Chapter eleven – the future of Europe, by Martin Siecker

In the first 10 chapters of Mr Juncker's declaration we have commented the priorities of the new Commission's working programme. But the EESC feels the urge to go beyond business as usual because Europe needs more than the maintenance the Commission proposes. In the process of shaping Europe we should not limit ourselves to little things but focus on big issues.

Europe has a few major problems that are not addressed because of the absence of a mandate in these policy fields for the European institutions in the treaty. As a consequence, Euro scepticism has grown rapidly in the Member States as those problems gave average citizens the feeling that reuniting Europe primarily favours capital while there is nothing in it for them anymore. They see, amongst many other things, big multinationals avoiding to pay taxes against a growing army of working poor, victims of massive social dumping.

Life won't get better for the European citizens by itself. It will get worse instead if we do not act accurately on upcoming developments. A recent study by the Oxford University predicts that within 20 years almost 40 to 50 % of the workforce will lose their jobs because their work can – and probably will – be done by robots within that time frame. It also will create jobs, but not enough and at different skills levels.

A growing number of multinationals have upgraded tax evasion to the first priority after their core business as you can read in the newspapers practically every day. Estimations of the amount of money Europe misses because of this phenomenon go up to 150 billion Euro a year. Part of the problem is that Member States compete with their tax bases against each other to attract multinationals. As a consequence, there is a massive transfer from public money to private capital.

Other major problems exist in the field of external relations (" Who do I call when I want to talk to Europe?"), defence (the defence budget of all EU Member States together is 40 % of the defence budget of the USA, it's operational force is only 15 % of the USA) and a common energy policy.

Until the Barosso administration, the EU was seen as the lifeline for European Nation States to a bright future. The EU promised a European Social Model that should provide an idea of a democratic, green, competitive, solidarity-based and socially inclusive welfare area for all citizens of Europe. What the EU has been offering its citizens over the last decade is a model that generates benefits to the small and shrinking minority of a happy few at the expense of a large and growing majority of average citizens that is slowly sliding back into poverty.

The EESC does not expect miracles; the EC has no mandate in these matters. Member States have to shift national powers to Brussels, that require treaty change and that takes time. What the EESC expects the Commission to do is to speed up this process and put it on the political agenda at Council and in Member States. We urgently need a political debate, preferably with public participation, on how to proceed with the EU. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to bring about the change that is necessary to turn Europe into a success. The European citizen deserves better than what they get.