10 reasons for an ever more united Europe

These are tense times for Europe and the future of this European Union hangs on the balance, the crisis caused countless misery and the austerity path so strongly defended by the European Commission, the ECB and the IMF as failed to resolve the issues at hand, Europeans have growing doubts about the ability of the European institutions to create a fair society. Europe now faces one of the biggest crisis of democracy and representation in it's history. I see the current muddle of institutions and contradicting interests as a major obstacle to the establishment of true democracy in Europe, to many tiers separate the citizens from the institutions that are supposed to represent them, making them unaccountable, inflexible and opaque, subject to influences that many people see as in direct contradiction with the European principles. The growing voices for reform cannot be ignored, the European Union needs reform, otherwise it will be destroyed by the weight of it's failures to protect the European citizens. I believe the best way for our Union to succeed is to reform and seek ever more integration and here is why:

Because together, the Europeans have a stronger voice in the international arena

In an age of globalization, Europe needs to be able to take on global issues, no single member state has the ability to act independently with a great degree of success. The latest events in the world have exposed a lack of power coming from the European Union, unable to speak at one voice, events like the Ukrainian crisis, the Mediterranean migrants crisis, show that is plenty of work still to be done to increase the capacity of the Union to act decisively, in order to tackle these and other issues head on. With ongoing trade negotiations with the USA, Canada and other nations, the rise of the China and India, the danger of international terrorism, it is only through a stronger union that Europe will be able successfully protect and to get a fair deal to all Europeans.

Because the current intergovernmental system is no longer fit for purpose

Europe as reached a crossroad and the Europeans need to decide were to go from here, the current way on how the Union institutions are organized actually prevents the Union of acting in one voice, particularly the European Council, which is now a nest of nationalistic interests and the biggest institutional hurdle to further integration, power should shift to the European Parliament as a true representative of all European people.

Because Federalism offers a much better balanced deal to all Europeans

There are only two options for Europe, to continue on the path towards further integration or reverse to the original nation-state arrangement. The current arrangement does not serve the best interest of Europe and the Europeans. The principle of subsidiarity is at the heart of the European federalist proposal. Federalism offers a fair deal were the respect of the individual regions are maintained and consecrated while promoting a set of common values and goals to all Europeans, the rise of an European identity.

Because Europe needs to unite monetary policy and economic policy

Currently economic policy fall under the remit of the member states but monetary policy the is responsibility of the European Union under current treaties. These two macroeconomic tools can only be best operated if coordinated. At this moment we witness a European level monetary policy and a member state economic policy, the possibility of these to be coordinated is greatly reduced by the conflicting interest of each member state and much better results could be obtained by greater alignment at an European level.

Because Europe needs the have it's own fiscal system, independent from the member states.

Funding of the European Union is dependent on the payments form the member states, which separates them between the haves and the have nots. The creation of a independent fiscal system would increase the power of the Union and support the creation of truly Pan -European programs of development and social justice.

Because Europe needs a common social policy

If we really want a truly fair and inclusive European society, there must be a wide social policy in all aspects, these policies must reconnect Europe with their social democratic heritage and defend the European values of dignity, equality and fairness. A common social policy would offer social protection to all citizens independent of their location in Europe and greater social justice, a truly European Social-democratic offer to all citizens.

Because the Westphalian notion of the nation state and sovereignty are no longer applicable to the globalization world

Nation state is a dated concept and is no longer valid, each nation is now a participant in a web of relationships, treaties and conventions. Issue like international corporations and trade, terrorism and justice are now a issue that does not have any regards by borders and these issues need to be tackled in an European level to achieve much better results.

Because we need to reconnect the European institutions with the citizens

The current system means the citizens have to rely in the member states governments to represent them in Europe, such representation is mostly about the party interests of the each member state government. The EU must be the standard bearer of a message of hope and democracy, must aspire to transparency and social justice

Because nationalism only caused misery and war in Europe

The crisis and the way in which the EU tackle these issues have increased the citizens disenchantment with the union, the growing extremist political movements, many with nationalistic connotations cater this disenchantment. The EU must offer a message of hope and endeavour to bridge the gap between the citizens and the institutions.

Lastly but principally, because we are all Europeans

We are Europeans united by a common history that goes back thousand of years, the border of the European states have changed constantly over the last millennia, leaving behind the blood and suffering of thousand of Europeans. On the other hand Europa as been the cradle of so many advances and ideas that made the whole world a better place. A united Europe is the biggest gift of peace and concord that the Europeans can offer to the world.

