EU Quo Vadis VI: Solidarity and Strength

The European debt crisis has once again raised the issue of European solidarity. The EU’s cohesion and resistance to crisis are being put to the test. The role of Germany in the EU has come into questions amidst heavy turbulence. The relapse to the primacy of ‘national interests’ is often riticized. Erratic decisions in foreign and security policy (military eployment to Libya) and the rapid pace of the decision to phase out nuclear power are seen by some European neighbors as the German pursuit of a separate path.

Today, the European Union is at a crossroads. On the one hand, the debt crisis has brought to light the need for more cooperation and integration. At the same time, public support for an expanded community that sticks together and is mutually liable for all of its members is waning. Solidarity and self-assertion of the EU are closely linked in this context: without internal cohesion, there is also no external ability to act. Europe has to prove the capability of the liberal constitutional state, the social market economy and supernational integration to overcome the enormous challenges of our time and thus also promote its model.

Particularly in times when there is growing fatigue for integration, we need a public debate on the outlook for the EU. How far should and can solidarity in Europe go? Which binding rules does a community that stands together in times of crisis need? What political decisions have to be made now to move the EU forward again?

In light of this situation, the Heinrich Böll Foundation has convened a Future Commission made up of 50 experts under the title `European Solidarity and Self-Assertion`. Its mission: to come up with concepts and proposal for actions in the main fields of European politics that could give cooperation new impetus.

The results of the Future Commission’s one year of work will be presented for discussion at the conference:

What political positions do we need in foreign and security policy, in enlargement and communication policy, in climate and energy policy, in agricultural policy, in economic, finance and social policy?

How should the EU be organized so that it simultaneously has the capacity to take action and is still close to its citizens?

We hope that the recommendations of the Commission trigger an active discussion about Germany. A consensus on the future of the EU can only happen in European discourse. The conference is intended to provide a forum for this discussion.