Giuseppe Sandro Mela.
2019-10-02.

«Mikuláš Dzurinda is a former prime minister of Slovakia, and the current president of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies in Brussels.»
A nostro sommesso parere, Mr Dzurinda formula in poche righe un progetto strategico di riforma dell’Unione Europea che sembrerebbe contemperare quasi tutte le esigenze.
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«Summer is over, and the new institutional cycle opened by the May 2019 elections is about to begin in earnest.
This seems the right moment to pause and reflect a bit about the broad picture, before we immerse ourselves into the technical details of the new term’s many and important dossiers»
«The ambition of the European Union for the next years and decades should be to gradually reform itself into a political entity matching the economic and military strength of the US and China.»
«Only a strong unity can spare us the dismal fate of becoming the vassals of extra-European powers. This unity, however, cannot come in the form of the very centralised, state-like structure that many europhiles have become accustomed to dreaming of, and many eurosceptics to decrying»
«During the recent crisis, it became clear that – for the time being – only national states have sufficient legitimacy to decide on the details of economic, social and migration policies, to name just a few.»
A strong and respected federal centre
«First, European integration should be progressively refocused on core areas of traditional federal competence. The supranational institutions should take on more responsibility for defence, foreign policy and external border control, and perform some limited treasury functions»
«The Union should negotiate and enforce with third countries the readmission of persons not granted asylum or a residence permit»
«Nevertheless, the competence to accept migrants and asylum seekers should remain at the national level, as this touches upon the deepest issues of culture and identity. Member states should be incentivised, but not forced to accept migrants»
Strong and respected member states
«Second, outside the strategic areas where integration is needed, the EU should encourage decentralisation and competition, not centralisation and harmonisation»
«Taking subsidiarity seriously can have transformational implications for the EU and its relationship with member states. It can, for example, justify the EU’s gradual withdrawal from agricultural policy, cohesion policy and social policy»
«Redistribution and the welfare state are at the core of national democracies and must therefore remain firmly in the hands of the member states»
«Another area in which subsidiarity should be more rigorously defended is that of culture and identity. European institutions should not be expected to promote an artificial European identity, but rather to eliminate causes of friction while respecting national and regional diversity»
«On such sensitive issues such as family structures, gay marriage or the role of religious symbols in public life we should strongly defend the prerogatives of member states against EU encroachment»
Reformed national economies
«Third and last, the political economy of eurozone countries is ill-suited for a decentralised monetary union and in need of a deep reform»
«A transition towards a more sustainable Union requires a drastic reduction of public debt and more market-oriented paradigms for the provision of public services in countries that adopted the euro»
«It is deeply unpopular to talk about this aspect of the European predicament, we know»
«Now, after a decade of growing uncertainties, populism and nationalism we probably need something different: as much union as necessary, as little union as possible»
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