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PRIORITY

Quality: A Europe that matters to people

Our Europe is a place built by and for everyone. In difficult times, we must deliver on what really matters to its citizens. We want Europe to make a real difference for people. We want to ensure that everyone, no matter where he or she lives, has access to good healthcare. We want an ambitious climate policy that brings all citizens on board and leaves a better planet for future generations. We want the best innovations and the most effective market mechanisms to make sure that Europe develops ideas, tools and products that make a difference for the whole world.  Europe must not go alone: only with our partners can we meet our global climate targets. Our capacity to innovate and our social market economy are our best resources to achieve this goal. Europe must be the place where business and research together make people’s lives better. At the same time, we support our businesses, farmers, and fishers, ensuring their competitiveness and providing the conditions to create quality jobs and secure access to affordable food for all Europeans. We want to build a Europe that delivers on what truly matters: people’s well-being, a sustainable future, and boundless opportunities.

Quality: A Europe that matters to people

Protecting

  • Our farmers, rural communities, and fishers as key strategic sectors for the quality and affordability of food for all Europeans and for the preservation of our countryside, rural areas and waters. For this, an ambitious CAP reform combined with an increased budget to achieve a sustainable transition will be crucial. We are the political force that delivers high-quality food and lively rural areas and provides farmers with a credible perspective.
  • Our environment, achieving the 55% Co2 emissions reduction target, while being even more ambitious and reaching climate-neutrality by 2050 at the latest.
  • Europe’s resilience against droughts that jeopardise our farmers’ jobs and our food security with a European plan for water use, reuse, and storage and intelligent sharing so that Member States can support each other when one is in need. We must make the EU water smart
  • Access to high-quality education for all Europeans by strengthening the European Education Area, ensuring a more consistent recognition of professional and educational qualifications across the EU, enabling secondary school students to easily attend school in other Member States, greatly expanding the Erasmus+ program and developing DiscoverEU.
  • Our European way of life by strengthening the cultural and creative sectors with a Digital Museum of European Culture, connecting all main museums around Europe, and by creating museums of European history in different parts of Europe.
  • The quality of EU decision-making, ensuring transparency of decisions and the sound management of European funds.

Creating

  • A true European Health Union to deal with cross-border threats, improve the resilience of health systems, prevent medicine and medical device shortages, become the world leader in pharmaceutical innovation, improve childcare, and make sure that Europe is ready to deal with the next pandemic. We want to see the European Beating Cancer Plan fully implemented, keep jointly investing in research and innovation, and develop a true European Health Data Space. We want to ensure the same quality of healthcare for all EU citizens, no matter where they live in the EU
  • A European Cardiovascular Health Plan, with concrete objectives, timetable, benchmarks and funding, including a specialised European Knowledge Centre, to reduce cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in the EU, which kills twice as many women as every single cancer combined and it is the biggest killer of infants under the age of 1.
  • An EU research-computing centre to simplify the exchange of findings and data across Europe, while realising the European Research Area (ERA) to unleash the research potential and economies of scale of European cooperation, including the harmonisation of legal standards in the field of research.
  • A stand-alone portfolio on fisheries in the next European Commission. Fisheries is a key sector for European food supply, and it is crucial to reduce our dependency on imports.
  • A 'sunset clause' in EU legislation, where appropriate, so that a law ceases to exist unless further action is taken to ensure that the legislation remains up-to-date. The European Commission should also periodically check that existing legislation does not contradict each other.
  • A new competence catalogue/check for institutions, identifying main common goals, while also considering competencies that can be transferred back to Member States.

Strengthening

  • Our climate and environmental policy by making the European Union responsible for negotiating and concluding international environmental agreements with third countries.
  • Our farmers to ensure quality and affordable food for all Europeans by investing in agriculture as a high-tech sector with a European moon-shot for precision farming, integrated pest management and robotics that would optimise productivity while reducing inputs, costs and emissions. We also want to ensure that the agricultural and fisheries sectors remain attractive for the next generations of young farmers and fishers.
  • Europeans’ well-being with high living standards, quality of life and equal opportunities with a strategy for sustainable economic growth.
  • Our European democracy by giving the European Parliament the right to initiate EU legislation and elect the President of the European Commission, similar to the right of other national parliaments in the Member States. The President and European Commissioners should pledge to respect a coalition agreement before receiving the EP’s confidence.
  • The voice of Europeans by letting them choose the European Council President by direct election. This will provide a direct link between citizens and the EU institutions, strengthening European democracy.
  • EU power to deliver with a “right to step in” of the European Union, in clearly defined areas that fall under its competence, to ensure Europe delivers when necessary.
publications 27.03.2024

Modernisation agenda

Explore the priorities of the EPP Group's Modernisation Agenda for a united and secure Europe with economic strength and social responsibility. We want to ensure that every European, regardless of their background, has a fair chance to earn a living...

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