European Union

We, the eleven undersigned think tanks from ten Member States, call on the EU leadership to rise up to today’s challenges and embrace the declared principles of effectiveness, fairness, subsidiarity, transparency and democratic accountability so that the new EU budget maximizes the added value of the taxpayers’ money in the pursuit of the common goals of the EU and its Member States.

In terms of its expenditure and revenue, the draft EU budget continues to diverge significantly from what would appropriately address current challenges facing the EU27 and contribute to its economic dynamism, welfare and security.

The European Commission has announced its proposal for a recovery plan with a total budget of 750 billion euros, called Next Generation EU. It is based on the new Instrument for Recovery and Sustainability, with a proposed resource of EUR 560 billion.

Only a federal Europe connects, while preserving the sovereignty of the member states. Only federalizing Europe can save Europe.

The European Commission has proposed to make EUR 750 billion available as a joint fund to be borne by the EU for the recovery of Member States whose economies have been severely damaged by the COVID-19 crisis.

During the last few months, we have seen countless articles written on certain aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Eeven people who do not normally follow world news are knowledgeable in the virus policy of certain countries.

President Macron’s call (March 2019) for a Conference on the future of Europe has led at the end of 2019 to a decision by the European Parliament and the European Commission to launch such a Conference on Schuman Day: May 9, 2020. Due to the COVID-19 crisis the launching was postponed.

Whilst universities have always been in an advantageous situation because of digital tools and lessons available online, amd thanks to the fact that university students are used to digitalization, primary and secondary schools in Hungary are still in their infancy regarding digital education.

The current crisis has reminded us how interconnected the world is. Developments which seem to take place somewhere far away can rapidly have the impact on the whole world. Today it\'s the virus. Tomorrow climate change.

“System errors” are different from “ordinary errors”. For example, saying that Christmas falls on December 29. System errors are so serious that they lead to the destruction of the system itself. Either exploding suddenly or slowly imploding. Either way, the destruction of the system.