starts dreaming of an entrepreneurial endeavor instead of a corporate career, a hugely important step for Europe will have been made. Europe does not lack the financial, neither the human nor the symbolic capital necessary to become the global leader in high growth and innovative entrepreneurship. All of the parts of the puzzle are just in front of us. We only need to put them in order and inspire a new entrepreneurial culture, making the youth of Europe to dream of realizing their creativity in sustainably growing businesses.  

In a very few words, it is time for Europe to put creativity and innovation above job security, as far as employment is concerned. Once we do this, it will not take long till a number of Akamai-level companies will be created around Europe and their proud founders will be teaching and inspiring the next generation of European entrepreneurs. Like Tom Leighton of Akamai does in MIT.

Dimitris Tsigos is the founder of StartTech Ventures, a start-up incubator in Athens, Greece . A serial tech entrepreneur and pioneer in seed financing, currently serves as President of YES – European Confederation of Young Entrepreneurs. He also is the Founder of the Hellenic Start-up Association and a Board Member at the European Business Angel Network. In 2012 he was nominated as one of the 40 European leaders under the age of 40 years. Dimitris recently participated to the IVLP / ANB13 program organized by the U.S. Department  of State and Entrepreneurs' Organization.

European Federal Republic: The time has come!

Over the last years when the European Union has been facing the challenges imposed by the so-called "global financial crisis", it has been made clearer than ever before that something must change in the EU. I could say that it is more obvious than not that there is an extreme necessity to get Europe truly united.

The 20th century has been a very bad one for Europe. A century of wars, genocides, tragedies and distractions. The European Union that we know today has been the previous generation's response to the unprecedented catastrophe caused by the two World Wars which practically started in Europe. The mission of the previous generations has been accomplished and Europe has lived almost seven decades of peace and prosperity.

Recently though, the financial crisis has initiated a process of questioning the European peace miracle. Vast segments of the middle class in European States, especially at the South, enter into poverty creating an ideal ground for the rise of nationalism. A massive return of nationalism would definitely led to the dissolution of the European Union and rather sooner than later to the Third World War. The consequences of this are too severe to let them come to reality.The rise of the neo-nazi movement in Greece, a country which lost almost 10% of its population to help the free people defeating the Nazis, serves as the ultimate example of how wrong things can go if a wrong political and economic model is followed for long time.

The current EU model is based on the concept of intergovernmentalism. Today, in 2013, we Europeans can keep pretending that this so much 20th century intergovernmentalism approach works. The ugly truth however is that it doesn't work at all. A new approach is needed.

We all know it, Europe is old (that actually is one of the few wise words ever said by Donald Rumsfeld). Europe does behaves like an old person. Slow moving and uber-conservative. Young Europeans have completely different dreams for their lives. No, we do not aim to becoming citizens of a huge open-air museum. We envision Europe as a great, united country, as a super-power of justice, equality, democracy and culture. A dominant factor of fairness and stability in the international affairs. A growing economy with financial and ecological sustainability.

This dream, might not be that far away from reality given that young Europeans stand up and talk with loud and clear voice. On the contrary, it is absolutely feasible. Europe does have the financial, human and symbolic capital necessary to make that dream come true. It only lacks the required political will. Actually, those who lack that will are the national governments, more or less frightened in sight of sharing some parts of their authorities and responsibilities and managing them via a supranational, federal structure. The reality is however that the vast majority of Europeans not only is ready to accept this federal approach but rather is about to demand it!

The question to be asked to the youth of Europe is very simple: "Don't you thing that it is about time to turn Europe young again? Don't you think that it is about time to start the process of creating the European Federal Republic?". As far as I am concerned, I do think it is about time to do so and I'll put all of my energy and resources to make this dream come true, remaining confident that thousands of other young Europeans will also do the same.

Uniting Europe is the major challenge of our generation and I'm absolutely confident that we shall positively respond to it. At the end of the day, it is all about making a life worth living. 

What entrepreneurship is all about? My IVLP experience (so far!)

That email arrived unexpectedly.  It was from the US Embassy in Athens, Greece, asking for a meeting. I didn’t have any cooperation with the Embassy so far thus I got a kind of surprised. The meeting took place few days later and it was a very fruitful one. After a short introduction, I was informed about the State Department’s IVLP program and was asked if I would be interested in considering it. “Of course I’m interested in it”, was my immediate reaction, “but, you know, I’m not allowed to go. I don’t have a passport and I can’t have one because of my pending military service duty”.

I have to admit that  the level of surprise on the faces of the people in front of me, made me for the very first time to think that it might be a good idea to finally tick that box which was pending for almost eight years.

After my positive response, I took care of the required documentation and I was informed that I would receive an answer “in few weeks”. Going back to the office that day I was thinking that even if I was not finally selected, perhaps it would be a good idea to take advantage of the legislation for a 45-days-only military service for those who have turned 35 and, at last, get my passport. At the end, being a serial technology entrepreneur for 13 years and missing a visit to the US is probably equal to a Muslim who has never been in Mecca.

