Prospettive per la bioeconomia in un’Europa polarizzata

In the recent decades, the process of economic and monetary integration between the EU countries has generated a polarised Europe between strong and weak areas, contravening the original design of the European project, which envisaged prosperity, convergence and harmonisation between the member states. The bio-economy strategy promoted by the European Commission is embedded in a Europe divided between core and old/new peripheries. An internally fragmented Europe that, at the same time, is overall fragile in the global geo-economic context. Despite rhetorical arguments that emphasise the achievement of a new model of production and consumption careful to limit waste (circular economy) and reduce environmental and ecological damage (green economy), the European strategy for the bioeconomy seems to respond to the productivist agenda of big business, which urgently needs to replace fossil fuels with alternative energy sources. If the development of bio-based activities in Europe were to conform to the dynamics of the core-periphery model, then the European Commission's strategy for the bio-economy would represent a global shock for the local economies of peripheral countries, especially with regard to agriculture.