According to the latest Financial Times, Europe is facing serious challenges and requires radical changes to preserve its competitiveness and confident place in the global economic and political arena.
In its recent publication, the Financial Times emphasizes that the next convening of the European Parliament should be prepared for serious upheavals, since there will be three key topics on the agenda: changing the economic paradigm to increase Europe's competitiveness, accelerate and consolidate the European defense industry.
Increasing competitiveness is an urgent task. The EU needs to be recovered quickly. Any European strategy should rely on three pillars. One of them is the completion of the creation of a single energy market that will protect the European market without flowing into isolationism.
The second priority is the reorganization of the European Defense Industry. One of the consequences of "peaceful dividends" obtained after the end of the Cold War was the low level of investment in defense and, as a consequence, the fragmentation of the defense industry. The difficulties encountered by the EU in the provision of military support to Ukraine clearly demonstrate that Europe is still difficult to supply weapons and ammunition, and European production is insufficient and unsuitable.
Finally, the question arises about the reforms needed to ensure that the future of the block extension occurs in the best conditions. The key to establishing contacts with neighboring countries is key, but you have to pay for such security - and this means changes in the EU budget and its management. It is impossible to do with 35 Member States that Europe is now hard to do with 27.
The European budget in its current form cannot ensure a number of ambitious tasks - from the restoration of Ukraine to the introduction of low -carbon energy sources, as well as the implementation of true industrial policy and investment in artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, the future of the EU depends on its ability to solve these problems - in case of failure it will remain far behind the US and China.
