An Open Europe in An Open World – Forging a New Agenda for our Union

When I was running for EDS Chairman one and a half years ago, things were already difficult but sadly since then, events have moved so fast and the political landscape has altered so severely that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the European Union which we are accustomed with is under threat. Although we can only meet those challenges all together, our generation has been granted a special role - to strengthen Europe's perception among the young generations and hence to defend the European project in its hour of maximum danger. Despite the fact that Europe has gone through a series of crisis in the last years, I certainly believe that the European integration process has been a success story, we should be proud of our achievements and we should point out more often what good Europe is doing for its people. This is however a success story, which currently encounters challenges that are real, they are serious and they will not be met easily.

In addition to the well-known problems of our Union, there is a new issue we have to deal with at the moment. Will Trump's Presidency be good for Europe? Unfortunately, this question cannot be answered in the affirmative thus far. Although it is definitely hard to know what President Trump will really do, from what we have seen so far, the main idea of Trump’s foreign policy is that he is going to get a better deal from US allies and when it comes to the transatlantic alliance - that could affect Europe in several ways which is nonetheless not the purpose of this article to discuss. As Chancellor Merkel said during the latest EU leaders summit in Malta "Europe has its destiny in its own hands. The stronger we state clearly how we define our role in the world, the better we can take care with our transatlantic relations". Indeed, we cannot afford to spend months discussing what happened, what a colossal mess-up this is, or how bad can it get. Instead Europe must take on a serious leadership role. It is more important than ever to have a clear agenda on managing migration, trade deals, Middle East, security, defense, foreign policy, resolving Brexit.

EDS carries 55 years of proud history, 55 years of contributing towards the European identity, hence in difficult times like the ones we are going through, we could not shrink from our historic responsibility. Inspired by the spirit of all EDS generations, the year 2016 has seen EDS placing an increased emphasis on the European project and in order to better deliver our cause we took the decision to launch the #iMEurope campaign. EDS believes in the ability of the youth to create and prosper in Europe, however we also recognise that in order to do that, Europe needs to change. On account of that, our #iMEurope campaign offered a place for an intergenerational dialogue through which the youth could make their voices heard and share their thoughts on how to preserve the common European identity and make the EU fit for the future. All collected statements and proposals were summarised in a White Paper discussed and adopted at the Summer University in Larnaca.

We are particularly proud that amongst many places in Europe, we also campaigned in London during a historic Council Meeting which took place in light of the United Kingdom's referendum on EU membership. On this occasion, roughly 100 young people from all over Europe together with a large number of Britons discussed on the topic of populism and we all together supported the continued British EU Membership in the spirit of European unity. Likewise, during our Council Meeting in Kyiv last December, we marked three years since the events that occurred during the heroic Maidan revolution and we held an #iMEurope flashmob to declare our commitment to the European path of Ukraine.

Coming back to the EDS White Paper entitled “An Open Europe in an Open World”, the White Paper focuses on eight sectors of reform: Institutional Reform, Youth, Migration and Asylum, Economy, Monetary & Fiscal Policy, Security & Defence, Energy & Environment and ‪Digitalisation. Among the key demands found in the WP are the definite move of the European Parliament’s institutions in Strasbourg and Luxembourg to Brussels and the further integration of European foreign policy especially in the areas of security and defense. Furthermore, it suggests specific measures to create an environment that improves the economic fortunes of the youngest generations and allows them to gain an understanding of the EU and its institutional framework. Overall, the paper concentrates on policy with a true European added value and makes the case for a globalist Europe committed to the transatlantic alliance and free trade. The White Paper has been promoted not only within the European People's Party but also at the top European level, for example, it has been discussed with the European Commission's Spokesperson and with senior policy makers during our #iMEurope Policy Days in Warsaw. We are now entering the most visible phase of the campaign while it will also be considered for the Charlemagne youth prize of the European Parliament.

In the next years we will need ambition and stronger cooperation within all the levels of society. Yet, political organisations have a major responsibility in tackling the challenges ahead of us and help Europe progress much beyond slogans. Political parties have to re-engage with the public, increase accountability, introduce reforms better adapted to modern society, boost job creation and growth, they have to look for new approaches and stop populism gaining ground in Europe. It is vital that we draw lessons from our mistakes and if there is one thing that we have learnt well in the past year is that ignoring populists has become largely ineffective. As I previously commented for the press release of our White Paper "The challenges ahead of us are enormous. This is why we had to analyse the status quo and ask ourselves, as the young generation of Europe, how we can contribute to keeping the EU strong and efficient in future". Few months after we kicked-off our campaign, I am convinced more than ever that with hard work and commitment, the youth will not only preserve our Union but it will strengthen it. In this article, I presented the philosophical vision that underpinned our White Paper "An Open Europe in An Open World" and the #iMEurope campaign which I sincerely believe it will have a meaningful influence.