Long live the European Republic

@costajoaoda

Are our European parties truly pan-europeans?

As far as I understand, the Alde Party is the only European Party that accepts individual party memberships. It seems to me that this is something that any party that calls himself European should do. While we all can have political differences, we all should be able to truly join our prefered European Party, directly.
and directly able to intervene and participate in our Europe.

The Europeans deserve a better Europe

Calls for EU reform come from all parts of European Society. If this is an Europe for the citizens then it should be built to serve the interest of the European citizens.

The European society has been built in a social democratic dream which is responsible for many of the institutions that we Europeans hold dear, because of the security and benefits they bring to everyone of us.

These institutions contributed to a sense of togetherness and union among the nations of Europe and helped to create stability and reduce inequality. It would be reasonable to hope the European institutions would be the proud heir of this tradition and seek to expand this heritage towards a wider Pan-European vision. 

This Europe seems much more bent on the pursuit of a neo-liberal agenda, with all the excesses that caused the economic situation that we all been facing for so long. Neo-liberalism is the causer of inequality and suffering and aims to destroy all our social institutions.

We Europeans deserve a just and fair Europe.

TTIP- a deal with to many secrets

TTIP is quickly turning out to be one of the burning issues in European politics for 2015, it is at the top of the agenda of the European Commission and some governments of EU countries. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership refers to a series of secretive trade negotiations being carried out between the EU and the US, if successful, this deal would possible create the biggest trading block in the world, potentially liberalising one-third of the global trade and, if one believe in the defenders of this deal, would create millions of jobs, would boost the economy, provide better public services and stronger regulation and would help secure Europe's place for the future. It all sounds a win-win situation to everybody and the EU commission has been working hard to transmit this idea.

The new EU trade commissioner, Cecilia Maelmestrom, considers this trade deal between Europe and the USA as an unmissable opportunity for the European Economy that Europe cannot afford to miss, and her opinion is shared by the usual suspects, many trade associations and neo-liberal organizations and centre right governments. This is the only thing I agree with the trade commissioner regarding a possible transatlantic trade deal, it is indeed a great opportunity for Europe and for the Europeans but not in the current form, the current proposal being negotiated presents a massive threat to the European social model and European society while failing to deliver any tangible benefits to the average EU citizens. These negotiations, currently in the 8^th round have gained a unexpected notoriety, particularly in the social media, rarely seen in a trade deal, but this is no ordinary trade deal, that notoriety comes from the size and the remit of the negotiations, the TTIP dwarfs the European Union in size and in the remit and the potential reach of this deal is anyone's guess.

Anyone would be excuse to think that if we are talking about international trade, the discussion would be around the removal of tariffs but these are already relatively low between the EU and the US, the complete removal of these barriers would have a negligible effect in the trade between the EU and the USA, instead, the bulk of the discussion is around the removal of 'non-tariff barriers to trade' (NTB's), these are our regulations and standards, our consumer protection laws, our environmental laws, our labour rights, social standards and public service , our financial market regulations. Most of the mentions that anyone hear are about unfair car imports requirements and how some companies have to pay 20% import tax when they export to the USA and vice versa, no mention to the affect this deal would have in other aspects of our life, how it would affect our labour rights, our health services, the protection of our environment. In reality it will subordinate our generally higher European standards to to lower US standards. The Commission keeps saying that the EU will never abdicate of our standards to get a deal but fails to explains how will they manage to achieve such outcome.

Defenders of TTIP keep talking about the “tremendous benefits of the right deal” without really going into details of what such deal would entail, great part of the commission argument about the potential benefits of TTIP are based in a study made by the CEPR, an organisation with strong ties to corporations and finance. This study claims loudly that the EU economy could gain an extra 95 billion pounds or 545 euros for each family among other things but generally fails to mention the same study admits that such gains would only be felt in 2027, according to this study, this gains represents an additional growth of 0,5% over this period of time, this is less than 0.05% gain per year on average. These “potential” gains are the result of the most ambitious scenario of this study which includes the eliminations of 25% of NTB's related costs and the full elimination of tariffs. This study include many other economic finds of dubious origin, used to exhaustion by all the defenders of this deal. Other studies claim the creation of thousand and thousands of new job throughout the EU but these claims are questioned by many economic experts, in their content, their assumptions, their motifs and their results.

