Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta awarded honorary doctorate by Dublin City University
Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta today received an honorary doctorate from Dublin City University. The ceremony took place in The Helix on DCU’s Glasnevin campus, following the Dublin European Law Institute (DELI) event Savings and Investments Union and the EU Competitiveness Agenda in advance of the honorary conferring, at which Prof Letta was the keynote speaker.
Reading from his citation for Prof Letta, Prof Federico Fabbrini, Director of DELI, said:
“Today we honour a Great European, who has advanced the cause of European integration – and contributed to Dublin City University’s reputation as a ‘European university in Ireland’.
Enrico Letta is many things: a former Prime Minister of Italy, the Dean of prestigious academic institutions, and the author of a visionary report on the future of the European internal market. But Enrico is also a fan of AC Milan, which, from my viewpoint, was a precondition for awarding him this doctorate.
Enrico’s life is characterised by many firsts: the youngest head of the cabinet office of the Italian Prime Minister, and the youngest Minister of European affairs of Italy. But above all, Enrico is the proud father of 3 children, an utter gentleman, and a man of principle, renowned for his commitment to knowledge, his public service, and his unwavering confidence in the project of European integration.”
In his acceptance speech, Prof Enrico Letta said
“Thank you for the honour you confer upon me today. I receive it with gratitude, and aware of the responsibility that carries such a recognition from a community devoted to knowledge.
Such an occasion invites us to reflect on the relationship between knowledge and public life. What we owe to the institutions that preserve our capacity to think freely. And how that capacity can help us confront changes whose consequences we are only beginning to understand.
Our inventiveness continues to open possibilities whose consequences depend on choices we have yet to make.
Artificial intelligence gives those choices a new scale. It asks us what we wish to accomplish, what we are prepared to entrust to our creations, and what responsibilities we carry forward for the generations that follow.
The university helps us keep these questions open and teaches us how to approach them with rigour. Europe can be the foundation of this endeavour.
That, ultimately, is the promise I see in a fifth freedom: more people able to discover, to understand, and to take responsibility for what we create together.
As our power to transform the world grows, may we also deepen the knowledge and judgement through which we make it a world we can live together.”
Speaking at the event, Prof Daire Keogh, President of DCU, said
“Whether at national or international level, whether as an academic leader, a politician, or an analyst, Prof Letta has remained consistent in championing the fundamental value of European solidarity and integration, and advancing his belief that the European Union is ‘much more than a market’. I am proud that we have an opportunity today to formally recognise his achievements and to welcome him into the DCU family.”
About Enrico Letta
Enrico Letta served as Prime Minister of Italy from April 2013 to February 2014, leading a coalition during a key period of economic recovery. A former National Secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party, he has held various cabinet roles, including Minister for EU Affairs. Prof Letta served as Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs at Sciences Po and is currently Dean of the School of Politics, Economics, and Global Affairs at IE University. He is also President of the Jacques Delors Institute. In 2024, he authored Much More Than a Market, on the future of the EU Single Market.
Before receiving his honorary doctorate, Prof Letta gave the keynote address at the DELI hosted Savings and Investments Union and the EU Competitiveness Agenda. The event is an official associated event of Ireland’s 2026 Presidency of the Council of the European Union.