An informal transatlantic alliance between Europe's Socialists and the centre-left Presidents of the US and Brazil got a major boost yesterday in Florence when six of the world's most powerful leaders assembled to debate strategies for the millennium.
The leaders, the US and Brazilian Presidents, Mr Bill Clinton and Mr Henrique Cardoso, the German Chancellor, Mr Gerhard Schroder, and the British, French, and Italian Prime Ministers, Mr Tony Blair, Mr Lionel Jospin, and Mr Massimo D'Alema, pledged their commitment to a modernising global agenda, a world economic system based firmly on the market but with a social conscience.
Neither Mr Clinton nor Mr Cardoso, nor indeed the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, who also attended, are members of parties linked to the Socialist International. Their willingness to participate in not only the debate but a broader ideological platform, will certainly make life more difficult for traditional conservatives by consolidating the centre ground of international politics. The public debate on "Progressive Governance for the 21st Century" was an attempt to articulate a common, intellectually coherent response to the global governance challenges of the 21st century, in effect to define an international manifesto for what Mr Blair has called the "Third Way".
They met amid great pomp and ceremony in the Great Hall of the Palazzo Vecchio, a spectacular 14th century structure featuring a frescoed ceiling, painted by the Florentine artist, Giorgio Vasari, glorifying Cosimo de Medici and his creation of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany.
The leaders appeared relaxed and enjoying the occasion although German sources suggested that Mr Schroder was less than enthusiastic about what appeared to be turning into the Clinton show.
The occasion was undoubtedly dominated by Mr Clinton who with Mr Blair provided the most comprehensive articulation of their shared philosophy. And he spoke repeatedly and most freely about a whole range of policy options ranging from Internet access for the developing world to the need for the EU to develop a US-style Food and Drug Administration to reassure consumers about food safety.
Mr Clinton said that the Third Way was a "unifying theory" which rejected the old dichotomies that pigeon-holed politicians as either pro-business or pro-labour, pro-environment or pro-growth, pro-cultural diversity or pro-universal identity. Progressives were able to combine both, he said.
There was now a real consensus on fundamental economic questions but real structural problems that had to be addressed in new ways. The problems of the ageing population, the persistence of income inequality, skills inequality, environmental crises . . .
And in a line that might have been written by Mr John Hume, he said that the reconciliation of such opposites meant a "need to extol diversity as a particular manifestation of our common humanity".
Internationally, he said in a clear reference to domestic isolationist pressures, the US had to recognise that while it was successful now "nothing lasts forever".
"We should be humble and responsible and recognise that we live in a increasingly interdependent world," Mr Clinton said.
Mr Blair said that what separated them from conservatives was a recognition of "society" both nationally and globally. The progressive project was about "managing change". But he acknowledged that one of the key problems facing New Labour is that "we came to power because people perceived the right wing had no answers to globalisation. Part of our electoral success was people's fear of that change. Our challenge is to persuade them that we will manage that change on the basis of social inclusiveness".
The new approach also involved citizens in a new compact with the state that implied responsibilities as well as rights.
He warned that unless the left consolidated its ground and was able to articulate coherently its alternative there was a real danger of a return to government by the far right.
Mr Jospin said that "to respond to the logic of globalisation we need global action". Insisting that "we as political actors can make change and not simply be subjects of it", he quoted from Gabriel Garcia Marques: "Don't expect anything of the 21st Century. It is the 21st century that expects of you."
Although he refused to express open criticism of the Blairite rationale, Mr Jospin's sub-text was distinctly more Old Labour in emphasising the role of the state as enhancing, in the last instance, the ability of other unwilling economic actors. He attributed the return of optimism in the French economy to the Socialists' ability to use the state to challenge the inevitability of unemployment.
While all the leaders spoke in general terms about the need to reform international organisations, Mr Cardoso lambasted the UN Security Council's membership as a relic of the post-War era. The legitimacy of the Council had suffered from the reality that many crucial decisions were taken outside it.
If it had been more representative, he said, perhaps the conflicts in Kosovo and East Timor could have been prevented.
"Progressive ideas must also be emphasised at the global level," he said, also calling for the reform of G8.
Mr Jospin said that the most important change in the international environment was the insertion into the agenda of human rights in the last ten years. "Man is now becoming the subject of international relations, not just nations," he said. This renewed the importance of legitimisation of action by the Security Council, he said.
The conference, which was jointly organised by the European University Institute and New York University, is to be followed by a meeting in Berlin next year on the invitation of Mr Schroder. Mr D'Alema also pledged to continue the work by establishing a cultural institute in Florence dedicated to pursuing the issues raised.
A series of papers produced as background for yesterday's meeting can be accessed on the institute web site: http://www. iue.it/General/press