Challenge 5+1 EU Reform

Vision for Europe

The European Union is our common project. Following centuries of conflict, we have managed to come together and build a union that has ensured peace and prosperity for over sixty years. We are proud of this achievement.

Yet, the Union is still waiting for its completion. We have seen how crises continue to strain our common project due to a failure to address the underlying issues, whether they are economic, immigration, energy, or security-related.

In an era where autocratic actors use European reluctance to expand their power and erode democracy around the world, timid steps toward integration are no longer sufficient.

Europeans have missed out on opportunities for sustainable economic growth. We could have recovered faster from the financial crisis, but EU countries stuck to their austerity plans and structural deficiencies, which were built on a lack of solidarity. We were unable to act decisively and quickly enough during the pandemic and Russia’s attack on Ukraine. We appear incapable of overcoming our reliance on energy from autocratic regimes, and we would be unable to defend ourselves without NATO, which has an uncertain future. Every year, thousands of immigrants die at our borders.

We hold politicians accountable for these collective failures because they prioritise their national interests over the interests of all Europeans. We are convinced that the EU requires a new foundation that allows European citizens, rather than national politicians, to make decisions based on their convictions.

In many regions, we have inefficient and opaque public administrations that are rife with corruption, resulting in high unemployment, impeding investment and the growth of small businesses. Larger corporations have benefited from easier market access and lower labour costs, but workers have not received harmonised social protections. Wealthy individuals and corporations continue to take advantage of legal differences between countries in order to avoid paying their fair share, leaving everyone else to foot the bill. In general, people do not feel represented in the Union and see decisions as being imposed from above.

Bolt arose from a crisis of European integration during a period of mistrust for joint endeavours. We came together to affirm the strength of the European project, our commitment to joint efforts, and our belief in our shared future. Our message is one of hope, audacity, and of solidarity. A message to all that the sirens of division will not demolish what we have patiently constructed. Bolt was founded to serve as a pillar of the European project and to revitalise its construction. Bolt offers European citizens a new vision of Europe, one that embraces our common aspirations while correcting our shortcomings. We believe in a Europe that balances the freedoms of its single market with strengthened social protections and inclusion, where companies and labour can move around freely and this flexibility is not detrimental to workers anywhere. As a result, our vision is that of a social Europe, which successive leaders have frequently mentioned but never implemented. We support a Europe in which citizens across the Union can come together to defend their common interests, where solidarity means supporting one another and accepting joint responsibility for our common future, where we actively support the development of our poorer regions and help raise their standard of living, and where citizens across the Union can come together to defend their common interests.

Institutional Reform and Governance

The reform of the European Union must start with the reform of its governance and institutions. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and the EU can no longer remain half-integrated and half-split, partly economically unified and sometimes politically nationalised. Therefore, the solution to the Union’s ongoing troubles is not a question of “more Europe” or “less Europe”,
but of a “better Europe,” including better institutions.

We believe in democracy; we believe that democracy is the best political system for protecting our individual liberties, human rights, and the rule of law.

As true believers in democracy, we cannot circumscribe it to certain areas of policy-making only; we must instead exercise it at the local level, at the national level, and at the European level. Living and delivering this very democracy, at all levels, is the key to restoring the trust of European citizens in their institutions and to finding common solutions to common problems. As we can already see in our national systems, democracy was never about agreeing—this is impossible—but about managing our disagreements and building a fair decision-making process that we can all support.

Expanding and ensuring democracy at the European level will require fund changes in our institutions: some we can achieve right away, others will require treaty changes. Bolt is fully aware of the difficulty of reforming EU institutions, but we will not be deterred from pushing for
reform in favour of more transparency, more efficiency, and true democracy. This is the only way to achieve a qualitative change and finally realise a federal Europe.

The proposals below are further detailed in Bolt’s adopted Provisions for a European
Constitution.

General principles

First and foremost, in the establishment of good governance and a good government, there are six guiding principles in the Bolt-Philosophy, which all institutions and organisational decisions must aim to embed in their foundation.

The legislative branch

The legislative branch is the most important institution in the democratic system. It expresses the voice of the people through their representatives. It must be elected democratically and be as close to the people as possible. It must be empowered to draft, discuss, and adopt our legislation. Despite national differences, this is a democratic requirement to which all European countries have long adhered, and enshrining democracy at the European level requires a similar arrangement.

The current state of the European legislature is limited in many ways. The European Parliament is elected directly, but its election modalities differ from country to country, and MEPs are often elected at the national level, not locally. Despite having increased its role among European institutions, the European Parliament still lacks the basic power to propose legislation. And, for its part, the Council of the European Union is made up of various configurations of national ministers depending on the topic under discussion and trumps the legislative power of Parliament. Finally, the European Council, an executive body whose role is limited to strategic decision-making by the Treaty of Lisbon, regularly intervenes in day-to-day decision-making, bypassing the regular legislative process.

