2024 - A FATEFUL YEAR FOR EUROPE

EUROPEAN LETTER OF THE ES-CK - EUROPEAN SOCIETY COUDENHOVE-KALERGI Hubert Fromlet, Professor of International Economics, Linneus University Växjö and Kalmar, Sweden At present, the prospects for Europe as a whole - and for the EU in particular - look anything but rosy. Therefore, no stone should be left unturned to avert the worst in the EU election year 2024, as I believe there is a lot at stake in the EU elections, both politically and economically. Politically, the primary aim is to avoid an unwelcome shift to the right in the European Parliament, which is difficult to avoid. The growing influence of more or less far-right politicians in important EU decisions should therefore already be causing considerable concern in many places, although this has hardly been observed to date. In a number of EU member states, the disenchantment of many potential voters with politics has led to anti-future populism via the far-right parties. The German AFD Alternative for Germany, for example, wants to return the EU to the economic community of earlier years. But who believes that Europe could compete with the USA, China and to some extent India in this way? Economically, many risks are also piling up, especially as politics and business are becoming increasingly intertwined in the EU. We must seriously ask ourselves how populist EU politicians with little economic knowledge will get involved in the new EU Parliament, especially when it comes to structural initiatives and improvements in European economic policy. It is precisely in these areas that there is an immense need for reform at EU level - such as ¤ better political harmony between the individual member states, ¤ better coordination of foreign policy, ¤ institutional improvements in the EU countries, such as reducing bureaucracy, ¤ immense investment in (education) training as an important growth driver, ¤ resolutely combating the labour shortage, ¤ further liberalization in the services sector, ¤ more effective communication on AI-artificial intelligence, the environment and demographics. These and many other necessary reforms require EU politicians with a good understanding of structural economic policy. These politicians need to be found and elected. Therefore, the EU elections on June 9 this year are of far greater importance than generally assumed - also for companies and private households. Even the ancient Romans spoke of "ex unitate vires", that unity makes strength. After all, we are talking about the European Union, not the opposite. In view of the complicated political circumstances in the EU, all democratic parliamentary candidates should already be actively, concretely and knowledgeably involved in the election campaign in order to save what can still be saved.