Portugal assumes the European Union (EU) presidency at a crucial time that affects the political and social routines of so-called ‘normal times.’ From managing the vaccination against Covid-19 to Brexit to preparing for a post-Trump Western world and a post-Merkel Europe, the challenges are enormous.
Instead of distinguishing, as in conventional use, between internal and international problems, I refer to structural issues that affect both the EU’s interior and exterior. I identify the following main issues: inequality and cohesion; historical identity and reparations; human rights and democracy; peace and the cold war.
Inequality and Cohesion
The EU comes out of the pandemic crisis, with a GDP drop close to 9%. The risk of poverty has increased, but it remains very uneven among the Union countries and points to a segmentation: between 25% and 32% for one group of countries and between 12% and 17% for the other group. Youth unemployment is 17.3% but reaches 40% in Spain. Considering that the fourth industrial revolution (artificial intelligence) will cause additional turbulence in this area, the EU must move towards a universal basic income policy that complements and does not replace other social policies. The legitimacy of this measure -today, the subject of citizens' initiative in the EU- was made clear in the words of António Guterres in his opening speech to the 75th session of the UN General Assembly in 2020: "the new generation of social protection policies (must) include universal health insurance and the possibility of a universal minimum income". Now, without the United Kingdom, there may be room to deepen European policies. Still, such a project can only succeed based on greater internal democracy in the EU and reduced regional asymmetries.
