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2040's EU: The true and welcoming land of opportunities

Anonymous

April 26, 2023

2040's EU: The true and welcoming land of opportunities

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I hope and expect that our empathy for those from afar will increase in the next 20 years, and the international mobility of vulnerable people will not be as difficult and exhausting as it is today.

On the one hand, I would like 2040 to be a year in which those who are forced to flee their homes due to human or climatic catastrophes do not face unnecessary obstacles in their flight, resulting from prejudice and discrimination. I close my eyes and I see reception centres which respect and promote human rights, politicians that do not trade with border control measures, administrations that protect vulnerable people, laws that do not curtail human rights under any pretext or justification, and judicial systems that do not deviate from such red lines.

In addition, I also hope that those who cannot develop their full potential in their home country will be able to access the facilities we have in Europe, either to bring that talent back home or to stay in the EU. At present, the legal pathways to access the EU territory are mainly focused on people with higher education, entrepreneurs or people with some purchasing power. However, I believe that the ideal is to open up more circular migration channels through which those who do not have much can have a better future. This is not only "in our interest" because it would reduce irregular immigration, but I believe it should be an obligation, as a significant world power.

In my vision of an ideal 2040, mobility should be open to all - not a headache for those who need to flee or a utopia for those who cannot afford it.

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hallo
Ein besseres Europa
I would like to see a peaceful Europe where every nation state retains its sovereignty. The EU Parliament moves completely to Brussels to save costs. The citizens of Europe have a say and there are referendums. Politicians who allow themselves to make missteps consistently lose their immunity and are held accountable. They are also punished with possible prison sentences. There are no more public service media in Europe. Television stations and the media in general must finance themselves. There is freedom of expression in Europe. The respective constitutional protection agencies of the countries do not take care of unimportant things but really take care of the extremists. The politicians who misbehaved during the corona pandemic by being corrupt and embezzling massive amounts of taxpayers' money and making demonstrably false claims can now leave prison after serving long prison sentences. The former politicians will be paid the accumulated funds for their work during their time in prison. State benefits have been withdrawn from the politicians.
hallo
Die Pflege der Zukunft
A really interesting topic - what will Europe look like in 15 years' time? I'm 80 years old - I'll probably still be alive then, because life expectancy is increasing - also in terms of medical developments - and that's exactly where I want to start - it will probably be a few degrees warmer than it is now and humanity is adapting to this with new technologies. Medical care will probably be completely digitalized and we will be cared for by robots if necessary. I now ask myself whether the social and interpersonal aspects will not fall by the wayside.
hallo
Un monde en paix
What I want for the future is security, respect, a green and clean planet, a good education for children at school. Food autonomy. Strengthen our borders and our army. Cars with solar panels and houses with them. Recycle wastewater and desalinate. Put hedges back in the fields. Help our farmers adapt to changing crops. Encourage innovative companies.
hallo
transports collectifs
In 2040, if I'm still alive, I'll be almost 90. But, given my average health, I'll surely be dead, as will many other animals and humans, given current pollution and climate degradation, if it weren't for the murderous and warlike madness of the so-called humans who outbid us. But if we give up our egoism, in particular by abandoning individual means of transport such as the fossil-powered car or the all-too-easy airplane, we could develop numerous modes of public transport - trains, streetcars, buses and coaches - and recreate a dense enough network to encourage useful or leisure travel, as well as favoring transport by boat instead of airplane. All this can be developed by collectivizing the means to produce them. One of my grandmothers, almost 111, could still jokingly say: "I've lived through 3 centuries, the 19th, 20th and 21st", because she lived a healthy life, almost self-sufficiently with her husband, wounded in the 1914-18 war. On the other hand, at the age of 10, between the years 1900 and 1910, she remembered being amazed by her first automobile trip when a wealthy neighbor drove her 2 kilometers from school to home. At the same time, the students took turns carrying a log of wood in their bags to heat the school in winter. She would surely be sorry to know that today this "Wonder" has contributed to the destruction of the Earth. Or to learn, as I did, belatedly that the American industrialists of the early days of the automobile bought up public means of transport, only to abandon and destroy them immediately to develop their own financially juicy industries, and that the Europeans followed suit. My father, born in 1920, could still take 2 or 3 local trains or streetcars as a child, with connections, to travel 40 kilometers from Dunois to Perche-Gouët". We can recreate this spirit, this frugality and good living, even this joy of public transport.
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