The key to the EU future. A moderate advice for the new authorities of the European Union

First, credibility

The credibility of the EU is fostered upon its honest communication with Europeans. If so, Europeans have to be offered by a truthful message that the recurrence of the EU to its economic and political stability depends on the adequate revisions of the functioning of the EMU and not only of the Euro Area. Europeans have to know that the right model of the EMU — based on the cohabitation of monetary and economic unions — was never implemented. The EMU of 1999 was funded only on its monetary dimension. In consequence, the functioning of the Euro Area and the EMU resembled a limping union. The reforms done in years 2011-2013 have not improved this union well enough. The construction of the fiscal or the banking union, which are crucial to properly redress the EMU, has been restricted to an economic and political ersatz. Europeans have to be aware that this lack of adequate reforms of the EMU jeopardises the integrity of the EU as well as the economic fate of its states.

Secondly, contextual thinking

No doubt that implementing a genuine economic and monetary union, proposed by Herman Van Rompuy in 2012, has been a challenge not only for the EU but also for every single European state. Moreover, such a task, if pursued in a post crisis period, has been doubly difficult. Nevertheless, if a real fiscal union backed by a real banking union are not going to be implemented in the years to come, another and a more disruptive crisis is certain. Indebted European nations — and most of them are — will not be able to avoid it. They are not equipped with proper instruments to contain such crisis. Indeed, today large parts of European society struggle day by day with poverty and inequality rising at unprecedented rates. However, the excessive social imbalances emerged in consequence of the lack of full and fair the EMU. Without such the EMU — laid on the foundation of a real fiscal and banking unions — the social unevenness in Europe is not to be calmed

Thirdly, resoluteness

The most effective run-off to the possible economic and social destabilization of the EU requires preparation of a future-oriented plan establishing a European Federal Project. The concept of such project has been worked out by the Spinelli Group. If it is to be implemented one day, the challenge is evident: Europeans have to better understand the role of each state in a federal Europe, thus its proper functioning in the EMU. A traditional debate regarding the issue focuses on the economic attitudes of the state towards different asymmetric shocks in such union. The essence of a new debate has to clearly provide the political principles of functioning of a state in the EMU. Such principles, which will strengthen the political and economic tasks, both of the state and the EMU, at the same time can prop up a coherent vision of a federal Europe. The conflict in Ukraine has proven badly the validity of the need for a resolute realisation of such pro-federal approach. 

The article was first submitted to the Board of the European Movement International,
Brussels, 2 April 2014.

Streszczenie:

Komentarz podkreśla, że reformy w UE podjęte w wyniku kryzysu finansowego nie są na tyle przemyślane, by UE oraz Strefa Euro, a więc i euro, odzyskały społeczną legitymizację do zachowań wzmacniających Unię jako podmiot polityczny na scenie międzynarodowej. W związku z tym autorka komentarza proponuje, aby wszelkie nowe koncepcje, modyfikujące funkcjonowanie instytucji i procesów w UE, były prowadzone zgodnie z trzema pryncypiami, które można określić mianem kryteriow aksjologicznych. Są to: wiarygodność, realizm ocen oraz odwaga polityczna.

Maria Dunin-Wąsowicz
Forum Ruchu Europejskiego
Członek Zarządu,
współpracownik ISM UW