'The speciality of European elites is no longer dreaming of a perfect Europe but lamenting an imperfect one. This mindset, widely held, has a name: pessimism. And it has a price: resignation.' The Old Continent seems gripped by a sense of pessimism and prefers to see the glass as half empty rather than half full. Europe has achieved so much and overcome so many challenges that it should be celebrating its accomplishments rather than lamenting what it has not yet done.