An ambitious scenario for the future of Europe

Ahead of European Commission President Juncker’s speech on the State of the Union on 13 September 2017 and reacting to the five scenarios of the Commission White Paper on the Future of Europe, BusinessEurope launched today the paper “The way forward: the business vision for the future of the European Union”.

In the paper presented today, BusinessEurope and its member federations aim at demonstrating their commitment to the European project and the common European values, developing a number of elements that business believes are necessary to build a Europe that is closer to its citizens, that is able to create a vision for the future, and that delivers concrete benefits along the way.

Emma Marcegaglia, President of BusinessEurope, said: “Europe is one of the best places to live, work, and do business in the world. And this is not by chance. The European Union made the European way of life possible. BusinessEurope and all of its member federations are strong supporters of the European project, and we have been at the forefront of its construction from the very beginning. We do believe that improving and adapting the European project is a continuous process. But without doubt, Europe must be the place where we find common answers to common problems.

We have an ambitious goal for Europe. The way forward must focus on the core elements from scenarios 4 “doing less more efficiently”, and some aspects of scenario 5 “doing much more together”, reflecting a longer-term perspective, and be enriched with some additional features as described further in our paper. Some elements of scenario 3 “those who want more do more” could be used provided that they do not create barriers or jeopardise the proper functioning of the single market. Both, scenario 1 “carrying on” and scenario 2 “nothing but the single market” are not an option as they would lead to stagnation of the EU and would hinder us to manage the challenges ahead."