Future prospects. Vademecum to address EU policy and political challenges

The EU is still trying to find a way out of its multidimensional crisis. The year 2012 has seen efforts to develop a coherent exit strategy, but long-term challenges still exist, and more efforts are needed to effectively address them. This concluding chapter provides, on the basis of the main findings of the present edition of ‘Social developments in the EU’, some further reflections on the future of the European Union. Firstly, we consider the more political contributions, coming from European think tanks (such as the European Council of Foreign Relations, Policy Network, Notre Europe, the European Institute of Washington, etc.) and from political figures (cf. Cohn-Bendit and Verhofstadt, Delors) who have expressed their concerns as to the future of the EU. We also discuss those with a more economic reading (from commentators and think tanks of different politico-ideological colours, such as Bruegel, the Centre for European Policy Studies, Social Europe, Vox.eu, etc.). The vademecum introduced in Section Three is not to be viewed as a comprehensive set of solutions to the problems faced by Europe, but rather as a menu of potential policy and political measures to further develop intellectual and political debate (which includes the trade union movement as one of the key actors). It is a roadmap for policymakers, stakeholders and intellectuals, to contribute to their future dialogue.