The purpose of this site is to share ideas. To people and from people about
the future for Europe.
Do you have a good idea ? Send an email to
marcel.groot@thefutureforeurope.eu
original content: 2019
last update: 10jan2021
- Common
European language: The English language.
- MEGA
- Common systems and
way of operating.
- European
television, radio and internet channels.
- Transparency
in the European Parliament.
- Environment
- Diversity.
1.
Common European language: The English language.
Now the Brits left the EU, it is time for a common language
as
this is the key to any further integration and unity
across the European Union. As English is the common international
language in many fields, and it's base is in Europe, it shall be the
English language. Together we are strong and a player
of importance in the modern world; one common language will help making
us stronger in many fields in the future.
The language of each country shall remain as this is what
makes Europe unique and divers, however, the English
language shall exist near the own language.
As Brussel must lead by example: one
language
shall be spoken in Brussels in the European Parliament.
In every EU country, it shall be mandatory that children from the age
of 10 till 16
years shall be taught with the English language. The prime purpose of
this is to
create a common European language. In 10 years time
we all
speak a common language.
Obvious benefits are that it will bring a larger understanding of each
other,
a larger interchangeability of persons, students, documents and goods,
professionally or simply when people go on a holiday. It will
ease exchange of knowledge. But maybe most important: it is the
pre-requisite for following steps towards further integration,
common systems
and institutions.
One language for European laws, one language for European legislation,
European norms and European news channels. One language for a
possible future European army and border patrol. One language
for
European institutions. One language for user manuals, maintenance
manuals. Etc. Etc.
SCRATCHPAD
2. MEGA.
The Americans have MAGA. Make America Great Again. We have something better which will be
understood instantly by everyone as something important:
MEGA.
"Any customer can choose what he
wants, can have a car painted any colour what he wants, so
long as it is a Ford and the color is black." By Henry Ford.
These were the
times of the first industrial revolution characterized by mass
production. The producer produces what and how is
good for him. Not necessarily what Customers want.
What does this have to do with todays reality?
In the 21st Century we live in a complete different world.
The world of information exchange. Still there is
mass production, however many things can now be tailored to the
Customer needs.
Even the European Union, many companies and
many organisations still work according this "One
size fits all" principle. "We know what is good for you". People do not
want a plastic between their meat. People do not want their gherkins
wrapped in plastic. People do not want sustainaible housing
which cannot be heated sufficiently in wintertime.
People do not want importing wood for biomass electricity.
People do not want public transport interruptions because of long
lines. People do not want buraucracy before being helped at the
doctor or hospital. People don't want meat imported from another continent if it also can be produced locally.
A much more humble, a ready to hand and customer
focussed approach is more sustainable and more succesfull in
this age of information technology. The EU, followed by the
Countries Governments, followed by local governments need to lead by
example.
What do European people find important?
Well, that is not too difficult to answer if we think about
the basic needs of a human being:
- Food and Water
- Safety
- Prosperity, education, research, infrastructure, economy,
democracy, free movement of people and goods..
- Health
- Environment
Strategies:
Accept that Europe has always been, and will be, diverse.
Respect that each country have their own cultures, laws and
language.
Independency from outside EU countries for all 5 basic needs mentioned
above.
Always have a plan B or even a plan C or even a plan D.
Limit centralization to only necessary common systems where all EU
people benefit.
Embrase smaller rather than larger where we can.
Make use of local strenghts.
Make
use of local knowledge and innovation.
Work together with inside EU countries for goods which are not able to
be produced by an EU Country.
Work together with outside EU countries where we can without violating
above strategies.
Stimulate / subsidize a minimum of local production in a country for
all basic needs.
Stimulate / subzidize cross-EU-country trade over importing
the same goods from outside the EU.
Invest in ever better infra-structure.
Accept Country laws above EU laws, after all the EU is not a country.
Stimulate embrasing EU laws rather than pushing into a
country.
2.1 Food and water
Produce food in many
places inside the EU rather than centralized or even import from outside the EU.
Why importing potatoes from Africa while they can be produced in Europe
too?
Why importing oranges and lemons from South America while they can be
produced in Europe too?
Why importing garlic from China while it is produced in Europe too?
Why importing strawberries from Africa, while it is produced in Europe too?
Why importing kidney beans from Africa, while it is produced in Europe too?
