Versión pasapáginas AQUÍ.

The annual Report on the State of the European Union, born out of the collaboration between Fundación Alternativas and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, is back for its 8th consecutive year. This year’s report is inevitably marked by the elections to the European Parliament and the subsequent start of the new legislature, which is bound to be a crucial one in the trajectory of the European project. The optimism that has followed the results and the belief that we are at the dawn of a new political cycle within the EU are captured by the authors of the first chapter, who also emphasize the fact that Spain will have to play a fundamental part as a key partner of the Franco-German axis.

We approach this new cycle surrounded by the uncertainty of the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union, in the context of an international arena that demands further integration in the common security and defence policy, and with the internal difficulty posed by the consolidation of nationalist-populist governments in several member states. These are just a few of the challenges that the EU is facing and that are addressed by the authors of this report, which has the objective of presenting a multidimensional account of the state of the European project, which stands at a crossroads.

The situation is complex and the hurdles are numerous; nevertheless, there is also a widespread sensation that a window of opportunity has opened for Europe to set into motion certain political measures that have been postponed systematically. It is the right moment to spread ambitious ideas on how to better Europe: this report aims to contribute to the debate through the lucid analysis and proposals of its authors.

The VIII Report on the State of the European Union is composed of the following chapters:

• Prologue. The future of Europe (Josep Borrell)
• Introduction (Gero Maass and Diego López Garrido)
• Spain before a new European political cycle (José Candela and Carlos Carnero)
• More just. More social. Less unequal. What Germans expect from Europe (Frieder Schmid and Martha Posthofen)
• Emmanuel Macron: the end of an exception (Thierry Pech)
• Portugal. Uncertainty and diversity (Guilherme d’Oliveira Martins)
• Right-wing populism in the EU: a threat to the integration process (Klaus Busch)
• The difficult road towards a necessary European Federal Union (José Enrique de Ayala)
• The challenge of European citizenship: freedom, participation, welfare and culture (Domènec Miquel Ruiz Devesa)
• 2018: a year of slow progress in Eurozone reform (Víctor Echeverría)
• Social Europe ­– naming the myth, preserving the model and taking concrete action (Gero Maass and María Pallares)
• Global agreements on migration and refugees: challenges and proposals (Paloma Favieres)
• The United States: widening the breach with Europe (Vicente Palacio and Juan Antonio Pavón Losada)
• Protecting its citizens is becoming an ever more central part of the European Union’s job, with the development of the Common Security and Defence Policy and the implementation of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (Francisco Aldecoa)
• The uncertainties of Brexit: quo vadis, Britannia? (Mercedes Guinea)
• A Europe that protects Spaniards (Pablo Arnaldos)
• Recommendations (European Affairs Council of the Fundación Alternativas)