Less than a year before the European elections, it is now time to listen to young Europeans and with them build a better future for Europe, write Anna Lührmann, Laurence Boone and Tiago Antunes.
Anna Lührmann is Germany’s minister of state for the European Union; Laurence Boone is the French minister of state for the European Union; Tiago Antunes is Portugal’s secretary of state for the European Union. This opinion piece has been contributed exclusively to EURACTIV.
Our Union currently faces major challenges. With the full-scale attack of Russia against Ukraine, the role of the EU has dramatically changed. By providing large-scale military, humanitarian, financial and diplomatic assistance to our attacked neighbour, the EU has consolidated its role as a geo-strategic actor.
To maintain peace on our continent in light of rising geostrategic tensions, the EU needs to further step up its geo-strategic capabilities in a political, economic and military sense.
At the same time, the climate crisis is threatening our freedom, our prosperity and our security – especially that of the next generations. Wildfires are raging in our woods, and droughts and floods threaten our crops, our homes, our livelihoods.
Furthermore, European companies, our industries, and our workers are facing fierce global competition in the markets of the future.
We therefore need to invest in innovation, growth and good jobs, while at the same time, member states need to respond to immediate concerns, from the rise of inflation to the high share of electric bills and housing rents on their citizens’ budget.
The EU has been reacting promptly to these challenges by leveraging on its existing instruments and policies. Billions out of the EU budget have been redirected to support Ukraine and Moldova, to the green transition, energy security, defence and industrial policy.
‘Next Generation EU’ and the Reconstruction and Resilience Facility have not only provided a timely and substantial response to the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also made available more than €700 billion for investments into the green and digital transition, in order to make the European Union fit for the future.
Yet, most of the financing for the green transformation, the energy transition and defence remains national.
As Europe is facing new and more demanding challenges, we must be more ambitious. To focus the current revision of the EU’s Multiannual Financial Framework on acute challenges is right. Yet, in the long run this approach will not be sufficient.
A European Union fit for the future needs a European budget fit for the future. An efficient and future-proof EU, including its new members from the Western Balkans and the Eastern neighbourhood, will require substantial reform.
This includes the next Multiannual Financial Framework. It needs to prioritize investments that have a higher rate of return if we do them together rather than nationally.
In short: European investments for European added value. European investments in European public goods. Our goal should be a European Union that has the tools and financial capacities to live up to the aspirations of its young generation.
We need an EU that invests in its competitiveness and its capability to act together for European sovereignty, climate action, peace and stability.
This means investment in transnational infrastructure, food security, research and industrial transformation. We therefore need funding for renewable energies, batteries, hydrogen, microelectronics and the digitalization of our economies and services.
Moreover, Ukraine’s reconstruction and integration into the EU will be a key element of the continent’s security. Just as the United States made history with the Marshall Plan, the EU must make history with Ukraine. In addition, stronger European defence capabilities will be less costly if we pool resources at the EU level.
Finally, the EU’s future budget must be fit for enlargement. Because the enlargement of the EU is an investment in Europe’s stability.
The demand for investments in Europe’s future must be matched with adequate funding for the EU.
While prior commitments – such as the repayment of the bonds for the Next Generation EU Programme (NGEU) – must be secured, the EU should have the means to make the necessary, strategic and highly demanded investments in the future.
Therefore, we need to focus on our political priorities and will need additional, well-targeted European own resources.
We already agreed on a roadmap in this direction in 2020 – we should now walk the talk. Moreover, with NGEU to run out by 2026 it is now the time to think ahead about how to secure adequate investment across the continent.
For the necessary investments in Europe’s future, we will need to mobilize both public and private capital.
We need innovative solutions for the major European challenges we face and a budget fit for the future. And even more so, we need young Europeans, from Ponte da Barca to Chișinău, with ideas, commitment and inspiration for the future of the EU.
Source: euractiv.com
