Editorial Board
What’s the EU For? Its Leaders Need a Better Answer
If they don’t produce a new long-term budget commensurate to the bloc’s challenges, they might not get another chance.
Last chance.
Photographer: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images
What’s the European Union for? Every seven years, its leaders formulate a quantitative answer when they set out the bloc’s long-term budget. Now more than ever, they need to get it right.
The EU is facing some of the greatest challenges in its history, including defending against a belligerent Russia, combatting climate change and making the investments required to boost lagging competitiveness. Yet individual countries lack an adequate incentive to deliver such crucial public goods when the benefits extend beyond their borders.