Fortress Europe’s ‘emergency measures’: Europe limits asylum protection at the Belarus borders
Six years ago, the European Commission used Article 78.3 as a basis for a relocation mechanism that brought thousands of vulnerable people to safety. Yesterday, Von der Leyen’s Commission used the same legal basis to allow Poland, Lithuania and Latvia to completely disregard asylum protection and punish people used for political gains. Von der […]
The European Commission fails to listen to political newcomers!
Ambitious reform ideas for democracy vanish into minimal tweaks Today, the European Commission agreed on its Democracy Package aiming to strengthen Europe’s democratic foundations and institutions. The package includes a reform of the statute of European political parties and political foundations (European Parties) (Regulation 1141/2014), a reform of rules for the way European citizens vote […]
Don’t forget the 95% – why Europe needs to seize opportunities of labour migration
Every year, millions move to the EU to find new job and a new life. The vast majority, around 95%, arrive via regular channels. Sadly, Europe decided to focus on the remaining 5%, the irregular arrivals. Controlling our external borders and influencing the “root causes” of migration dominate both the public narrative and policymaking, while the opportunities of […]
The Recovery Fund (RRF) goes live – and I got to play a part!
Right after I entered the European Parliament in Summer 2019, we started working on a reform of the economic architecture of the EU. This week, 18 months later, voted in the European Parliament with overwhelming majority (see photo) on the centrepiece of the Recovery Fund, the Recovery and Resilience Facility. At €672.5 billion, it is […]
Reactions to von der Leyen’s state of the Union
The EU’s most powerful woman It’s been quite a year! Not only for me, but also for Ursula von der Leyen, boss of the EU’s executive branch, the Commission. Today she gave a speech on the past year and her future ambitions. But how did she actually perform when it comes to Recovery, Migration & […]
Statement on the European Commission’s Next Generation EU Recovery Package
Overall Assessment: As a representative of a pan-European movement, I welcome the initiatives presented by the Commission today that move the EU one step closer to a fiscal union. I am happy that the Commission President proposes a significant Recovery Package, financed for the first time ever by issuing common European debt and pan-European ways […]
COVID-19 shows urgent need for EU reform – to save lives and work towards a hopeful future for all of Europe
One year ago, around 500.000 people voted for Volt across the continent with the agenda to fix the EU! This agenda is now more important than ever. The Covid-19 pandemic has shown that in Europe, the crisis is no longer only a health and economic crisis, but that it also pushes the EU in its […]
France and Germany propose 500 billion euro EU Recovery Fund
Are things finally moving in Europe? I’m carefully optimistic but I think caution is needed when assessing the initiative for a COVID-19 Recovery Fund. Merkel and Macron, the leaders of the two largest EU countries agreed to push for a common EU fiscal response in the form of a EUR 500 billion debt issuance at […]
Proposal on how to turn the Eurozone budget (RSP/BICC) into a central tool for a European sustainable recovery, while improving the resilience of our societies to future shocks
The massive economic and social disruption caused by the covid-19 outbreak is confronting governments today with a twofold challenge. They need to initiate a swift and sustainable economic recovery and they need to invest in the resilience of our economies, societies and administrations to future shocks. This pandemic has shown that crisis readiness of public […]
Start-ups, SMEs and EU policy – my assessment of the EU SME Strategy
On Tuesday, the European Commission launched its SME strategy. In short, the Commission focuses on three points: Help SMEs digitalize and make the investments to become carbon neutral in the medium-term Reduce regulatory burden for SMEs and make sure rules and regulations are being aligned in the different member states Improve the access to financing […]
