Macron's Manifest to a New EU between Populism and Utopia

• Author: Romeo Victor Ionescu, Monica Laura Zlati, Valentin Marian Antohi
• Position: Professor, PhD, Department of Administrative Sciences and Regional Studies, Dunarea de Jos University, Faculty of Juridical, Social and Political Sciences, Romania/Department of Accounting, Audit and Finance, Stefan cel Mare University, Romania/Department of Business Administration, Dunarea de Jos University, Faculty of Economics and Business ...
• Pages: 72-81

European Integration - Realities and Perspectives. Proceedings 2019

72

Performance and Risks in the European Economy

Macron’s Manifest to a new EU between Populism and Utopia

Romeo-Victor Ionescu1, Monica Laura Zlati2, Valentin Marian Antohi3

Abstract: The paper realises a critical approach on the latest President Macron’s political manifest. The

literature review in the paper and the economic analysis led t o different conclusions than Macron proposed.

The economic approach in the paper is based on comparative analysis and regression. The analysis takes into

consideration the four goals proposed by Macron: improving economic competition; protecting the EU values

and borders; improving social protection; and fighting against pollution and climate changes. This analysis is

supported by the latest official statistical data, by pertinent tables and diagrams. The main conclusion of the

analysis is that Macron’s reform document is just a political one. The economic reality points out that

divergence is greater than convergence across the EU27.

Keywords: regional disparities; economic performance; European competition; environment protection.

JEL Classification: R11; R12; R13.

1. Introduction

EU is in face of new important challenges. The Brexit becomes reality. This crisis was well quantified

under economic models (Blanchard, 2018). The refugees’ crisis is far a way of being solved and its

impact is more than was forecasted. There are a lot of divergent approaches about it (Rankin, 2018).

The future of the EU is not the same from all Member States’ point of view. As a result, the pr esent

becomes essential in finding solutions to the future. Some European representatives put into discussion

new developments in the EU: the multispeed EU; the different integration levels inside EU. Moreover,

France and Germany signed a special treaty in order to increase their economic power in the EU. This

treaty represents a new support for German economy development (Kooths, 2018) and for French

economy recovery (Baudchon, 2017).

On the other hand, the Visegrad Group’s countries have opposit e positions to many of the European

Commission’s decisions and try to find b etter solutions and positions in the regional organisation

(Chang, 2018). This organisation can become attractive to the future Member States (Serbia and

1 Professor, PhD, Department of Administrative Sciences and Regional Studies, Dunarea de Jos Uni vers ity, Faculty of Juridical,

Social and Political Sciences, Romania, Address: Strada Domnească 47, Galați, Romania, Tel.: 0336 130 108, Corresponding

author: romeo.ionescu@ugal .ro.

2 Department of Accounting, Audit and Finance, Stefan cel Mare University, Romania, Address: Strada Universității 13,

Suceava 720229, Romania, E-mail: sorici.monica@usm.ro.

3 Department of Business Administration, Dunarea de Jos University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration,

Romania, Address: Nicolae Balces cu Street, no. 59-61, Galati, 800001, Romania, E-mail: valentin_antohi@yahoo.com.