A recent study presents a completely different set of result by simply using a different economic model, instead of the growth promised by the European Commission and several governments, this study actually predicts that TTIP would actually lead to net losses in terms of net exports over a decade, net losses in terms of GDP, loss of labour income and would lead to hundred of thousand of job losses throughout Europe.

Another issue constantly raised in the TTIP negotiations has been transparency, or the lack of it, in the beginning of the negotiations. the precise text of the negotiations was kept secret and even after being leaked, it took the decision of the EU ombudsman to force the EU commission to actually take steps towards transparency and finally to start publishing TTIP texts, further interventions continue to question the slow attitude of the commission in continue towards more transparency, MEP's have to sign secrecy agreements to consult the texts, locked away in a restricted reading room in the European Parliament and faced with threats of espionage charges if they try to make copies or share the details with the public. So much for transparency.

The growing demand for more transparency on these negotiations have lead to an significant increase to popular opposition, this certainly should be a sign to our European and National leaders that the European People and the European civil society do not want TTIP in it's current form. Still the Commission and other EU governments continue to press ahead with the negotiations, ignoring the voices of the civil society. More that one million people signed the petition launched by Stop-TTIP against the TTIP, which was already dismissed by the EU Commission, on the grounds that such petition cannot be considered a European Citizens Initiative. The ISDS consultation resulted in a clear refusal of this undemocratic mechanism, 97% of the respondents rejected the ISDS but still the Commission ignores the voice of the people that claims to represent and refuses to take ISDS of the table with vague promises of reform.

A leaked position paper of the Commission suggests that all new laws and regulations should be reviewed according to their contribution to more trade, this review would be done by the “regulatory cooperation council”, this is jargon to lobbyist consultation before any legislation is enacted, in reality. The agenda as been captured by corporations, just to have an idea, according with documents consulted by the Corporate Europe observatory, 93% of preparatory meetings were with business groups. These are the groups that stand to win more of this deal, TTIP is a deal negotiated and tailored to serve the economic interests of only a few.

One of the most contentious points and the one that that is raising ever more serious concerns in civil society is the ISDS, this mechanism will allow corporation that can afford it, the possibility to bypass national courts and use highly secretive privatised courts to sue national states for everything they feel entitled to in the pursuit of profits. ISDS has been a constant of trade deals since the middle of the 20^th century, they have contributed to the undermining of the right to by states to regulate and decide in the best interest of their citizens. Ultimately, the notion that any corporation can have the right to seek financial compensation from a nation, because a democratically elected government is fulfilling their duty of care towards the well being of their citizens is ludicrous and immoral. Both EU and the USA have sufficiently independent legal systems to address any legal matter between any company and the government. ISDS is just a mechanism to protect companies profits no matter what.

I agree that TTIP is an incredible opportunity for Europe, it has the potential to increase and reinvigorate the influence of Europe in the international stage or finally buried it by being eclipsed under USA neo-liberalist influence, Europe and the Europeans have reason to be proud in our European Social Model, in our labour protection laws, in the standards of our care, in our standards and the respect for liberty and should seek not only to nurture and uphold these values but show them proudly to the world as an example of fair society. Our governments and the EU commission seems bent in undermine these values to promote a deal that will not serve the interests of our society. The great safeguard for Europe is the requirement for this deal to be approved by the European Parliament and the national parliaments, there is the last shred of democracy in an otherwise opaque negotiation.

One of the biggest problems to our modern day society is the rise of inequality, Oxfam just revealed that nearly 50% of the world wealth is in the hands of just 1% of the population, and this figure is set to rise. Put it this way, in a world were the biggest threat to society is the rise of inequality and the threat of deflation, in what way does trade liberalization helps? There is always the arguments that our exports would increase, but so would our imports, therefore in this case it is all about a shift of figures in the international balance of trade without really offering any real gains, so in this case TTIP will not offer anything tangible to tackle these issues.

