EXPERT’S INSIGHTS Europe’s New Chapter: Navigating the Future in a Shifting Global Landscape

Abstract

The management of each of the crises that the European Union has been facing in the last decade has shown that individual national approaches lead to a chronic inability to make collective decisions on strategic issues and that this cannot be the future of a swiftly adaptive and geo-politically oriented Europe. The Future of Europe Conference offered the opportunity for European institutions to reconsider the relationship with Europe’s citizens, giving the public a direct voice through innovative participation in the democratic process. But we cannot allow ourselves to stop there, and leave it be a mere listening exercise.The next step is using those tools and the momentum around the conversation of Europe of tomorrow that had started with the Conference of the future of Europe to adapt the Union and its institutions to the necessities of the modern-day world. As European citizens, we need a strong European Union, capable of acting swiftly in a wide range of policy areas, from health and fiscal policy, energy procurement, and climate, to foreign affairs and defence. We need a powerful Europe on the global stage, able to keep its promises to those that aspire to become part of it. A Europe that can tackle new security and defence threats, and foreign interference and that can set new global standards for a clean environment while fighting unfair industrial competition. A Union, that stands up for rule of law and a responsive approach to migration.