Editor's note

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Tuesday, 19.03.2024, 05:12

Towards Better Europe: the 2016 State of the Union address

Eugene Eteris, European Studies Faculty, RSU, BC International Editor, Copenhagen, 15.09.2016.Print version

Commission President J.-C. Juncker delivered a regular State of the European Union address at the European Parliament on 14th of September. The address reveals the EU’s achievements of the past year and presents priorities for the year ahead. Besides it sets out the ways the Commission will take to deal with the most pressing challenges facing the EU.

Every year in September, the President of the European Commission delivers the State of the Union speech before the European Parliament. The previous one, the 2015state of the Union address was delivered on September 2015 in Strasbourg; that was his first state of the Union address as the Commission’s President. Last year, on 64 pages, the President explained his vision of the Union through the “time for honesty, unity and solidarity”, as was the title of his previous address. 


The President’s address was followed by a debate with the members of the European Parliament.  This year's debate also constitutes the Commission's contribution to the informal meeting of the 27 Heads of State or Government in Bratislava (16-17 September 2016).

The State of the European Union address kick-starts Commission’s dialogue with Parliament and Council to prepare the Commission's 2017 Work Programme, as is foreseen in the Lisbon Treaty.

 

History and the 2015 address

The State of the Union address is foreseen explicitly by the Framework Agreement that governs the relations between the European Parliament and the European Commission. This Agreement provides that “…each year in the first part-session of September, a State of the Union debate will be held in which the President of the Commission shall deliver an address, taking stock of the current year and looking ahead to priorities for the following years. To that end, the President of the Commission will in parallel set out in writing to Parliament the main elements guiding the preparation of the Commission Work Programme for the following year.”


Thus, the State of the Union address requires the President of the Commission to take stock of the current situation of the European Union and to set priorities for the work ahead. Besides, it launches the inter-institutional process leading to a new Work Programme of the European Commission for the year ahead.


Two Commission leaders, i.e. the President and Frans Timmermans, the First Vice-President, sent in 2015 a letter to the Presidents of both branches of the European legislator: to President Martin Schulz, and to Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, who was holding the rotating Presidency of the Council in the second part of 2015. The letter explained in detail the numerous actions the Commission intended to take by means of legislation and other initiatives, until the end of 2016. In this address the President proposed an ambitious, focused, and intense legislative agenda that would require Commission, Parliament and Council to work closely and effectively together.


In 2015 speech there were such issues as: 1. asylum policy and refugee issues; 2. situation

in Greece (as a result of the fifth year of Greek and its impact in Eurozone and in the European economy and society as a whole); 3. critical relations with the UK; 4. attitude towards Ukraine, and 5. climate change.


The new Commission’ message “Towards a Better Europe -A Europe that Protects, Empowers and Defends” includes such main actions for the EU institutions as: to protect Europeans; to preserve the European way of life; to empower and defend European citizens, and sustain responsible governance.

 

The EU’s version of the State of the Union is often compared to the American original, or a French one. That’s a mistake because unlike the U.S. or French version where the heads of state are directly elected by the population, the European Commission president is not directly elected. Thus if one is not speaking for people and on behalf of people, it’s much harder to regard “the message” as legitimate. Therefore the EU’s state of the union from the start is regarded as message from one of the EU institutions, and the most democratic, i.e. all its staff is nominated by the member states’ governments. That’s the reason for the fundamental disconnection in the President’s speech between the positive accounts and proposed actions, i.e. people will notice errors or gaffes, without bothering to credit the good parts.

 

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the 2016 State of the Union address underlined that next year would be decisive “for reuniting the EU”, as the Union works only when all the states as well as EU institutions, national governments and national Parliaments are “pulling in the same direction”. The President proposed “an agenda of concrete European actions” in some areas where common solutions were most urgent.

President Juncker's speech in the European Parliament was accompanied by the adoption of concrete initiatives by the European Commission on investment, digital agenda, capital markets and security.