I joined the Greek Army as a Signal Corps soldier on March 21st and my last day in the camp was on May 7th. It is such a peculiar coincidence that while I was driving on my way back from the camp, leaving behind an interesting – very short, thank God – military experience I received the call from the US Embassy saying that “you’ve been selected for the IVLP – A New Beginning Program” and “you will be in the US from September 14th to October 5th”.

Frankly, that day could not get any better!

Right the next day, May 8th, I was at the Passport Issuing Authority in Athens applying for my passport. Got so excited to get it three days later – as well as a little bit proud of the passport issuing system that Virtual Trip had delivered few years ago. Just two weeks later I visited London, UK. It was feeling so great to be able to travel out of the Schengen area again!

Time flies much faster that we tend to believe.  September arrived so quickly. I had made the decision to go to the US one week earlier, speaking to the CloudBeat 2013 conference in San Francisco and meeting the tech / innovation community in the SF Bay Area and in Boston. It was just great! I was very excited for finally making it to be there and meeting global leaders in the tech business. Interestingly, I also felt proud of what the startup community has already achieved in Greece and other EU regions, given the huge difference in availability of risk financing  - which in the US is at least 5x more than the EU!

Arriving in Washington DC on Saturday evening September 14th I was ready to meet entrepreneurs from 29 different countries who were also participating to this program. I soon realized that it would be much better than expected! The spectrum of participants is amazingly wide. From France to South Sudan, from Portugal to Burma and Bangladesh, from Greece to Argentina and Thailand as well as from Hungary to Cambodia and Kenya, it is just an amazing mixture of cultures, nations, experiences and lifestyles!

It does get even better though! Not only there’s a hugely wide spectrum of cultures and origins but participating entrepreneurs greatly differ on scale, stage, sector, industry, maturity and a number of other aspects. They are, or probably the look, so very much different!

After two weeks of living, working and traveling with those amazing people, a very surprising feeling has come to the surface. They are all so different. We are all so different. Despite those differences however, either being a successful female serial entrepreneur and investor in France or an early-stage male start-up entrepreneur in Paraguay, you still face the same challenges at business, personal and family level. The challenges are similar simply because they have to do primarily with people and, yes you got it right, people are the same around the Globe regardless of skin color, religion or culture. People can be passionate but still vulnerable. People can be leaders and followers. People can create, but can also destroy. People are sometimes brave, some other times cowards. People are just people.

To be an entrepreneur is to be creative in a financially sustainable model working with other people. You can’t be an entrepreneur working alone. It is your co-founders, your employees, your customers, your investors, your suppliers. It is also your spouse, your partner, your siblings, your kids, your friends. It is all about people. It is all about managing relationships, communication and expectations with the human beings around us that actually define an entrepreneur.

This thought has been strong enough to absorb me for a while. I thought I had got it and that I should focus my energy to managing relations with the people around me. Suddenly, during the “forum” session organized by the Entrepreneurs’ Organization chapter in Denver, Colorado, I realized that I was wrong. We like it or not, it is not managing relationships, communication and expectations with the people around us that actually defines an entrepreneur. It is only about managing the relationship with your own self. Managing your own dreams, vision and expectation. It might sound simple but, trust me, is way the hardest part of the entrepreneurial game.

Once you’ve done this, however, then only sky is the limit – Perhaps, not even sky.

The only effective response to the debt crisis is Federal Europe

What we are experiencing in Europe the last two years, very much more the last six months, is the result of political hesitation for a deeper & stronger European integration.

The obvious statement that "a monetary union without a real financial union is not sustainable" is proven right at an amazing manner day-by-day.

Political systems across Europe struggle to stay in power, betting, quite unfortunately, on a concept which we all thought was deep-burried in European history: Nationalism.

Watching news in European countries makes you think that there are some very bad people in Brussels dictating decisions and 'imposing authority' on the national governments. Interestingly enough, this stands both for strong and weak economies in the EU.

This is pure populism and we should all stand against it.

For European Economy, for Europe in general, in order to play any role in future geopolitics and geoeconomy, has to get truly united, has to explore economies of scale. The 19th century US history teaches the most important lessons about this.

A truly united Europe can only be a Federal Europe, with a directly elected European government for the European citizens.

We all live extreme moments in Europe. Yes, it's about business, it's about entrepreneurship, it's about stability, it's about sustainability. IMHO, it is ridiculous to believe that Europe faces a financial crisis.

The European debt crisis is a pure political crisis and the response can only fall in the field of politics.

Entrepreneurs, as actors of innovation, creativity and progress, should use all their influence and power to move decisions to the right direction.

A truly united Europe, a federal European State, will only be good for us Europeans and for the rest of the World.

Last but certainly not least: We just need to realize that a possible return of Nationalism in Europe will be THE END for all of us and, after that, do whatever necessary to realize a truly united, Federal Europe.