Europe is presently in a deplorable state. Among other things, it suffers from the fact that:
- ◦ young Europeans are unemployed, while some older Europeans do not have enough income to live on
- ◦ Sinti and Roma are denied citizenship or corresponding privileges in parts of Europe
- ◦ starving, freezing people are being turned back at European borders
- ◦ European states are failing, largely the fault of their bankrupt banks
- ◦ the EURO, which after all is merely a unit of currency (but one with huge symbolic importance) is being used as a punching bag by some politicians who are failing to deal with our debt crisis
- ◦ money moves about more or less anonymously, destroying entire economies. Taxes cannot be used to benefit people because they are must be sidelined to bail out budges
To state matters succinctly, Europe suffers because it is failing to grasp its opportunities, even though the solution to its problems is virtually in front of us and needs only to be grasped.
Europeans! Citizens of Europe! Join Hands!
A Europe of Europeans can in fact become a reality, if we take the following steps:
- 1. Europeans write and ratify a European Constitution by popular vote. States that do not wish to be part of this new Confederation can still join in in the future if they choose to do so, again by popular vote. The purpose of this procedure is to establish a United States of Europe – a democratic, free, social federal state or confederation.
- 2. On the basis of this charter, European wide institutions will be created.
- 3. A European Debt Fund I will be created to consolidate all existing debts of member states. Existing national debts will cease to exist. In the future member states will be able to incur debts only through the vote of the European Parliament. This European Debt Fund will be amortized by the taxes levied on all Europeans, collected in a fair and socially conscious way. All such taxes will be required to be just and reasonable.
- 4. In addition, a European State Investment Fund II will be created. It will be financed by investors world-wide. With its resources it will underwrite European-wide projects dealing with the environment, European railways, bio-friendly agriculture, social housing, and research and development in environmentally-friendly projects.
- 5. These projects will serve to expand employment and improve infrastructure in a sustainable fashion, but also to attract solid investment, guaranteeing it a fair return. Money that currently migrates irresponsibly from place to place, destroying whole economies, will instead serve the general welfare.
- 6. The European Debt Fund I and the European State Investment Fund II will be established in the European Constitution.
Karl Marx theorized about and dreamed of a very distant and indistinct. But our Europe is no longer so far away from us!