Our World in 2018

EUROPE’S FUTURE
It’s Europe’s
time to provide
the answers
By Andrianos Giannou
Europe’s 2018 has been hailed as the
year of solutions, to any or all of
the challenges that the Continent is
confronted with. Expectations abound.
Coalitions are being formed. Actors are
elbowing for pole position. Be it migration
or economic integration, or even more
ambitiously, the overall future of the
European Union, all wheels have been
declaratively set in motion for a pivotal
year. However, the direction remains
elusive.
In this respect, Europe remains
multidirectional. It is not anymore about
the speed or the pace. Rather, it is about
the destination, the end goal. It is the very
guiding mantra of an “ever-closer union”
of yesteryear that is being questioned,
not how fast further integration should be
achieved. To some, it is all about “taking
power back.” To others, it is business
as usual, or technocratic progressivism
by stealth. “More or less Europe?” is la
question du jour. We all have established
that we are unhappy with the current state
.
a better Europe look like?
To respond, I believe that we have to
remind ourselves why any form of polity
.T
be simple: to make life for its citizens
better. All humans strive for the same goal:
a better life, at present and in the future,
for themselves and their families. The post-
War social contract, which aimed to deliver
Andrianos
Giannou
Andrianos Giannou
is the President of
the Youth of the
European People’s
Party (YEPP), the
largest political
youth organisation
in Europe. He was
elected a Vice-
President of YEPP
in 2015, and went
on to become the
10th President of the
organisation in April
2017.
exactly that, was based on an equilibrium
between the citizens, the state and private
enterprise under which, in broad terms,
the citizens would provide democratic
legitimacy to the state and manpower to
the private sector, the state would provide
welfare and security to the citizens and a
regulatory framework for private enterprise
employment to the population and act as
the main source of state revenue through
taxation. Recent increasing levels of
disenchantment, vote abstention, income
inequality, a general sentiment of insecurity
and uncertainty, as well as the rise of
populism and extremism, which feed on
those, are clear signs that this balance has
.
the past and the present: mismanagement,
corruption, greed, tax inefficiency and
avoidance. Correcting those will not
.
of this breakdown come from the future;
a future that is already here but to which
political reality has yet to adapt. The advent
of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which is
based on cyber-physical systems and brings
about further automation, the Internet of
T
employment. What will become of society
if companies fail to create jobs at the rate
required for the existing social contract to
function, as predicted? At the same time,
climate change has increased migratory
pressure, as has the spread of the internet,
which has made international –including
regional– disparities more visible and
perceptible. Increased levels of migration
insecurity.
What is the role of the European
Union in this context? How can
better for Europeans? Those big, common,
challenges require common solutions.
They all require scale. When it comes to
attracting innovation, Europe doesn’t lack
talent. To some extent, it doesn’t lack
36 2018 | OUR WORLD