Should Europe continue to determine its own rules or should it accept the rules of a system made elsewhere? This is the question recently posed by European Commissioner Teresa Ribera.
In a rapidly changing world, many voices are calling for Europe to define its own framework, its own trajectory.
This is what Jessica Berlin, a German political scientist, recently expressed, stating that Europe needs a more robust body of knowledge to avoid being swayed by pronouncements made here and there. Europe cannot be constantly on edge, perpetually questioning how to respond to the choices of the White House or Beijing.
In light of the negotiations on Ukraine, Europe cannot maintain strong ties with the US when the peace plans presented by Washington are consistently unfavorable to it. Transatlantic relations are no longer what they once were, and future directions can no longer be based on past choices. This is a break that must be acknowledged.
In other words, Europe must make political choices, develop its own history, and define the path it wants to take. It must give itself the means to say “no” to the options chosen by other countries. In this respect, Europe lacks political embodiment.
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The other major dimension is the transformation of Europe. As David Marsh suggests in a recent book, it is subject to the litany of the 6 Ds: digitalization, deglobalization, decarbonization, debt, demography, and defense.
Mario Draghi offers answers to these questions by indicating that the demographic shock, the aging population, must encourage us to create the conditions for greater productivity, otherwise we risk finding ourselves in 25 years with an economy of the same size but with unsustainable debt. The choice of productivity is essential and conditions Europe’s entire future trajectory, particularly due to high levels of debt. If growth weakens further while real interest rates are positive, the dynamics of debt accumulation will make the economic trajectory unsustainable.
The European choice is to define how the 6Ds will be implemented and how innovation—the kind that will enable sustainable productivity gains—will be able to loosen constraints. Priorities for the 6Ds will also need to be defined, as all these objectives cannot be implemented simultaneously. Trade-offs will also need to be made, and resources will need to be reallocated differently than is currently the case.
Europe must finally be embodied. This is a crucial issue requiring institutional transformation to give Europe a stronger and more lasting political impetus. This could certainly be achieved within a more federal framework.
