Making more from less

Abstract:

However regrettable Brexit may be, the EU needs to move forward. This is no time to be content with the status quo. Doing nothing will condemn the Union to decline.

The argument that citizens do not want more Europe is contradictory with the criticism levelled at the lack of accountability of the EU institutions and above all that of the European Commission. The latter stood far too much on the sidelines throughout the Brexit debate, and its leaders often made defeatist statements in the months leading to the referendum.

Discussion of change, however, raises the very difficult prospect of Treaty change, but much can already be done without it. The Union needs to move forward by launching an EU-wide debate on the kind of Europe citizens want. Many ideas are on the wharf; let’s roll them out and examine them with an open mind, rather than standing and wringing our hands on the sidelines.