When the Euro 2020 championship finally kicks off on June 11, European politicians and policymakers should be taking notes. This tournament showcases an ideal of Europe — how it could be.
The European championship stems from the most fertile period of continental integration. On June 1 1955, six men representing six European countries gathered around a table in Messina, Sicily, for talks that ended up creating the European Economic Community, ancestor of the EU. Three months later, Sporting Lisbon played Partizan Belgrade in the first match of football’s European Cup, ancestor of today’s Champions League. And in June 1958 in Stockholm, the continent’s football associations agreed to start a European Nations’ Cup, the ancestor of Euro 2020.
