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Acquiring a European citizen’s mentality is what this School aspires to achieveH.E. The President of the Italian Republic Mr. Sergio Mattarella“I would like to thank in particularPresident Pavlopoulos for His message. His message, besides emphasizing the great friendship and proximity in every aspect between Greece and Italy, reminded us that the EPLO provides an excellent example, as He wrote, of collaboration. And it is a collaboration ensured through the work, the dialogue, the research and the study of many European jurists of public law, which has a somewhat long history.In 1989 the European Group of Public Law was born from the intuition of some great professors, including Massimo Severo Giannini, and has developed thanks to a great joint work, with the contribution of many people. I remember one person appreciated by everyone, Luis Ortega.It is an intense work and it is still consistently carried out in Greece.A few years later, in 1995, the European Public Law Center was created and, in 2004, the Treaty establishing the European Public Law Organization. It is therefore a story of collaboration and success.One of the results is precisely this School. As Professor Chiti just reminded us, it has a peculiar characteristic, that of common curricula, as he called them, homogeneous curricula, which allow for the preparation of young lawyers that can carry out their duties in States’ institutions as well as in supranational and international agencies, with an adequate preparation for every circumstance.valuable work. For which I wish, and I am sure that this will be the outcome, a great success to the School.Professor Flogaitis, a while ago, reminded us of the phrase that stands out in that mosaic, and that young people of Sparta were addressing to elders, if I remember correctly, “and we will be betterthan you”. I must say that, while thinking about the conditions of Europe and its slippages in these times, it is to be hoped that it will really be like this and we should count on that it will really be like this.Maybe it is not always true, maybe we did not live up to the generation that conceived and launched the European integration, but I am con dent thatAs Professor Cassese said a moment ago, thisis a condition that originates from the limits of thenational, or rather nationalistic, legal systems, fromthe nationalistic conception of the law, and byovercoming the belief in the self-suf ciency of these young Europeans of today who will take in theirlaws. From the birth of what Professor Cassese called the jus commune europaeum, you might say, perhaps forcing a little bit, that this represents the return of the jus commune, of a common European law, which a moment ago Professor Amato, the President Amato, recalled with such precision.And this training of lawyers in this context, with this knowledge, with this condition, is a reallyhands, and who are already taking in their hands, the fate of our continent, of the Union, will be better than the previous ones.And this is a wish that I strongly address to the School. It is needed, and this better behavior, this being better, will actually be realized by acquiring a European citizen’s mentality, precisely what this School aspires to achieve”.ACTIVITYREPORT2016 45