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THE STATE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
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– In the Middle East, the EU must help the Arab and Muslim countries
–with military means if necessary, not including the presence of
European troops on the ground– to neutralise jihadi groups and, in
particular, to eject the Islamic State from the zones of Syria and Iraq
under its control. Putting a stop to the civil war in Syria first is es-
sential to the success of this action and the Union must become
resolutely involved in finding a negotiated and lasting solution.
– The jihadi threat and the war in Syria make it more necessary and
urgent than ever to build a robust and permanent Common Foreign
and Security Policy that allows the EU to carry the weight it needs
on the international stage to tackle these problems, as well as to
develop a common European defence that can guarantee the secu-
rity of European citizens in the future, in cooperation with other
allies and organisations.
5. Global climate governance
It is necessary to reinforce EU legislation and provide the required fund-
ing to ensure compliance with the latest framework programme for the
environment: to get every EU citizen living well within the planet’s eco-
logical limits by 2050. The courses of action in the short and medium term
should be:
– Air quality: the EU should recover the goals to improve air quality
proposed by the previous European Commission.
– Compliance with the 2020 Biodiversity Strategy has to be ensured.
– Within the framework of the Paris Agreement, the EU must to
agree on an emissions reduction road map that is binding on all the
Member States, defining how the long-term emissions reduction
goal of 80 to 90 % by 2050 will be achieved. In this vein, the EU
must ensure compliance with the 2020 goals in renewable energy
and agree on national goals for 2030 that are sufficiently ambitious
to achieve the development of an energy system close to 100 %
renewable by 2030.
– Compliance with the 2020 and 2030 goals in energy efficiency
must be ensured.
– The Energy Union strategy has to be reconsidered, reducing reliance
on the use of gas and oil and reinforcing the use of the Union’s own
renewable energy sources.
– Specific funding lines favouring green investment have to be
opened up, both in national public funds and through the European
Investment Bank (EIB).