Our Members in the European Parliament, Dubravka Šuica, Davor Ivo Stier, and Ivana Maletić are participating in the European Parliament’s Club of the European People's Party (EPP) Study Days that will be held this week in Nice. Manfred Weber, President of the Club, and President of the EPP Joseph Daul will chair the meeting, while eminent experts including Archbishop Alain Paul Lebeaupin, Apostolic Nuncio to the European Union and Nicolas Sarkozy, the former President of France and President of the Republican Party will participate.
Since the European People's Party is constantly reviewing its policies, this meeting is a good opportunity for debate on the future of the European Union, on connecting Europe with the Mediterranean, and on what to do to make the European Union function better. The liberalization of world trade, intensive mobility of citizens, the consequences of climate change, digitization of the economy, terrorist attacks – these are all causes of change in the European project. The situation is hampered by the finance, debt, and refugee crises, growing populism, mass youth unemployment, and terrorism in the heart of Europe.
˝It is therefore the strong position of our EPP group that these major challenges cannot be addressed individually in the Member States, rather, we need to seek a common European response. Europe is a union of values and we want to preserve and develop it as such. By strengthening the common foreign and defence policy we can win against terrorism and ensure peace and stability. Of course, freedom of movement and the Schengen system should be preserved, and a common asylum policy be established. It is necessary to complete the single market implementation with the implementation of the single digital market and the Energy Union. It is also necessary to boost competitiveness, to fight tax evasion, and to attract foreign direct investment, all in order to put an end to youth unemployment and to create a favourable environment for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. The current dependence on external sources of energy is not just a matter of economic efficiency but also of crucial political importance. We should not forget the circular economy and the protection of natural resources. Environmental policy must not destroy industry, rather, through innovative solutions, it should help maintain competitiveness. Finally, it is important to accept and understand subsidiarity, and to clarify the European and national jurisdiction. Only the social market economy, which is still considered a basis for the identity of our policy in the EPP, cannot guarantee the fulfilment of these objectives. Therefore, Europe must be big in large projects, a small in small projects˝, commented Dubravka Šuica.
This meeting will end with the adoption of a political document of the European People's Party called ˝Making Europe Fit for the Future˝.
