Why the EU cannot survive unchanged

When they signed the Treaty of Rome 60 years ago, six nations that had been at war for decades took a crucial first step toward establishing an unprecedented period of peace in Europe. But today, the enthusiasm of those early days has given way to disillusion and disarray.

Now, for the first time, the European Union’s survival is at risk. Faced with this existential crisis, it cannot survive unchanged.

As an anchor of democracy across the Continent, the EU has provided great value to its citizens.

Its monetary union mitigated the effects of the major global economic turbulence of the 2008 financial crisis, and its internal market has allowed European businesses to thrive and compete with each other, while at the same time protecting consumers.

Its citizens’ data and copyrights are protected. Air travel is cheaper. Roaming charges have almost disappeared. People are free to travel, live, study and work in other EU countries. Economically, its members are better off within the European Union than outside it.

But these benefits are no longer enough. On major issues such as migration, security and defense, Europe has demonstrated that it is unable to act.

The fact that fearful or unwilling member states can prevent others from making progress is slowly killing the European project. We need to speed up European integration so that we can effectively deliver results for citizens across the Continent. If we don’t, we’ll have destroyed what we spent the past 60 years building.

The question of whether we should have “more” or “less” Europe is beside the point. The EU has to be big on big things and small on small things. It has to improve cooperation between Brussels and EU members and involve its citizens more directly in its decision-making process.

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The EU’s founding fathers forged a union of peace and freedom. The following generation deepened its economic and monetary union. Today’s generation must revitalize this spirit of joint action by delivering security, stability and prosperity.

Our Continent’s security is no longer threatened by full-blown war between member countries. Today, the challenges are regional conflicts, hybrid warfare, asymmetric conflicts and international terrorism.

That is why the EU must become a real security union. This means enhancing our common foreign and security policy, establishing a European defense union and cooperating on information exchange and border control to effectively combat terrorism.

We must also do more to ensure our economies’ stability and prosperity. We need a fair social market economy to create jobs, wealth and social equality. To achieve this, we need to pursue structural reforms and targeted investment, fair taxation, and fair trade agreements. We also need to regain our leadership in innovation and complete the single market. For Europe to be more efficient and less dependent on the goodwill of its member states, we must also find a way for the EU budget to generate its own resources.

Solid finances, full employment and prosperity are not a contradiction. It is yesterday’s mismanagement, not today’s stability pact, that is at the origin of youth unemployment in large parts of Europe. Our future prosperity will depend on fiscal stability, competitiveness and structural reforms.

Completing the Economic and Monetary Union to strengthen economic governance in the EU — especially in the eurozone — must go hand in hand with an ambitious investment pact that focuses on innovation and enables us to achieve full employment across Europe.

Only with fair and free trade will we be able to maintain our social, environmental and technological standards on a global level.

European citizens unable to find jobs often associate Europe with diminishing of social standards. We must address their concerns and put solidarity, dignity and social justice at the center of our economic policies.

We must also make globalization work for our citizens. Only with fair and free trade will we be able to maintain our social, environmental and technological standards on a global level. But believing in free trade does not mean being naïve. Europe must also be equipped to defend itself when necessary.

By working together over the last 70 years, European people have built the greatest peace project in the world. Now, this project is at a crossroads. It is our collective challenge and individual responsibility to engage with our fellow Europeans. We must renew their confidence and pride in this unique union and in our common future.

We can’t afford to waste any more time. The time to reinvent Europe is now.

Manfred Weber is chairman of the EPP group in the European Parliament. Guy Verhofstadt is chairman of the ALDE group in the European Parliament.