The process of European integration is going through a decisive stage. The European Union is showing its capacity to provide answers and take political action on urgent issues. European politics is being an active power in the geopolitical puzzle and how and where the pieces are being repositioned. We can observe the EU as a prism with its bases, values, its decision-making method, its supranational democracy, and its geometric adaptations with different numbers of faces depending on the context. A prism as an example of European multilevel governance itself.
The European Union is making decisions that lead to concrete policies in all sectors in a tangible way. Brexit, the pandemic and the war in Ukraine are working as catalysts and accelerators for responses. European politics is going through a time of "catharsis" that is allowing it to see its pending issues. The war in Ukraine reflects the need for the EU to strengthen its Common Foreign and Security Policy.
We are experiencing an abrupt geopolitical awakening that makes the European strategic compass, that is, an indication, urgently become one of addressing strategic autonomy on the ground. The EU is trying not to be dependent on other models and emerging markets. For this reason, for example, it has launched its European Chip Law, or implements instruments that allow its own sustainability at all levels. This "non-dependence" entails the configuration of its energy model.
In this line, and observing the image of the European prism, the presentation in Prague on October XNUMX of the European Political Community, I also consider that it forms part of the instruments to advance strategic autonomy. The CPE, the brainchild of French President Emmanuel Macron, gives visibility to the political will of the twenty-seven member states along with seventeen countries that have united against Putin's attack. The CPE is the continental power, Europe, of the EU.
The institutions, as a reference, are showing their capacity to structure decisions that forge the EU of the XNUMXst century. Within this framework, it is necessary to underline the inter-institutional power, the ins and outs as complementary spaces for negotiation.
When Covid 19 arrives, the representatives of the European institutions are aware that they must look for ways to give the green light to a European Recovery Plan. In addition, even without having the competence of Health, the European Union was able to coordinate a European vaccination plan, a supranational plan.
Drawing up the Recovery Plan has meant for the EU entering into a new process of political action combined with the economic one that constitutes a milestone in itself. I think we can say that this process constitutes a strengthening of the European integration process within its own integration. At the same time, in this multilevel governance we observe how the forces of union are synchronized with the views and interests of each Member State, with their sovereignty. It is here where European sovereignty flies over the concentric circles of politics; of belonging and belongings; of multiple citizenship and multiple citizenships.
The funds have two vectors: the European Green Pact and Digitization together with the axes of equality and growth and social cohesion. An important challenge is to combine both axes, address the challenge of the ecological and digital transitions by working on their implementation in a synchronized manner.
Sustainability, rooted in environmental policies, extends to the need for sustainability in all parameters: institutional, political, business, financial, communication. Recovery and economic transformation go hand in hand in how to identify the strengths of each company in the business fabric and establish a business plan that combines what works with the incorporation of instruments that allow the implementation of vectors focused on the ecological, digital or the sum of both.
A milestone is the approval of the mechanism for linking the receipt of the Next Generation EU to compliance with the rule of law.
Recovery and transformation are coupling their aspects to achieve a redefinition of the European project. Faced with the disintegration that each Member State's view of itself and its interests could entail, the complex international context makes an EU that manages and is useful more visible.
With regard to the debate on the present and the future of Europe, in the "Conference on the future of Europe" proposals related to the issues of attention and concern of citizens have been collected. I would like to highlight the proposal aimed at the necessary reform of the treaties and specifically, the move from unanimity to qualified majority to allow streamlining and non-blocking in the decision-making method in decisive matters. One issue that has been put on the table is the call for a new European Convention. Both the Commission and the European Parliament have given the green light to the third Convention, although I think it is difficult for it to be convened in the short or medium term due to the urgent issues that the EU has to face, many of them derived from the war in Ukraine. Among the pending subjects, a common migration Pact continues to be a hot topic and friction between States. We must always emphasize that it is a humanitarian issue of great importance and of the first order.
In the second half of this year, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union will take place. It is true that in the semi-annual presidencies, real decisions may not be made and that they are a time of visibility for the State that holds it, but I also consider it important to highlight that each country has the opportunity to set some priorities and initiate or strengthen the corresponding chosen topics. . Our Spanish Presidency must, like all, combine opportunity with responsibility.
Among the priorities, economy, ecological and digital transitions, implementation of the Next Generation EU, debate on the future of Europe, social agenda, Pact on migration and asylum, development of the Internal Market, competitiveness and reinforcement of the European industry and autonomy strategic, includes the global role of the EU and specifically the strengthening of relations with Latin America to strengthen the multilateral relationship focused primarily on large-scale trade.
The European prism, configured with its two bases and its number of faces, hexagonal, octagonal, pentagonal..., depending on how the EU adapts to the challenges and faces the challenges, constitutes a true political model. This model is providing impetus to its integration process. Political deepening is necessary to consolidate the EU within the framework of geopolitics and the new structure of world politics of our time. The European prism marks and tells the world, and ourselves, what we are and what we contribute. It also indicates what our tendency is as Europeans.
Susana del Rio Villar
PhD in Political Science. Special Director of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council and Comprehensive EU Programme. Academic and Columnist. Academic Counselor of Fide.
Article originally published in Alternative Magazine
