THIS week, 60 years ago, Europe was slowly rebuilding in the wake of the Second World War. After centuries of bloodshed and failed attempts to secure peace, the European Union’s founders resolved that the only lasting way to break the cycle of violence was to unite the people of western – and eventually, eastern – Europe.

Their dream was to establish an enduring peace by dismantling the barriers that divided European nations. That achievement, hard-won over the course of 60 years of cooperation, is now taken for granted.

For decades the prospect of war on our continent has seemed unimaginable. But it’s less than 20 years since the end of the Yugoslav wars, in which 140,000 people were killed. Peace – like democracy – is fragile, and the resurgence of far-right movements across the West is a reminder of the precariousness of fundamental values, and how they are currently under threat. Democracy, freedom, equality and the rule of law – these are European values; values that many countries still aspire to.

The challenges that the EU faces six decades after its founding are vast, and include climate change and the threat of global terrorism. In responding to them we need an EU capable of responding to crises swiftly and decisively. The 2015 refugee crisis and the economic collapse in Greece revealed the strains and pressures on the 28-member bloc, a bloc that lacks vision or any real leadership.

Both of these crises shed a harsh light on the weak nature of EU institutions and their tendency to seek a lowest common denominator solution, even if such a solution was liable to fall apart in the medium to long-term. But they also exposed the self-indulgence of many of Europe’s sovereign states, and their inability to transcend their narrow domestic politics.

The late Professor Sir Neil MacCormick MEP said the EU: “creates new possibilities of imagining, and thus of subsequently realizing, political order on the basis of a pluralistic rather than a monolithic conception of the exercise of political power and legal authority.”

On critical issues like mass migration or climate change, where borders are meaningless, Europe must work as one. If we want to more effectively guard against cross-border terrorism we should deepen intelligence sharing and invest further in our external borders. And as the United States ponders trade protectionism and prepares to revise its international obligations, who will defend the European continent if not Europe itself? Europe can and must shoulder more of the burden of defending itself from external threats.

The Greek crisis was one of Europe’s darkest hours. Rich countries who nodded through Greece’s Eurozone membership for political reasons looked on as mute spectators when the Greek economy crumbled. So it is time to rediscover the meaning of European solidarity. If the EU can’t protect vulnerable Member States from threats – whether economic threats, climate threats, or military threats – its people will rightly begin to wonder what it is for.

Like all human institutions, the EU is imperfect. Despite its weaknesses, it has achieved a great deal for its people. But when European leaders meet in Rome this weekend they shouldn’t just celebrate – they should be frank about our common challenges and what’s at stake.

Today I too will march for Europe. I believe in the unity of our continent as much as I believe in Scotland’s right to shape it. But if the EU is to survive another 60 years it must reinvent itself to better meet the expectations of its people.

Scotland won’t be represented at today’s celebration. The UK Prime Minister’s snub smacks of hypocrisy, given the myriad ways in which the UK has been enriched by EU policies like the single market, freedom of movement, university research, environmental protection and worker’s rights. But it also sets a bitter tone for the upcoming negotiations and our future relationship with our closest partners. London might be on its way out, but decades of mutually beneficial collaboration cannot be erased from the history books.

In 1959 The Times declared that “Talk of Independence for Malta is hopelessly impractical”. Today, Malta – a country smaller than Orkney – holds the Presidency of the European Union. As Scotland decides where our destiny lies in the coming months and years, we should remember this.