Social Europe

  • EU Forward Project
  • YouTube
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Newsletter
  • Membership

Re-Winning Europe

Javier Solana 2nd June 2014

The European Parliament election revealed the full extent of voters’ frustrations, discontent, and lack of confidence in both the European Union and their national governments. The EU’s institutions will now confront a legislature marked by growing disaffection, while rising Euroskepticism is bound to have a profound impact on national policies. If the EU is to retain public loyalty, it must listen up and proceed to action. A program of strategic priorities is in order.

No doubt, the economy must come first. Much progress has been made on new instruments of integration, such as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the banking union. But much more remains to be done.

The incoming European Commission must boldly stimulate economic growth and employment, so that southern European countries can reconcile their deficit- and debt-reduction goals with policies targeting growth. Ultimately, only the latter will allow for long-term fiscal sustainability. The Commission must also launch active labor-market policies to reduce unemployment, above all for young people. The recovery of dynamism, demand, and consumption depends on its success.

No pro-growth policy is as important as stimulating public and private research and development. The EU should, for example, allow R&D spending (and some spending on active labor-market policies targeting young people) to be left out of member states’ deficit accounting. This principle has been applied to aid to the financial sector; it is no less appropriate for investment. And, on the revenue side, Europe needs a minimum of fiscal homogeneity, at least in terms of corporate taxation, in order to avoid a race to the bottom.

Now that the worst of the euro crisis seems to have passed, it is also vital to fix the deficiencies in the monetary union’s institutional design. The progress made on the banking union is important, but two key components are still needed: first, a true rehabilitation of the European banking system to ensure that credit flows resume throughout the eurozone, while averting deflation; and, second, debt mutualization to protect vulnerable countries from market gyrations. The European Central Bank’s role is fundamental for both, as well as in continuing to promote growth (both through expansionary monetary policy and by facilitating market access for countries whose financing still depends on the ECB’s implicit guarantee).

But Europe must address more than just the economy, for the world will not stop and wait. The opportunity to reconsider European foreign policy is clear. And, here, Europe’s vision should center on the challenges confronting its three neighboring regions.

Europe’s eastern neighborhood is marked by the crisis in Ukraine. Following Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea, and further Russian revanchism in eastern Ukraine, relations with Putin’s Kremlin need to be reconsidered. Geographic proximity, historical ties, and energy dependence make Russia a key partner for the future of Europe, but Putin’s foreign policy poses a direct challenge to European security and unity.

Meanwhile, Europe’s southern neighborhood is still caught up in a highly uncertain process of sociopolitical transition. In some cases – such as Tunisia – the process has been successful; elsewhere, as in Syria, the course of events has been discouraging, to say the least.

To some extent, Europe seems to have abandoned the Mediterranean’s southern shore, compensated in part by flows of economic aid from the Gulf countries. For the Arab world, which was previously reluctant to display such solidarity – witness Palestine, where European money sustains basic services – this is a welcome novelty. Nonetheless, it will be difficult for North Africa to recover without greater EU involvement.

Europe’s third neighborhood – and the most difficult to manage – stems from interdependence, which makes the entire world Europe’s neighbor. Economic, political, and social ties, not geography, determine this neighborhood’s ever-shifting borders, within which are Europe’s most important partners, from the United States to China to other emerging countries and non-state actors. Managing them requires a clear position in favor of global governance and effective multilateralism at all levels.

For Europe, interdependence is strongly correlated with energy security. Making progress toward an energy union is crucial and should be one of the new Commission’s main objectives. A common energy policy must be based on the single market and collective planning of investment, while also accounting for the mix of sources and purchases from third parties.

This presupposes not only truly EU-wide regulation – which is, at present, excessively intergovernmental due to the design of the EU’s Agency for Cooperation of Energy Regulators – but also more infrastructure, including electrical lines and gas pipelines, connecting member states to one another. This will require more rapid execution of the Trans-European Energy Networks (TEN-E).

Moreover, the EU should contemplate centralizing the purchase of energy from third parties, as proposed by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. At the very least, greater transparency in individual member states’ third-party purchases is needed. For example, today purchase contracts between companies in various member states and Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom are confidential.

In this process of energy integration, the banking union offers clues about how to secure common interests and maintain a balance among the EU’s main institutions – the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European Council, and the ECB. Such concerns should also guide the new Commission in the design of a common migration policy, one that not only silences the xenophobes, but that also gives coherence to the border-free Schengen Area – one of Europe’s greatest achievements.

The EU’s institutions need to revitalize themselves and recover the support of Europe’s citizens. They must demonstrate their efficiency, capacity to innovate, and ability to invigorate the continent with renewed dynamism and drive. Setting the right priorities is the first, critical step.

© Project Syndicate

Javier Solana

Javier Solana formerly the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy, and a former Secretary General of NATO, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution and President of the ESADE Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics.

Harvard University Press Advertisement

Social Europe Ad - Promoting European social policies

We need your help.

Support Social Europe for less than €5 per month and help keep our content freely accessible to everyone. Your support empowers independent publishing and drives the conversations that matter. Thank you very much!

