The Pillars For a Better European Union
The pandemic situation has certainly changed the world and the European Union has had no exemption from being hit by this invisible tornado.
The EU as an institution has proved to have done very well with regards to its main goal of keeping peace and enhancing economic collaboration among its member states.
Although peace has been kept for over 60 years in Europe now, we do have a new challenge to face. The fact that the European citizens are not very engaged with the idea of a multicultural union that puts together all the cousins that have shared their history, politics and royal families over the centuries says it all. The new challenge for the European Union is to open a new chapter of inclusion that will strengthen its political influence and commercial power.
Although 19 of the 27 countries of the European Union share the same common currency, known as euro, there is not a great balance among the different economies of all the member states that use it. Also, how is it possible for 27 countries to contribute to the larger EU economy with 8 different currencies in which one currency is used in 19 nations where their economies travel at different speeds. A common fiscal act that is based on a federal model is needed. In this way the strongest economies can help the weakest making sure that no economy will ever get close to default, and making sure that taxation levels are equally reasonable across the member states. Lower tax levels in some countries can favour foreign direct investments more than in other countries thus weakening the commercial leverage of some of those that have high potential but cannot compete with their EU counterparts.
The European Union very much needs a constitution that includes all the new challenges that the EU will need to face in the future: a common health system that is regulated by the same laws and that is continuously audited and financially supported across all the EU countries equally, common regulations for workers that allow them to be treated fairly and equitably across all the EU countries with contracts that allow them to be employed in any of the EU countries to have their pensions schemes calculated automatically regardless of the countries they have worked in, a common pension scheme, a common vision for international affairs with all the countries looking towards the same direction. The EU must design laws on all of these matters that need to be enacted by all the member states through their own parliaments. All other minor matters can be regulated and controlled individually at a local level.
As of today, the EU has been compelling local farmers to respect laws that put them out of the business without offering them a safety net to help them in difficult situations. The EU was created for commercial cooperations, but it is today an institution. As such, it must take care of its citizens.
In order to enforce such changes, the EU’s structure needs to change too. How to do so without removing the right for equal representation across the countries? Many lament that the EU is a cumbersome machine with various components in it that have their base in different headquarters across Europe (mainly Central Europe to be fair, and as close as possible to France and Germany). This was done to avoid that one single country could have full control of the economic, regulatory and legislative matters and make them work in their own favour. This is somehow inevitable. The EU should pick up a single headquarter and strive for the future. If there is one thing that covid-19 has taught us all is that the current technology allows us to manage even important matters remotely. So let it be. Remote meetings amongst country leaders are possible, they are cost effective and do not really need a physical point of interest, which subtracts any possibility of leaving any country in control of the others unless that one country can completely control the internet. In that case, the European Commission can work to regulate that, can’t it?
The EU must have a more simplified structure that is created to get things done, which is the complete opposite of what it is today. We have a structure that allows nobody to take control, but it also allows nothing to be accomplished. None of the above at least. It would definitely need a double chamber structure composed of a Parliament and a Senate. The Senate would be composed of all the legitimately elected presidents, prime ministers and chancellors of the member states. It would allow continuity as they are not all elected at the same time considering that they are all legitimately elected during national elections. These 27 national leaders can review laws that are voted and written by the Parliament and its commissions. The Parliament is composed of directly elected representatives. As the EU was designed to have no clear leader to avoid full control of one country over the others, the 27 senators can rotate every 3 years as leaders of the government and direct the agenda. They would not be able to play any house of cards games as they would rotate anyways. Full rotation may take 60 years to have all the leaders from all the countries to step up, but they will always be selected randomly by extraction and publicly. This allows equal possibilities for all the 27 leaders to be elected and the leaders that have already represented the position will be excluded from the extraction. Whilst it is not fair to think that an individual can wait for 60 years to be elected, it is perfectly fine for a country with a long lasting future. In this way, the continuity of the government is guaranteed thanks to the fact that most of the members would still be present although one or more of the other members need to step down for any reason. A minimum number of members must be respected to have a legal majority to vote for legislations. That minimum number can be representative, namely 51% of the population that the leaders sitting in the Senate are representing. The leader of the Senate should appoint the president of the parliament upon indication of the members of the parliament after they have been voted by the Senate.
The other commissions of the European Union can work as any other Ministries to give indications to the national Ministries on how to enact the legislations and solutions at national level. The education system can be regulated by the universities. There must be a European Research University in every country of the EU. These Universities conduct scientific research and dictate the vision to the national universities. These European Research Universities should collect research and boost communication among them. They should always work for innovation to find new ways of delivering good education standards that help create the society of the future. There is not going to be a single model to follow or the perfect model. There is not a perfect model. There is going to be research, assessments and attempts to get to the best possible solution for that specific generation.
In conclusion, police forces can be controlled at local level by the various ministries as well as military. The only difference is that military will not be needed anymore to attack other nations. This will be very compliant with the peaceful nature of the European Union, which will need to declare its neutrality on all belligerent matters at global level. There must be ambassadors of the EU where the current embassies of the various member states across the globe can be converted into EU embassies. Whilst embassies within the European Union that represent each other’s nation can still stay in service until they can be dismissed due to the full accomplishment of the inclusion and integration purpose. No official army is needed whereas the armies of the individual member states can only be used for self defence. War must be rejected as it is expensive and it is the representation of the deterioration of the economy of knowledge that we have created today as human beings. Conquering territories is always less relevant the more we go ahead with time. A rich state like California gained its status thanks to the Silicon Valley and its start-ups that detain a great deal of knowledge in technology which in turn is beneficial for the economy. Militarily conquering California by destroying everything and putting people in danger would be of no use since the entire knowledge and consequent technologies would go lost. Only a piece of land full of vineyards would stay, but it is not quite the thing that makes California what it is. The only reason why an army is needed nowadays is to ensure control on natural resources. If the EU plans on removing transportation based on all types of fossil fuel by 2030 and it also plans on relying on complete clean energy by 2050, military is not needed anymore.
I would like to see a Union that is based on knowledge sharing. Its economy would be the one globally leading, its people would be characterised by diversity, freedom and peace thanks to the great ability of creating a future world that we deserve by showing the right way to the rest of the Planet.
