The state of our union: Confronting the future

Abstract

The European Union urgently needs to address and confront four challenges: (i) how to move ahead with the difficult relationship between surveillance and freedom; (ii) how to prioritize the issue of migration at times when the Mediterranean tragedy cries for immediate and effective answers; (iii) how to tackle the challenge of climate change, including through a radical rethink of energy policies; and (iv) how to meet the expectation that Europe should be the one player in world politics that can be a value-based actor, promoting global justice. The answers offered to these challenges include (i) replacing mass surveillance with such forms of targeted surveillance that are triggered by other methods than mass surveillance or discriminatory profiling; (ii) creating multiple and sufficient channels for safe and regular migration into the EU; (iii) moving from an oil-based economy to the use of solar energy in a manner that facilitates autonomy, equality and democracy besides addressing climate change; and (iv) adopting a strategy for global justice that meets the requirements of being universalist, principled, honest, and coherent, all of these at the same time.