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Over the past few months, the European
Union (EU) has received positive news that has
done much to allay some uncertainties it faced
only a year ago. The victory of Europeanist
Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential
elections of May 2017 and the more recent re-
newal of the grand coalition between the CDU-
CSU and the Social Democratic Party in Germany
have set the stage for a probable re-launch of
the European project and the implementation
of much-needed reforms – particularly of an
economic nature – at a time when Eurozone
countries and the rest of their EU counterparts
are rebounding from the recent protracted re-
cession with an overall 2.5 % GDP growth rate
for 2017.
Other major problems nevertheless continue to
cast a shadow over Europe’s common future.
Although the EU and the United Kingdom have
reached a transition agreement, many other as-
pects of Brexit such as the dilemma of how the Irish
border should be handled have yet to be resolved
and the impact of the UK’s withdrawal from the
Union must be absorbed. Acts of terrorism such as
those perpetrated in Barcelona in August 2017
and Carcassonne in March 2018 continue to
take place. Although third-party agreements
have eased irregular migration to a certain ex-
tent, this problem is far from been solved. In the
socio-economic arena, economic union (includ-
ing banking union) must be completed and
steps must be taken to close the gap the great
recession has created between northern and
southern Europe in terms of creditor and debtor
states and correct the tremendous inequality
that now exists in EU countries as a result of
neoliberal policies that put the wealthy in a po-
sition to increase their fortunes substantially
during the crisis while working and middle class
people, in contrast, have seen their wages drop,
their social rights cut back and their employ-
ment prospects become more precarious.
This rise in inequality and insecurity, the un-
certainty and fear about the future that has
taken hold in broad sectors of European society
and the weakening of the social state are col-
lectively to blame for the most serious problem
the Union now faces: the rise of ultranationalist,
Member States and
EU values: the challenge
of nationalism
José Enrique de Ayala