The #EU has to change its political and economic compass

Embraced with the ongoing debt and migration crises, the EU seems to have no choice but to change its political and economic compass, says Pino Arlacchi MEP.

Ironically it may be, but with integrity being its main value, The European Union is falling apart today. A huge debt of Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Cyprus and other EU’s members and their inability to repay it explains the attempts of those countries to boycott the Brussels’s regulations - write Olga Maliks .

Pino Arlacchi MEP

However, the current critical economic situation has a broader scope and expands beyond the EU. While Britain and Catalonia are pushing for the quit, other EU’s members are looking towards the East. As China’s economy is booming, Europe might account for a new very rich investor. Only over the last three years there’s been a number of lucrative deals including the $44-billion Chinese purchase of Swiss agrochemical giant Syngenta and Chinese participation in France’s PSA whereas Italy and France became the top investment destinations for China in 2015. Moreover, over the last years, the Balkan countries have tried to build direct trade relations with Chinese companies.

However, there is always the other side of the medal. Due to the Brussels’s strict regulations and tough bureaucracy it’s obvious that there’s almost no chance to receive the direct profit from the trade for a single EU country as all the revenues go to the “shared pot”. And while Greece should be one of the richest countries in Europe, its people have to work 7 days a week to pay out the debt to the EU.

According to Arlacchi, the solution is obvious: the EU needs to adapt its political and economic regulations to facilitate the trade relations between the EU members and the world. Continuing its China-oriented economic course, the EU should also look towards Eurasia, another top investment destination. Arlacchi also adds, that instead of the EU’s desperate efforts to build a dialogue with the controversial Ukrainian political regime Brussels and Germany should see a bigger picture and work on setting up a free trade zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok

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