Some Important Challenges for the EU Future

The reform of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) is supported by some official documents adopted at EU level, like the Report of the Five Presidents (2015) and the Reflection Paper on the Deepening of the Economic and Monetary Union (2017) but was also strongly demanded by some European officials, namely Emmanuel Macron, who wants to speed up some important reforms for the EU’s future, like for instance the achievement of a fiscal union. Banking union based on three pillars is partially implemented while capital market union is only a project. A better fiscal governance is already in place but a fiscal union accompanied by a political union is difficult to build due to the reluctance of some German politicians, together with the opposition of Nordic Group and backed by the “hard” position of the Visegrad Group. Energy union that was subject already to three evaluation reports must be finalized until the end of the current Commission's mandate. The reform of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP), imposed by Trump Administration positions and by other important challenges started in 2016 with EU Global Strategy, followed by Defence Agenda, Reflection Paper on the Future of European Defence, the tenth progress report on Security Union, the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). Brexit negotiations face also some heavy obstacles: the agreed payment obligations of UK, determining the status of UK as a trading partner of EU, establishing a transition period, the fate of the four fundamental freedoms, especially free movement of people, solving border issues between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Under the strong migration pressure EU was forced to adopt some strategic orientations: working with countries of origin and transit, strengthening the EU's external borders, managing migration flows and curbing migrant smuggling activities, reforming the common European asylum system, providing legal migration pathways, fostering the integration of third-country nationals. Considering all of the above-mentioned issues with a medium and long-term impact on the future of the EU, our article proposes a synthetic treatment of the pros and cons for the implementation of all these projects, our analysis taking into account not only the present state of the European economy, but also the wider geo-political context, along with its exogenous challenges.