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The new legislature: eleven challenges facing Europe
is the fourth State of
the Union Report that the Ebert Foundation and Fundación Alternativas
have published jointly. Its title reflects the new composition of the Euro-
pean Parliament in the wake of the most recent European parliamentary
elections as well as the inaugurations of a new Commission and new
presidents of the European Commission and the Council of Europe. The
beginning of this new legislature, which marks the advent of a new phase
for the Union, is getting underway at a decisive moment in the construc-
tion of our beloved Europe.
As the Union embarks on this new phase, we have identified what in
our estimation are the eleven most pressing challenges that it will be fac-
ing during 2015 and the next few years and analyse the advances and
setbacks that marked the difficult year of 2014. The first topic we will
address is the need to put the recession and the failed across-the-board
austerity policy –which we indicated two years ago was the wrong course
to take– and move forward with a new approach that promotes eco-
nomic growth, investment and job creation. What the current situation
clearly calls for is strong measures that will help us regain confidence in
our common project and tackle the problems misguided austerity meas-
ures have provoked: a growing inequality that has reached unsustainable
levels and a subsequent decline in the quality of social welfare, one of the
European Union’s distinctive signs of identity. The resolution of these two
pressing problems is high on most Europeans citizens’ lists of priorities.
Closely related to the aforementioned challenges are the pending issues
of tax evasion and avoidance and the harmonisation of national tax sys-
tems. Equality, social welfare, and when all is said and done, democracy
itself, depend on the existence of a fair, efficient and comprehensive fiscal
system. Tax evasion and tax havens undermine the health of our political
system, and their eradication will be an essential part of the solution to the
problems we are currently facing.
However, growth going forward must be sustainable. The fight against
climate change and its relationship to industrial competiveness and the
creation a secure, diverse and interconnected European energy market
must be top priorities in this area. Creating a single digital market is just as
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