16-17 April 17-21 May
21-24 September 25-24 October

Today, the ability to innovate is an essential factor in survival for individuals, firms and nations. Although it is true that development cannot and must not be halted, it is not always easy to adapt to change or manage its consequences within a framework of global equity that ensures real progress shared by all.
The discoveries of basic research are being transformed every more rapidly into applications that modify the organization of society and production, as well as individual patterns of life and thought. But advances in knowledge do not always produce tangible benefits for everyone.
The path of innovation is more fraught than ever with ethical, economic and political choices, which call for a closer relationship between researchers and decision-makers. Such links must also seek to guarantee equal opportunities to all and ensure that an improvement in the quality of life of a few does not increase inequality at the global level.

Globalization, the Destruction of Employment and Growth: The Empirical Evidence

Milan, 2 December 1999
Centro Congressi Cariplo

The deep crisis being experienced everywhere, the increase in mass unemployment in every country, the steady spread of unacceptable inequalities, the general lack of security and the emergence of areas outside the realm of law and the gradual erosion of the ethical principles so necessary for the survival of a society require us to make a thorough reassessment of the policies we have adopted to date.
The failure of all the policies that in the last twenty-five years have sought to fight unemployment can be ascribed to the fact that we have refused to acknowledge the root of the problem: unreasonable and excessive liberalization of trade in the presence of large disparities in real wages at prevailing exchange rates.
Only the creation of a liberal system of community preferences will give regional groupings the necessary protection against external shocks and against the perverse effects of the excessive globalization of trade.
The statistical evidence leads to four fundamental conclusions:
1) The generalized globalization of trade between countries with very different wage levels will produce unemployment, slow growth, inequality and poverty in both developed and developing countries. Such globalization is neither inevitable nor desirable.
2) Total liberalization of trade and capital movements is neither possible nor desirable except between regional groups composed of economically and politically-linked countries with comparable levels of economic and social development.
3) It is necessary to revise without delay the founding treaties of the European Union, with special attention being given to the establishment of a system of community preferences.
4) It is absolutely necessary to reassess the principles of the globalization policy of international institutions, especially the World Trade Organization.