Why importing wheat for bread while it is or can be produced in Europe too?
People prefer locally produced goods over food produced somewhere else in the EU.
People prefer food produced in the EU over food produced outside the EU.
Local production makes us independent and can act as a plan B in case of food shortage.
Some signs to the good are already visible:
- supermarkets selling more and more local content. From local
produced meat, local baked goods to local produced berries, vegetables
and potatoes.
- more and more farmers sell their products at the street near their farms.
2.2 Safety
Housing
Environmental (flooding, storms)
Outside EU influences (borders, millitary).
2.3 Prosperity
Electricity:
We must have plan B or even have plan C.
Multiple sources, also carbon based.
Environmental clean if it can, carbon based if it has to.
1st local country generation, 2nd inter EU country generation, 3rd Outside EU import.
We must be able to choose something at any moment...
Money:
We must have plan B or even have plan C.
Next to electronic money transfers with bank-cards and pin-coding, always have a back-up system with cash money.
Internet:
We must have plan B or even have plan C.
Our dependency on internet and smart phones in this age of information exchange is large, however, also very vulnerable.
In
times of emergency we must at all times be able to carry on with our
lives, also without internet, also without smart phones. Like we used
to live before the 90's.
2.4 Health
The latest crisis has shown that Europe is vulnerable for not being
able to produce certain goods required for our health
safety. Often
the production of such goods has been outsourced in low cost countries
outside the EU.
Medicins and medical goods.
We must have plan B or even have plan C.
Produce a minimum at each EU country if you can.
Be able to turn up production inside the EU in case of a mondial crisis.
2.5 Environment
Not only governments from all EU countries need to lead by example,
also local governments in a country.
As a start, all newly built
buildings for public, governmental use or semi-govenmental use, shall be built energy-neutral.
Examples are buildings for educational purposes like schools,
university buildings etc, research buildings, any (local) governmental
building, any indoor sporting facility, theatres museums, any
social community building, buildings for children care,
Secondly, newly built small businesses shall be built based on energy
savings like newly built offices, datacenters, industrial
buildings.
One environmental policy and measures for all countries part of the EU.
Not that one country wants to go away from natural gas and
another country wnats to emrace natural gas.
Discourage expanding businesses requiring fossil fuels for energy or
transporation or environmental unfriendly designs.. Growht shall be
based on diverting into sustainable
energy generation or the use of sustainable fuel for tranportation.
Making use of environmental friendly designs, e.g. make use of
closed loop cooling water systems for datacenters instead of a once
through system, deployment of solar cells on company roofs.
In stead of creating new wild nature areas, divert to creating
new
areas for planting trees for a natural CO2 capture. Plant
vegetation for
biomass in order to produce cyclic biofuels.
Every country of the EU, every province, every city shall plant a
yearly minimum amount of trees.
==================================================================================================================================
The EU shall be self-providing again for the following goods:
- Primary goods required for our life such as food,
water, medicines and energy.
- Secondary goods for our quality of life such as anything to
do
with transportation (cars, motorcycles, trains, boats, airplanes,
bikes,..), infrastructure, Anything to do about environment,
housing,, .
- Goods required for our safety such as military goods, goods
for border security, police and communication systems.
For infrastructure, the EU shall be involved in and invest in modern
ways of transportation like the Hyperloop, alternative and
cleaner
ways for propulsion of freight boats, ... Contrary to
accepting slowing down in certain
areas for High Speed Railroad Tracks, invest in real high
speed train tracks, South to North as well as East to West. Invest in
research for cleaner energy.
EU countries shall invest in EU made military goods like fighter
planes, marine boats, submarines, weaponry, satelites
and systems
rather than being dependent on countries outside the EU. Why
buy fighter planes from the US while also in the EU we can
manufacture and buy these?
EU countries shall invest more in EU made communication systems rather
than procuring them from outside the EU.
Benefit of the large numbers
Representing a huge internal market, the EU shall be making
much
more use of this and procure certain goods in mass
and divide
them over the member countries. This will be a direct benefit
for
all the EU countries and hence for the people.
END OF SCRATCHPAD
3. Common
systems and common way of operating.
While we already have a lot's of common systems, like a common European
currency, EU-norms and standards, and a common European
approach in mobile communication, we need more. More with
direct
benefits for the people living in the EU.
Public transport European chip card.