 

Key messages of the State of the Union 2016

The President stressed that Europe has been at a critical juncture; hence the EU can develop only if the member states and EU institutions work “in unity”: only then, he underlined “will Europe be more than the sum of its parts”. That means that the member states have to defend the rationale for unity. However, great and democratic Europe “must not bend to the winds of populism”, he argues.  

 

Preserving the European way of life

Free movement of workers shall be as much a common European value as combating discrimination and racism. Workers should get the same pay for the same work in the same place. Europe is not the Wild West, but a social market economy. Europeans stand firmly against the death penalty believing in and respecting the value of human life.

The EU shall instigate trade agreements with most global states, e.g. the US, Canada, etc.

In Europe, consumers are protected against cartels and abuses by powerful companies; the EU does not accept powerful companies getting illegal backroom deals on their taxes. The Commission watches over this fairness; this is the social side of competition law.

Steel industry: the EU has approved already 37 anti-dumping and anti-subsidy measures to protect European steel industry from unfair competition. Striving for more, the Commission calls on all member states and European Parliament to strengthen EU trade defence instruments. The EU free traders shall be able to respond as forcefully to dumping as the United States. 


In agricultural sector, the Commission will always stand by the EU farmers, particularly when they go through difficult moments; and, he argued, that it “will not be accepted that milk is cheaper than water”.

 

A Europe that empowers

Copyright shall be protected: journalists, publishers and authors shall be paid fairly for their work, whether it is made in studios or living rooms, whether it is disseminated offline or online, whether it is published via a copying machine or commercially hyperlinked on the web. The Commission proposes to equip every European village and every city with free wireless internet access around the main centers of public life by 2020.

Due attention is for investment and jobs: the EU will invest strongly in youth, in jobseekers and in start-ups. The proposal is to double the duration of the European Fund for Strategic Investments and double its financial capacity.


Solidarity is the glue that keeps the Union together; however, solidarity must be accepted voluntarily, it cannot be forced and it shall come from people’s heart.


Migration has become a problem: the Commission is launching an ambitious Investment Plan for Africa and the Neighbourhood which has the potential to raise €44 billion in investments. It can go up to €88 billion if EU states pitch in. The new Investment Plan will offer lifelines for those who would otherwise be pushed to take dangerous journeys in search of a better life.

 

The EU shall defend Europeans

Combating terrorism is the EU’s priority: the member states must stand united in response to threats. The EU states are democratic and plural societies, open and tolerant; but that tolerance cannot come at the price of European security.


Thus the EU will defend external borders with the new European Border and Coast Guard with additional 200 extra border guards and 50 extra vehicles deployed at the Bulgarian external borders as of October.


For European defence to be strong the European defence industry needs to innovate; hence the Commission’s proposal to create before the end of the year a European Defence Fund to turbo boosts research and innovation.


Another direction is the “EU Defence Union”: the Lisbon Treaty enables those Member States who wish, to pool their defence capabilities in the form of a permanent structured cooperation. It is the time now to make use of this possibility, argues the President.

 

The EU shall take responsibility

The President suggested that the Union’s 27 leaders coming for the summit in Bratislava should think of three reasons of having the European Union. First, willing to take responsibility for defending the EU values.


The EU Commissioners must be ready to discuss, in the next two weeks, the State of the Union in the national Parliaments of their countries of origin.


Being political means correcting technocratic mistakes immediately when they happen; e.g. the Commission, the Parliament and the Council have jointly decided to abolish mobile roaming charges. This is a promise the EU will deliver in the interests of business travelers, holiday makers and cross-border workers, as well as millions of Erasmus students who spend their studies abroad for one or two semesters.


Taking responsibility also means holding accountable to voters: the EU proposes to change the absurd rule that Commissioners have to step down from their functions if they want to run in European elections.

 

More information in the following links:  2016 State of the Union brochure including:


1) the authorised State of the Union Address;

 -2)the Letter of Intent, and - Progress on the Commission’s ten priorities;

State of the Union 2016 web page;

 -The 10 political priorities of the European Commission;

 - Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker;

 - 2015 State of the Union.


General reference: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-3042_en.htm

 

 





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