Joost van Iersel is President of the Section for Economic and Monetary Union and Economic and Social Cohesion, EESC and is also a Former Chairman of the Hague Chamber of Commerce.
After seven years of economic and social turbulence, Europe continues to live in uncertainty. Despite glimmers of a recovery, a stable and predictable climate is still missing, which is damaging for investment, growth, and employment. Positive developments are apparently being held back by the lack of a clear sense of direction. The EMU is exemplary. It has an extensive 'acquis': a shared currency and a central bank; to a certain extent, it ensures coordination of fiscal and economic policies; it issues binding decisions on countries, in principle limiting their individual economic and fiscal autonomy. But the EMU still remains fragile and incomplete. Day by day, we witness the unsatisfactory implementation of agreed policies and, worse, divergent views and practices that have exacerbated a climate of distrust politically and among the general public.
We do not believe that sustainable outcomes can be achieved by intergovernmental decision-making alone. More political integration is needed. We are aware that this is not a popular message in a climate of mistrust and euroscepticism. But is there any alternative? The foundations of what has been achieved are too weak. Without deepening integration the EMU might not be able to weather the storm of a new crisis or realise successful growth initiatives, laying the basis for all kinds of cross-border investments. And, most importantly, Europe is challenged globally by increasingly strong competitors, each of them driven by a shared ambition. National sovereignty, which has increasingly become illusory, is not delivering the right answers for the needs of a future-oriented Europe.
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