These four chapters reveal Europe’s challenges

Ursula von der Leyenin 2. The Commission received its seal on Wednesday in Strasbourg after the EU Parliament’s vote.

The new commission will start its work immediately on December 1, and the challenges are massive. They are described in four chapters.

4

The first chapter describing the EU’s challenges is four.

The number is related to Europe’s lack of competitiveness, especially compared to the United States.

The harsh truth is that only four of the world’s 50 largest technology companies are European.

Even if you would like to blame Russia, China or the United States for many things, the truth is that Europe’s competitiveness has been eroded by its own hands both in Brussels and in the EU member states.

The problem is that the internal market does not work when each of the 27 member countries has its own rules for the operation of companies and the member countries compete with each other with state aid rules.

On the technology side, European overregulation has provided the United States with a free competitive advantage in the use of data.

Although an equal number of companies are created on both sides of the Atlantic, many companies in the growth phase seek better financing and operating conditions in the United States.

1,9

Another arresting number is 1.9.

Europe spends an average of 1.9 percent of its GDP on defense, while Russia spends as much as nine percent of its GDP on strengthening its military capabilities.

“There is something wrong here,” von der Leyen said Wednesday in Strasbourg.

He’s absolutely right. The EU needs to do a lot and quickly both to support Ukraine and to strengthen the security of Europeans and the defense industry.

Whatever happens in the end with regard to Ukraine, it is pointless to imagine that Putin’s Russia would give up its goal of taking its neighboring regions into its buffer zones.

100

The third number related to the future of the EU is 100.

The new Commission has one hundred days to change the direction of Europe. After that, plans should be ready on how to reform Europe.

88

The fourth significant figure is 88. With such a historically small margin, the new commission was voted into power on Wednesday.

As many as 282 MEPs voted against the commission, while 370 voted for it.

MEPs from many parliamentary groups showed their opinion in the commission vote. Bitterness has been caused by, among other things, the contentious custom and the cow deals with which the new commission was put together.

The left now believes in the growth of the power of the extreme right, while the right has pulled the star commissar of the socialists from under the keel and is flirting in the direction of the far right.

The fact that the parliament is arguing portends difficult legislative work for the Commission’s upcoming five-year term.

Europe has enough challenges and topics of dispute for everyone. I hope politicians at all levels understand how difficult the world is now.