Remember that Europe and the world is been through the worst economic crisis since the great depression, this crisis, which affected most of us, was caused by the greed of neo-liberalism and the increased deregulation that ultimately lead to a crisis that cause increased inequality and poverty in the developed world, the loss of purchase power and quality of life, the erosion of the social state and the imposition of austerity throughout Europe without regards for the social cost that such measures would have in our youth, in our elderly, in our lives. The question with the TTIP is: Do we really want more of the same suffering that we all have been experiencing over the last few years? This deal has the potential to slowly erode the gains of our democracies, cause thousands of jobs losses,

The way in which the opponents to this deal are portrayed as a somehow bunch of faceless agitators and ill-informed scaremongers that dare to question the “infinite wisdom” and the motifs of the negotiators of such deal is quite insultuous to the fair concerns of millions of people. The defenders of this deal, starting with the commission, that seems bent in imposing this deal at any cost, even when all the outcomes they keep repeating have been refuted over and over and unmasked as not much more than creative economics, and proponents of this deal go to the point of saying there aren't disadvantages on TTIP, in an 'bury your head under the sand' attitude'. To many concern keep being raised by individuals, academia, NGO's and civil institutions to being mentioned in just one article. And the attitude of the EU commission seems to continuously ignore these concerns. The EU commissions keeps repeating it has a clear mandate from from the EU governments to proceed with these negotiations but I would like to remember the EU commission that it must represent the interests of the citizens of the European Union.

One of the biggest unknowns about this deal in top of everything else is not so much the immediate effects of the TTIP but the long term damages to our society an the future generations, once signed, this deal will become extremely difficult to alter. The EU commission is playing a very disturbing game, in a time where the confidence in the EU is falling and the distance between the EU institutions and the citizens seems to be growing, their perseverance in ignoring the growing number of voices in the European civil society against austerity and the TTIP just had to the potential risk of the EU self destruction. If the TTIP needs to exist, then negotiators of such deal such seek a fair deal, a deal that put citizens, society and environment at the centre. The starting point for such deal already exists, it is call the Alternative Trade Mandate, which most of the European probably have never heard about. You might not agree with the content of this article but I only want to raise the attention to the other side of the TTIP, the side the mainstream media and the European institutions keep ignoring, do your research, see what is at stake, participate and make your voice heard. 

#noTTIP

Reform of the EU: What are you going to do about it, Mr Juncker?

The recent increase in the power of more populist and anti-European movement throughout Europe shows that something is very wrong at the heart of Europe, the citizens are more an more distrustful of the European institutions, but curiously, that has not affected the support  for the European Ideal. 

It is easy to conclude that the problem lies on the current form of the EU, claims for reform comes from all sides, MEP's, NGO's, civil society. Europe needs reform and urgently, is it's form, in it's goal, in it's remit. There are fantastic proposals out there for a better Europe.

But there appears to be no interest from the current occupiers of power to pursuit any of these changes. The EU must have at it's heart the welfare of the all Europeans, it must and constant goal the aim of serving the interest of it's citizens, the European society, it must defend, protect and improve our European social model at all cost, fight inequalities and promote democracy and participation. 

EU must change towards a ResPublica, all the things that we have in common, our values, our principles, our communities, our freedom and our Europe. The EU must protect Europe against this growing celebration of individual selfishness that is destroying our world and our society.

Until the European citizens fell that the pursuit of their best interest is indeed at the heart of the EU, this mistrust will only grow bigger and can actually destroy the European ideal in the future.

What are you going to do about it Mr Juncker?

Bridge building

I'm a profound believer in the benefits of the EU in general and the potential that such a massive endeavour can have to the European society and the lives of their citizens. 

But I don't believe in this model of EU, feeding a growing detachment between the EU institutions and the citizens that it claims to serve. Is it the lack of individual political participation, the apathy of the citizens, or the indifference of a set of institutions that are no longer fit for purpose? Fell free to pick one.

This new commission was elected with a very clear mandate by the people: 

-to reconnect with the citizens, to serve the best interests of ALL THE CITIZENS, not just the few.  

Reform is essential to achieve this, many citizens offer suggestions and ideas on the best way to progress, but as the year ends, I cannot but feel a bit disappointed with the lack of progress towards such changes. I hope the new year bring a renewed impetus towards these reforms. 

European ResPublica 

For the Union, for reform

Something that I keep noticing in many of the articles that I read regarding the nomination of the various commissioners is the constant mention on how is the position/nomination of such and such will bring benefits to that particular member state. I'm I wrong to consider that is not the way to look at it, isn't it the nomination of those people supposed to serve the best interest of the Union as a whole as opposed of that particular nation interest. I consider this commission to be a very balanced and particularly strong one and it is their role to serve the interest of all the citizens of the EU. I hope they will not forget that. The EU needs reform and  this team has a though job ahead of them, I wish the best of luck to the new team