Daily Inspiration Quote by Romano Prodi

Prodi’s line is a politician’s version of infrastructure: it widens the road right as everyone is arguing about traffic. By insisting that “foreign policy” is not just foreign policy “in the narrow sense,” he’s doing two things at once. First, he’s quietly demoting the old, cinematic idea of diplomacy - summit photos, crises, hard power - and elevating the bureaucratic reality that actually defines the EU’s reach: trade rules, aid budgets, accession talks, regulatory alignment. Second, he’s staking a claim over a sprawling portfolio without sounding like he’s grabbing power.

The repetition is the tell. “It can cover foreign policy... and enlargement as well” reads like a tautology, but it’s a strategic tautology: Prodi is normalizing the idea that relations with the developing world and EU enlargement are not side projects or charity; they are core instruments of Europe’s external influence. “Developing world” signals moral purpose and post-Cold War responsibility, while “enlargement” signals leverage - the EU’s most effective geopolitical tool is the promise of membership, which exports norms more efficiently than any speech about values.

The context is a Europe trying to act like a coherent actor while still being a committee. Prodi’s intent is to blur internal and external policy into one continuum, making integration itself a foreign policy act. The subtext: if you want Europe to matter abroad, you have to accept that its power looks like paperwork, conditionality, and the slow grind of expansion.