Happy Europe Day 2023!

Kaila joins in the celebrations for Europe Day 2023 and reviews the EU’s priorities for action

73 years of successes and some mistakes are cause for celebration. Every May 9, the European Union celebrates Europe Day to commemorate the Schuman Declaration of 1950, which laid the foundations for the whole of the European Union.

In this Europe Day 2023, the European Union is therefore committed to holding face-to-face and online events so that citizens can learn more about what the European Union is, the democracy it defends and its lines of action. It also holds open days so that people can visit the headquarters of its institutions in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

Each year the European Union chooses a key theme to raise public awareness. This year it will celebrate the European Year of Skills, with the aim of improving the skills and qualifications of European workers. But beyond this action, the European Union has several priority lines of action in 2023:

Support for Ukraine

Faced with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union adopted a unanimous and forceful response of condemnation and rejection. Throughout this time it has shown its support for Ukraine with political, financial and humanitarian aid, and its military support already amounts to 5.6 billion euros.

REPowerEU

Related to the previous point, REPowerEU is the European response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting disruption of the global energy market. REPowerEU is a set of financial and legal measures to build a new energy system that is not dependent on Russian fossil fuels. The aim is to accelerate the energy transition and achieve this energy independence by 2030. The pillars of REPowerEU are diversification with alternative energy sources to gas, oil and coal; energy savings for all European citizens; and massive investment in renewable energy.

NextGenerationEU

It is the grand recovery plan designed to revive Europe’s economy and society after the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. In total, more than 750 billion euros for the period 2021-2027, with the aim of achieving digital and ecological transition, equality and territorial cohesion in all Member States. And in 2023, many of the projects funded by NextGenerationEU are already well underway.

Global Gateway

The European Union is not forgetting to forge closer links beyond its borders, which is why it has created Global Gateway, an infrastructure partnership with its partner countries. Up to €300 billion in investments will be mobilised for sustainable projects in line with the UN 2030 Agenda, focusing on Latin America and the Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific. It aims to create smart, clean and secure connections in the digital, energy and transport sectors, and to strengthen education, health and research systems.