Social Europe Membership

Click here to become a member

Most Recent Articles

u421983467f bb39 37d5862ca0d5 0 Ending Britain’s “Brief Encounter” with BrexitStefan Stern
u421983485 2 The Future of American Soft PowerJoseph S. Nye
u4219834676d582029 038f 486a 8c2b fe32db91c9b0 2 Trump Can’t Kill the Boom: Why the US Economy Will Roar Despite HimNouriel Roubini
u42198346fb0de2b847 0 How the Billionaire Boom Is Fueling Inequality—and Threatening DemocracyFernanda Balata and Sebastian Mang
u421983441e313714135 0 Why Europe Needs Its Own AI InfrastructureDiane Coyle

Most Popular Articles

startupsgovernment e1744799195663 Governments Are Not StartupsMariana Mazzucato
u421986cbef 2549 4e0c b6c4 b5bb01362b52 0 American SuicideJoschka Fischer
u42198346769d6584 1580 41fe 8c7d 3b9398aa5ec5 1 Why Trump Keeps Winning: The Truth No One AdmitsBo Rothstein
u421983467 a350a084 b098 4970 9834 739dc11b73a5 1 America Is About to Become the Next BrexitJ Bradford DeLong
u4219834676ba1b3a2 b4e1 4c79 960b 6770c60533fa 1 The End of the ‘West’ and Europe’s FutureGuillaume Duval
u421983462e c2ec 4dd2 90a4 b9cfb6856465 1 The Transatlantic Alliance Is Dying—What Comes Next for Europe?Frank Hoffer
u421983467 2a24 4c75 9482 03c99ea44770 3 Trump’s Trade War Tears North America Apart – Could Canada and Mexico Turn to Europe?Malcolm Fairbrother
u4219834676e2a479 85e9 435a bf3f 59c90bfe6225 3 Why Good Business Leaders Tune Out the Trump Noise and Stay FocusedStefan Stern
u42198346 4ba7 b898 27a9d72779f7 1 Confronting the Pandemic’s Toxic Political LegacyJan-Werner Müller
u4219834676574c9 df78 4d38 939b 929d7aea0c20 2 The End of Progess? The Dire Consequences of Trump’s ReturnJoseph Stiglitz

KU Leuven advertisement

The Politics of Unpaid Work

This new book published by Oxford University Press presents the findings of the multiannual ERC research project “Researching Precariousness Across the Paid/Unpaid Work Continuum”,
led by Valeria Pulignano (KU Leuven), which are very important for the prospects of a more equal Europe.

Unpaid labour is no longer limited to the home or volunteer work. It infiltrates paid jobs, eroding rights and deepening inequality. From freelancers’ extra hours to care workers’ unpaid duties, it sustains precarity and fuels inequity. This book exposes the hidden forces behind unpaid labour and calls for systemic change to confront this pressing issue.

DOWNLOAD HERE FOR FREE

ETUI advertisement

HESA Magazine Cover

What kind of impact is artificial intelligence (AI) having, or likely to have, on the way we work and the conditions we work under? Discover the latest issue of HesaMag, the ETUI’s health and safety magazine, which considers this question from many angles.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Eurofound advertisement

Ageing workforce
How are minimum wage levels changing in Europe?

In a new Eurofound Talks podcast episode, host Mary McCaughey speaks with Eurofound expert Carlos Vacas Soriano about recent changes to minimum wages in Europe and their implications.

Listeners can delve into the intricacies of Europe's minimum wage dynamics and the driving factors behind these shifts. The conversation also highlights the broader effects of minimum wage changes on income inequality and gender equality.

Listen to the episode for free. Also make sure to subscribe to Eurofound Talks so you don’t miss an episode!

LISTEN NOW

Foundation for European Progressive Studies Advertisement

Spring Issues

The Spring issue of The Progressive Post is out!


Since President Trump’s inauguration, the US – hitherto the cornerstone of Western security – is destabilising the world order it helped to build. The US security umbrella is apparently closing on Europe, Ukraine finds itself less and less protected, and the traditional defender of free trade is now shutting the door to foreign goods, sending stock markets on a rollercoaster. How will the European Union respond to this dramatic landscape change? .


Among this issue’s highlights, we discuss European defence strategies, assess how the US president's recent announcements will impact international trade and explore the risks  and opportunities that algorithms pose for workers.


READ THE MAGAZINE

Hans Böckler Stiftung Advertisement

WSI Report

WSI Minimum Wage Report 2025

The trend towards significant nominal minimum wage increases is continuing this year. In view of falling inflation rates, this translates into a sizeable increase in purchasing power for minimum wage earners in most European countries. The background to this is the implementation of the European Minimum Wage Directive, which has led to a reorientation of minimum wage policy in many countries and is thus boosting the dynamics of minimum wages. Most EU countries are now following the reference values for adequate minimum wages enshrined in the directive, which are 60% of the median wage or 50 % of the average wage. However, for Germany, a structural increase is still necessary to make progress towards an adequate minimum wage.

DOWNLOAD HERE

Social Europe

Our Mission

Team

Article Submission

Advertisements

Membership

Social Europe Archives

Themes Archive

Politics Archive

Economy Archive

Society Archive

Ecology Archive

Miscellaneous

RSS Feed

Legal Disclosure

Privacy Policy

Copyright

Social Europe ISSN 2628-7641