Hello everyone, I would like to speak to you today about the challenges and opportunities faced by the youth of Europe in our time. Our generation, much like every other, stands at a crossroads, where our actions and decisions will uniquely shape the future of this Union.

Ignorance and discontent. Young people believe that political decisions do not affect them. That life goes on and their future will not be compromised by the current decisions made by the authorities. Despite the fact that nothing could be further from the truth, widespread disaffection for the political class is the norm. The youth is not showing up, feeling that their future has been written in stone without their input. Today we feel compelled to explain here why their disaffection, our disaffection, is justified.

In the economic sphere, all member states incur debt and it is considered not only acceptable but necessary. Year after year, countries build their budgets assuming a generalized deficit, committing us, the future generations, to pay it off. How much more must a country’s debt grow before we start reducing it? Under what assumptions should we contemplate a significant economic reform that prevents the destruction of the middle class as we know it?

None of the pro-European parties provide a monetary explanation for the inflation experienced after COVID-19, which led to a consequent loss of purchasing power. No one adjusted income-based taxes for inflation when it happened. Was a tax increase necessary? If it was, why didn’t the political parties address it during the election campaigns?

Moreover, the European Central Bank plans for an annual inflation rate of around 2%, all without tax adaptation. This raises the question: How many taxes are too many? At what point do taxes stop being paid solely by the wealthy and start turning a country’s economy into an extension of the state’s? At the end of the day, How big should the state become until it is considered too big? The size of our governments in terms of GDP has more than doubled in the last half century, while prices have soared and income levels have not proportionally increased. The question the youth raises is simple: What have you done to end up like this?

It has always been argued that the indiscriminate printing of money by central banks was because the technological innovation of the present would help the economy of the future. In the XX century, the major scientific achievements of the world were done at this side of the ocean. Now, over the last decades, where is the innovation in the European Union? What scientific and technological discoveries can be attributed to the countries in it? Of the major global information technology companies, How many are European? As hard as reality is, we need to admit that we are not competitive across the world anymore. We are seen as a consumer market with no real contributions to the general well being of our neighbors. We pride ourselves on our lifestyle while turning any moderately successful industry into a regulatory hell that stifles any possibility of progress.

Our generation perceives a lack of a sustainable, long-term strategy for Europe to maintain its competitiveness globally. The term “The Old World” is becoming synonymous with relying on historical achievements, raising concerns about how long this approach can sustain the current standards of living or worse, if it is worthy of Europe’s past as the epicenter of the globe.

If we look outside our borders, It would be foolish to think that in our lifetime, the challenges we see in the present won’t attempt to erode the civil liberties we currently enjoy and look after. As future stewards of Europe, we must face these challenges resolutely and affirm that civil freedoms can endure through our determined actions. Given the current dynamic where Europe is economically reliant on its adversaries, do we have the logistical capability to morally confront those who threaten us? At what cost?

It is our mission not as young, but as Europeans to maintain our home as a place where people come in search of the scarce opportunities of the world. What we need are not empty sustainability promises but a culture of long-term responsibility regarding the assets that our parents and grandparents built throughout the 20th century. Let’s work together to create a Europe that doesn’t just make promises to its youth but delivers them, or at least, leaves a situation where the grand challenges of our time are being tackled. In any case, we should never abdicate our responsibility as citizens to right the wrongs of the world to the extent of our possibilities. Aaron Sorkin wrote: Decisions are made by those who show up.

Thank you.