Europe's independence and existence ! | European Citizens´ Initiative Forum

Author: Rolf Citizen |

Updated on: 01/04/2022 |

Number of views: 1129

Current situation

In Europe, we live in a free world with a free market, which is great.

In a free market, private companies will purchase products where they can get the best price, which is also fine.

However, when it comes to strategical products on which Europe’s existence depends, there are different considerations.

Right now, for critical products like energy and crucial raw materials, the EU is largely dependent on Russia and China. This is extremely risky, and in doing so, we risk economic collapse due to:

- Conflict with such countries

- Even if there is no conflict, doubtful countries can abruptly decide to keep critical materials for their own economy at the cost of Europe’s, even when committing contract breach to do so.

Required Change:

The European governments need to take a much higher stake in strategic materials and energy, to have them extracted on Europe’s own soil (and the soil of Europe’s partners), even if its profitability is lower than just buying from non-democratic countries!

Although this limits the freedom of market for these strategic products, it is essential for Europe’s existence and future.

Please participate in the discussion with ideas and opinions.

Categories: Business and economy Security

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Comments

Inactive user | 06/04/2022

I disagree that we have a free european market, when we have sanctions against other countries in europe.

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Rolf Citizen | 09/04/2022

Thanks, Daniel

Working with our democratic partners and joint sanctions is a powerful weapon, and yes, you are right, in that case we deviate from the free market mechanism.

However, sanctions are a reactive economic response, not a proactive one.

For instance: right now, our market has put itself extremely dependent on a number of crucial basic materials from China. Should China militarily occupy Taiwan, our relationship would change from one second to the other and sanctions might be launched. However, our dependency cannot just be eliminated in one second, and there you go, a similar bottleneck as we are having now with Russian gas.

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Petko GEORGIEV | 07/04/2022

I believe that the EU trade policy and practice should be firmly aligned with the European values it cherishes.

I would suggest developing the current system of trade sanctions imposed case-by-case against dictatorships that violate international law and human rights into a fully-fledged EU-wide Code of Trade and Investment Behaviour. This Code would stipulate the trade and investment measures that are taken against dictatorships and aggressors and will not allow going back to “business as usual” once the hostilities are over. The EU should also work with the other world democracies to join this Code and establish a global trade system that guarantees that observing international law and human rights is a pre-condition for those who wish to trade with the democratic countries.

The EU has the market power to impose such rules, especially if it acts together with the rest of the democratic world. The EU has a combined GDP of $17.1 Trillion, close behind the United States’ $20.89 trillion. Together with other democracies such as Japan ($5.06 trillion), the UK ($2.67 trillion), Canada ($1.64 trillion), Australia ($1.32 trillion), South Korea ($1.63 trillion), the democratic world is by far the biggest market in the world; and if it acts together, it is in a position to secure its independence in energy and strategic raw material supply, and impose standards of ethical trade globally. By comparison, Russia’s GDP (before the war) was a meagre $1.48 trillion. Buying gas and raw materials from Russia on Russia’s terms should not be an option anymore. Truly united behind shared values the EU has the potential and should find the will to deter aggressors.

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Rolf Citizen | 09/04/2022

Thanks, Petko. I totally agree.

Our reactive approach of sanctions should be extended with a more proactive approach by redirecting our economic dependency to partners who share our democratic values. And even then, I would strongly stimulate extraction on our own European soil where possible, but at least our crucial imports would come from reliable sources.

And our market will have to accept that import from democratic partners is somewhat more expensive because there is a reason for that: democratic countries have safety rules for their workers in the industry, they strictly forbid child labor, they don't oppress their people, and support freedom of speech. Like all forms of quality, also the quality of democracy comes with a certain price, that in my opinion is well worth paying for, as we are learning right now from Russia.

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gap selarzi | 13/07/2022

I have some inquiries if it’s not too much trouble ??, guide me about this. These inquiries are displayed underneath here?:

https://citizens-initiative-forum.europa.eu/discuss/idea/making-calculation-codice-fiscale-easier-citizens-italy_it

Sitting tight for most appropriate response straightaway. I’m excessively confounded here??

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed on the ECI Forum reflect solely the point of view of their authors and can in no way be taken to reflect the position of the European Commission or of the European Union.