For more than three years of the last decade, the EU has focused its attention on how to handle the decision of the UK to leave the Union. In this sense, Brexit has been a big distraction because, in the decade starting next week, far more critical challenges need to be addressed if the EU is to avoid an existential crisis.
A strategic review for the EU needs to go beyond the yearly budget allocation. It must be built on a clear vision of what needs to be done to restore people’s trust in the future of Europe.
The most urgent issue for the new European Commission is to tackle the threats emerging from countries like Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria, which seem to give little importance to the rule of law. Sadly for Malta, we are now also under scrutiny as a result of the political scandal that has erupted from the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, in her first speech after a meeting of the Commission, said she was “very concerned” by the most recent developments in Malta. From being promised to be “the best in Europe,” we are now being treated with mistrust because of corruption and abuse of power at the highest level of government.
Other urgent issues that need to be addressed by the EU institutions have been defined by French president Emmanuel Macron in a recent interview with The Economist.
Macron observes that the US has changed its strategy by looking more towards the Pacific region rather than the Atlantic, while China’s growth is “clearly marginalising Europe”.
Meanwhile, the growth of nationalism has created a European north-south divide on economic issues and east-west on the migration issue, resulting in the resurgence of populism throughout the Union. The migration problem continues to be tackled in a piecemeal manner, with inter-governmental agreements determining how a boatload of immigrants are distributed in those states who agree to abide by the principle of solidarity.
On the economic front, the monetary armoury of the European Central Bank continues to be the only means of promoting economic growth. Low-interest rates and printing of money to buy distressed governments’ sovereign debt may have prevented another significant financial crisis. But growth remains sluggish and unemployment high especially in southern European states.
President von der Leyen has defined her economic objectives, including new investment in the green economy and the infrastructure. The challenge of climate change may seem remote for Europeans who are struggling with the day-to-day challenge of putting food on the table, but it is a reality that needs strategic attention from EU leaders. The Commission’s focus on the European Green Deal to fight climate change is an ambitious vision as it is built on promoting more research and innovation in green technologies, sustainable solutions and new businesses. But Macron is right when he says that “the EU has been too focused on growing as a market”.
The European Council often shows little inclination for addressing the substantive challenges that the EU is facing. National interests take priority over transnational priorities and the need for political capital investment to be made in the long-term survival of the Union.
If it is to remain relevant, the EU more than ever needs to have a 20/20 vision for the achievement of deeper political integration among its member states.