As tanks rumble up to the Ukrainian borders and pandemic uncertainty continues to hang over Europe, the European Union is facing a socioeconomic and geopolitical situation that is among the most trying it has been for decades.
It is in this climate that Roberta Metsola took the helm of the European Parliament recently, one of the three most important institutions in the EU, the others being the European Commission and the European Council.
In her day-to-day duties, the president of the parliament is only a speaker who presides over debate, a figurehead who signs legislation and a representative of the parliament’s established positions to the other institutions and in international relations.
However, she carries her fair share of moral clout. The parliament being the standard bearer of EU democracy, Metsola is the voice, as it were, of the bloc’s fundamental values and principles. This places her in a position to yield some influence over the direction taken by the EU in the immediate future.
Among the other major challenges facing the bloc are the need to resolve trade tensions with China and the US, the continued flow of irregular immigration, the authoritarian drift of some member states and the urgency of tackling climate change. Metsola touched on all these issues in her inaugural speech to the parliament, in which she also tried to instil a sense of urgency in European parliamentarians about the need to make the EU more meaningful to its citizens.
Our elected representatives in this important European forum can do more than debate relatively minor issues like standardising USB cords or reducing mobile phone roaming charges. The European Parliament needs to deliver an economy that works for people.
No doubt, Metsola is a believer in this objective. She confirmed this when she said: “I want people to recapture a sense of belief and enthusiasm for our project. A belief to make our shared space safer, fairer, more just and more equal.”
The delivery of a socially just as well as an environmentally sustainable economic growth strategy is arguably the most crucial EU objective for the coming few years.
The parliament needs to accelerate the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the Porto Summit declaration. The significance of such action would, among other things, mean greater protection of workers, such as from risks related to exposure to hazardous substances. Closing the gender pay gap and protecting low-paid workers employed in the gig economy are similar objectives that mean so much to millions of EU citizens.
Meanwhile, the European institutions have made the European Green Deal the base rock of the Union’s economic vision. This new approach to economic thinking will take time and considerable effort to build strong roots. The biodiversity crisis, water and air pollution, the heavy reliance on fossil fuels, the often outdated technology and the decades of underinvestment in infrastructure are among the stumbling blocks that need to be overcome before the Union can achieve its daunting ambitions.
For the EU to become more meaningful to its population, it also needs to make democracy a greater reality on the ground. Beyond providing suitable living conditions in a greener economy, EU institutions need, for instance, to do more to bolster media independence and pluralism, demonstrate to disgruntled citizens that COVID has not eroded their basic freedoms, fight disinformation that blinds with information that enlightens and practise transparency in all their dealings. Initiatives like the recent Conference on the Future of Europe, which engages citizens, are encouraging but only a start.
The Maltese MEP must continue to push hard for new life and greater belief to be instilled in the European project.