Our World in 2017

ISSUE#1193 | January 2017
QUO VADIS EUROPA?
NEW EUROPE: OUR WORLD IN 2017
Page-17
www.neweurope.eu
by Jan Zahradil
President of the Alliance of Conservatives
and Reformists in Europe (ACRE) and
Member of the European Parliament
from the Czech Republic in the European
Conservatives and Reformists Group.
‘Europe must work
for everyone’
US Paratroopers assigned to Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), 173rd Airborne Brigade land within the 'Bayonet Strike' airborne maneuvers in Adazi, Latvia, 12 September 2016.
The 173rd Airborne Brigade, based in Vicenza, Italy, is the Army Contingency Response Force in Europe, and is capable of projecting forces to conduct full of range of military operations across the United States
European, Central and Africa Commands areas of responsibility within 18 hours.
BELGIUM - BRUSSELS
ACRE’s driving mission in 2017 is to help
build a Europe that works for everyone, not
just the privileged few.
The British referendum in June 2016
was not just a vote to leave the EU: it was
about something much broader. It was
about a deep, justified sense that for many
people the world works well for a privileged
few but not for them.
European democracy should work for
everyone, but if you’ve been trying to say
things need to change for years and your
complaints fall on deaf ears, it doesn’t feel
like it’s working for you.
The European economy should work
for everyone, but if you are struggling out
of work, or if your pay has stagnated for
several years in a row, it doesn’t feel like it’s
working for you.
This needs to change. The European
Union should be at the service of all. In
practice this means:
Europe must remain open for
business. We need an outward-looking,
globally-minded, flexible and dynamic
Europe. That means, cutting and simplifying
taxes for individuals and businesses. That
means signing free-trade deals with the
fastest growing economies in the world.
That means reducing regulations and
burdens so our companies can compete.
It also means dropping protectionist
tariffs, which make it difficult for third
countries to add value, enter the global
market and achieve sustainable, marketbased
development. Why do we find it so
hard to accept the economic consensus?
Free trade is always mutually beneficial –
and therefore also a moral project.
Europe must adopt a genuinely
fair refugee policy. 2016 has been a
catastrophically violent year. It is our moral
duty to offer support to those fleeing wars
and persecution. We must demonstrate our
values in practice.
Europe must get migration under
control. The EU needs to control the
numbers of economic migrants coming
from around the world. Unemployment
is very high in many parts of Europe,
particularly amongst our young people.
Economic migration policy should be
managed according to economic need.
Europe must adopt a proper
industrial strategy. Europe needs to
identify the industries that are of strategic
value to our shared economy, and to
support and promote them through
trade, tax, infrastructure, and research and
development policies.
We must reduce the costs of European
governance in real terms. This means
a freeze on the EU budget, and an end
to wasteful bureaucracy. In many areas
the EU is doing too much, and its use of
money is not sufficiently cost-effective. The
second Strasbourg seat at €114 million is a
lamentable and indicative example.
Every EU member state of NATO
should meet its 2% target. NATO is
the foundation of European security. It is
essential that members meet their spending
targets. We should resist the introduction
of an EU Army, which would make a
feeble and distracting alternative. We must
unequivocally support all our NATO allies,
when facing threats to their internal or
external security.
Last and perhaps most of all: European
governance needs to be devolved. The
greatest flaw of the European project is
the distance felt between governed and
government. So long as our citizens don’t
feel in control over the decisions being
made over them, European democracy will
fail. Our principle of subsidiarity seeks the
exercise of power at the lowest practicable
level – by the individual where possible, by
local or national authorities in preference
to supranational bodies. The people of
Europe do not want a federal United States
of Europe. A multi-layered union should
be considered, in recognition of varying
preparedness for European integration. The
process of any such arrangement should
recognise the nation-state as still the most
legitimate level of governance.
We must not be so naïve as to ignore the
possibility another member-state voting to
leave our Union. Rather, we must address
the possibility head-on by working to
reform the EU into a Union that truly works
for everyone.
The greatest flaw
of the European
project is the
distance felt
between governed
and government. So
long as our citizens
don’t feel in control
over the decisions
being made over
them, European
democracy will fail