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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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2. Economic union
– European Union fiscal policy (particularly within the eurozone) must
return to an emphasis on growth, productive investment and innovation
to prevent Europe from being left behind in the digital revolution, and
to increase productivity and generate the kind of high-quality jobs that
are not threatened by automation.
– The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) must be transformed into a
“final guarantee” in the face of fiscal or financial imbalances (with the
objective of converting it into a European Treasury or European
Monetary Fund with the capacity, in the medium term, to issue
eurobonds).
– Europe must draw up a list of European tax havens, based on objective
criteria and free from political interference. Inclusion in this list should
incur a range of penalties.
– The European budget should be increased to 3 per cent of the EU’s
GDP (over two legislatures) funded, at least in part, by a financial
transaction tax. This would be part of a wider move to make immediate
progress towards enhanced cooperation.
– Investment in R&D+i must be increased to 3 per cent of EU GDP.
– We need to further develop the Digital Single Market, migrating the
specific application and development model to European standardisation
within the existing framework of EU regulation, and implementing
educational programmes at all stages that place the necessary emphasis
on technology, innovation and enterprise, both at the theoretical and
the practical level.
3. Social Europe
– A social Europe must be based on solidarity.
– The programme of establishing a “European Pillar of Social Rights”
must be accompanied from the outset by the approval of a directive on
decent employment conditions to guarantee a basic set of enforceable
rights, Europe-wide, designed not to obstruct but instead to promote
labour mobility and freedom of movement and residency within the
EU, with a particular focus on young people (as already occurs with the
Erasmus programme in the educational sphere).
– We also need to begin the process of incorporating a social protocol
into the Treaties, affording the same guarantees to social rights that are
already provided for economic freedoms.