A direct benefit for people living in the EU will be a European
chipcard which can be used in each country to travel by train, metro,
or bus. Uniform check-in/check-out systems
accepting the
European chipcard next to the local cards. Charging the card
shall be via uniform charging machines, also in use for local cards.
Buying Cars.
It shall be possible to
buy cars in any EU country and drive them unlimited in another EU
country without
a re-assessment, import duties or taxes at the country of living.
European license plates
All cars bought in the EU, shall have the same license plates:
A European license plate.
Property
Buying and owning property shall be standardized in each EU
country.
Common border patrol
To protect our European borders we need to start to act like one
entity. It shall not be that every country on the outside of the
European borders is
left alone. All EU countries shall contribute in execution
of border
protection under a common European strategy.
Common approach for refugees and legislation on immigration.
Gains and Pains shall be evenly distributed across the EU countries.
It cannot be that certain countries do not take their share
when
it comes to the housing of refugees.
At the same time immigration is shall be controlled and be subject to
common strict legislation for the whole of the EU.
Illegal
immigration shall not be tolerated and shall be handled in a common
manner across the entire EU.
Common European army
When the common language pre-requisite is met, the way is paved
for a common European Army.
Common European Police
When the common language pre-requisite is met, the way is paved
for a common European Police.
European tax on labour and income
Why is there not a portion of European tax on a payslip? The
European people as well as companies in the EU also benefit
from
the European Union.
In order to standardize across the Union, slowly but gently taxes over
the various countries could be more unitized.
4.
European television, radio and internet channels.
People in the European parliament shall be more exposed to the European
people via news channels, internet and news media. Brussels
is
too often in the shadows and need to appear much more in the media.
Why not having a European broadcast for television,
radio
and internet channels? Naturally, in the English language.
5.
Transparency and accountability in the European parliament.
We need more transparency of costs, no more spilling of money
and accountability by people in the European government.
No more relocations to Strasbourg, the European capital is Brussel.
All people employed by the EU-parliament need complete
transparency in their
expense reports. Some simple rules which can all be written
on a few pages must
be publicly available. Personal expenses shall be approved by
an independent entity of the EU.
Projects subsidized by the EU must have a clear goal and not end up in
the middle of nowhere. Project teams to guide these projects
can
be established from the members of the European parliament.
The
European parliament need
to be
checked by a second counter-institution for forcing off
accountability, efficiency and to avoid shear spilling of
money.
Members of the EU parliament must be
hold
accountable for all the projects in the various European countries.
Full transparency is required to all the European people.
Consequences for people shall be there when a project turns out to be a
waste of
money.
Much more exposure by the European parliament to the people is
required. Nowadays there is hardly any news about European
politics.
A clear definition of long term goals for Europe is required. A
separate entity shall define goals for what we want to achieve
over
5 years, 10 years and 20 years. The European parliament shall be hold
accountable for the execution of these long term goals.
Members, chairmen and ministers of the European parliament shall be
chosen more directly by the
European people and not be made dependent on individual country
parties. It shall be possible for inhabitants of one country
to
vote for people from another country. The right wo(man) on
the
right place is the most important,
political back ground or country of birth shall not matter.
6. Environment.
Not only governments from all EU countries need to lead by example,
also local governments in a country.
As a start, all newly built
buildings for public or governmental use shall be built energy-neutral.
Examples are buildings for educational purposes like schools,
university buildings etc, research buildings, any (local) governmental
building, any indoor sporting facility, theatres museums, any
social community building, buildings for children care etc.
One environmental policy and measures for all countries part of the EU.
Discourage expanding businesses requiring fossil fuels for energy or
transporation. Growht shall be based on diverting into sustainable
energy generation or the use of sustainable fuel for tranportation.
In stead of creating new wild nature areas, divert to creating
new
areas for planting trees for a natural CO2 capture. Plant
vegetation for
biomass in order to produce cyclic biofuels.
Every country of the EU, every province, every city shall plant a
yearly minimum amount of trees.
7. Diversity.
By its nature, Europe consists out of various countries, various
languages are spoken and is therefore already diverse in itself.
Throughout history Europe has been a place where people migrated to and
from. In the modern era, this has been connected
with a large freedom in
speech, with democracy and an independent jurisdiction
from parliaments.
Europe shall be a place where people from various backgrounds and with
various religions shall feel comfortable, safe to live and work.