And for example, in today’s world, one could quite rightly ask why we are not letting people vote from the age of 16, if basically in all Western democracies today’s pensioners keep living at the expense of the young generation.
And interestingly enough most highest offices are not selected by the simple majority and direct vote of the people, just think of the U.S. or Chinese Presidents, the Queen and the U.K.’s Prime Minister, the Swiss Government, the Pope, the Federal Reserve chairman or the SACEUR (Supreme Allied Commander Europe), and this list could be pretty endlessly continued.
«Europe is compromise embodied»
The new EU leadership will have to establish the EU as a more relevant and independent global player, and for that vision, resolve but also inclusion by compromise will be needed. The U.K.’s Prime Minister Theresa May was very right in her resignation speech that compromise is not a dirty word, at least not in a democracy. Europe is compromise embodied and has some work and challenges cut out to successfully position itself with regard to the geopolitical rivalry between the US and China.
U.S. President Donald Trump keeps burying the post-WW II order and ‘Pax Americana’ with all its intended and unintended consequences. As a result, the geopolitical power centers keep shifting and include the U.S., China, Europe and Russia, and these will become more accentuated and prone to friction.
«Europe is particularly exposed to tariff wars and disruptions in world trade affairs»
Europe is the world leader in free trade and its shared rules and institutions provide a high degree of underlying stability, but as a result, it is particularly exposed to tariff wars and disruptions in world trade affairs and has a vested interest to protect and advance the respective multilateral frameworks. Apart from those certain topics notably climate change and security have a distinctly global dimension and have to be dealt with as such. And at the same time, new breakthrough technologies will fundamentally challenge the traditional and global value chains of most industries.
