| Popis: |
This paper argues that overcoming the imbalances and inequalities between Member States is a public good for the European Union as a whole. The overcoming of inequalities between Member States will result in reducing the economic and social inequalities within Member States (not vice versa) and will lead to sustained economic growth through the increase of demand and consumption and thus boost the wellbeing of the citizens of the Union as a whole. It is also argued that the overcoming of the inequalities between Member States is only possible through a targeted reform of EU’s economic policies. In this perspective, some of the proposals on the future of the EU are analysed in terms of their impact on existing inequalities in the EU. The role of the policy of economic, social and territorial cohesion is highlighted as the main, and so far the most effective, instrument for overcoming economic imbalances and inequalities in the EU. The paper proposes a reform of secondary legislation on cohesion and other EU internal policies with redistributive effects which involves a change of paradigm so as to achieve solidarity through automatically applicable legal mechanisms rather than through bargaining between Member States or discretionary decisions by executive or expert bodies – as an expression of the rule of law and not as governance through conditionalities and sanctions. More specifically, the paper proposes a reform of the system of EU's own resources by introducing progressivity, with Member States’ GNI contributions increasing or falling according to a coefficient reflecting the deviations from EU average values for GNI per capita, employment and trade balance for each Member State. Similarly, changes are proposed for the principles of financing and co-financing of cohesion and other policies with redistributive effects, with deviations from EU average values as basis for progressivity in the co-funding of programmes by the Member States concerned. It is suggested that the basic principles and formulas for such reforms should be agreed before work on the preparation of the next Multiannual Financial Framework begins |
