Notre Europe's viewpoint | 08/07/2009 

This formula comes from the intuition that the EU's legitimacy depends on its ability to find a political balance between economy, geography and citizenship. Yet, over time, legitimate concern for the principle of subsidiarity has metamorphosed into pernickety criticism of all new initiatives. Prerogatives are defended zealously, sometimes at the expense of other ones, and have fed a generalised fear that "Brussels is interfering in everything". This triangulation has become mission impossible.

Over the next six months the new actors and rules of the European game will fall gradually into place. Now is the time to clarify the issues and to put forward proposals.
The Barca report attempts to do this, suggesting a rebuilding of Europe's development policy around its geographical dimension, as Marjorie Jouen explains in her note (only in French).
Rural development is another such challenge for the European Union - one that affects 20% of the EU's population and more than 50% of its territory. As Chiara Tomalino and Nadège Chambon remind us, this challenge has been met in stages, by an aggregation of increasingly sophisticated measures which together have created a "policy" for rural areas. According to Marjorie Jouen, this accumulation has deficiencies which make a genuine common strategy necessary.
To understand the situation fully, it must not be forgotten that all reform of these policies is subject to a budgetary precondition. The EU's potential momentum - or, alternatively, the restraint it will need to exercise - will depend largely on the financial and organisational margins for manoeuvre. These will be determined during the negotiations over a new budget. It is with this in mind that Notre Europe has launched an online debate concerning the reform proposed by Iozzo, Micossi and Salvemini.