Politico characterizes 2024 as a lost year for the European Union, considering that the European elections and the electoral contest in Germany in the fall of 2025 have effectively halted any serious work within the EU.
We wrote a few days ago about the paradoxical phenomenon of outgoing European commissioners appearing to be reassuring or even satisfied with economic performance in both the Eurozone and the EU as a whole. And we highlighted that the usual inactivity before the new Commission takes office, but also the lack of consensus on basic political issues are responsible for this situation. We warned, in fact, of the danger of this situation becoming permanent.
The magazine’s article highlights the real danger, giving a temporal dimension to the problem. At a time of enormous geopolitical upheavals and economic challenges, a year (or more) of inactivity could prove disastrous for the European edifice, which is put under multiple pressures politically and economically by its two biggest competitors: the USA and China. In the current situation, the distance that separates the old continent from the other two will increase even further, leaving Europe even further away from its objectives. The EU’s basic priority is drawing up its seven-year budget from 2028, which includes all the hot issues such as agriculture and support for Ukraine. It is estimated that the new Commission will wait for the results of the German elections in 2025 before starting to discuss these issues more substantively. And the way things are currently evolving in Germany, the likely electoral result does not look promising at all, with the extreme right showing very high percentages. Let us hope that another crisis will not be necessary for Europe to function again.