The executive branch

The executive branch has the crucial role of guiding the implementation of laws and contributing to the policy-making process. In order to carry out its duties, it must be reformed to properly reflect
actions. popular opinion and be made more efficient in its

The Judiciary

The Rule of Law is an essential foundation of democracy and ensures that laws are compatible with our principles and values and, in particular, do not infringe on citizens’ fundamental freedoms.

Dispositions for European elected officials

Ensuring democracy and fair representation at question of institutions as it is of elected officials. the European level is as much a

Other provisions for good governance Following these main measures for improving European governance and institutions come supplementary provisions aimed at clarifying and facilitating the Union’s functionality.

Provisions for a European Constitution

Constitutional principles

In addition to the six principles guiding its reform of the European Union listed in the Mapping of Policies—democracy, subsidiarity, efficiency, transparency, clarity, and ease of citizens’ involvement—Bolt subscribes to the following principles for any constitution of the European Union.

Individual and collective rights

Institutions

Competences

A European Constitution should address the distribution of competences, including at least the following competences.

Economic and financial reform

Vision

Bolt envisions a European economic and financial system that benefits all European citizens and the entire European society. This means that the economic system should allow citizens to pursue their personal goals while also fully participating in European society.

Bolt believes that we can only thrive as individuals if we respect and contribute to a community founded on universal values. These values and principles, which include solidarity, sustainability, equal opportunity, liberty, justice, and human dignity, form the foundation of our community and must also apply to our economic and financial systems.

Bolt believes that a strong Europe requires fiscal and monetary institutions that are
(1) democratically legitimised,
(2) operate in accordance with our shared norms, and
(3) act in the best interests of the Union as a whole.
As a result, we envision the Eurozone’s institutional completion, resulting in a better Union for all residents. This includes the establishment of a European finance ministry, the right of the European Union to levy taxes, and an increase in the European Union budget to meet the European Union’s new responsibility for European fiscal stabilisation.

It is critical that we empower the European Union and its institutions to address the fiscal imbalances that we are currently witnessing. To that end, we must fight high legacy debt and complete the banking union. To that end, we propose a proportional transfer of debt across member states onto the European Union balance sheet, as well as a restart of binding fiscal rules, allowing flexibility to spend countercyclically in recessions.

In terms of its fiscal architecture, we believe in a European Union that remains true to its identity as a union of solidarity, with each country feeling responsible for the Union’s fate. In this sense, we must recognize that the fiscal policy of each member state has implications beyond its own borders. Our philosophy is that we want to reach a point where member countries can orderly restructure their debt in a partial default without a collapse of social standards for their citizens. To that end, European automatic stabilisers should be able to alleviate hardship during times of crisis, and the European Union should be able to act as an emergency insurer to guarantee basic functions, such as unemployment benefits and civil servant payment, if a state loses
its ability to do so. Because monetary policy and interest rates cannot be tailored to individual economic conditions in a currency union, the economic setup should smooth the accumulation of asymmetric shocks. To summarise, while European fiscal governance should always strive to serve all of its citizens, there must be a social safety net in place to protect the most vulnerable groups and ensure a minimum living standard.

Euro Summit & Eurogroup

With the creation of the European Monetary Union (EMU), the responsibility for monetary policy was transferred to a new European supranational institution, the European Central Bank, as a single monetary authority. However, decisions related to economic policy-making remained in the hands of national governments. This became particularly evident during the Eurozone crisis, when the Heads of State or Government and the 18 Ministers of Finance and Economic Affairs served as key policy-makers. Economic policy-making was mainly done at the intergovernmental level, excluding the scrutiny of the European Parliament and the involvement of the Commission or EU Member States outside the Eurozone. Institutional manifestations are, for example, the Eurogroup and the Euro Summit. The Eurogroup entails informal meetings of the Eurozone’s finance ministers and has played a decisive role in managing the Euro crisis. The Euro Summit is an informal platform for meetings between the Heads of State or Government of the Euro area.

European Central Bank

The European Central Bank’s (ECB) primary objective is to maintain price stability. We want to give the ECB more leeway in interpreting its mandate in the form of a dual mandate, which adds the target of full employment to the existing target of price stability. With the introduction of unconventional monetary and targeted bond-purchasing programs, the ECB’s mandate has been dangerously legally stretched, approaching what could be considered direct state financing.
We agree that these measures were most likely necessary to keep the Euro as a currency, but
we believe that, in a healthy European architecture, the ECB mandate should never
have been stretched so far.

Fiscal policy in the European Union

We support and welcome EU countries to adopt the Euro as currency as soon as possible, to raise its
standing as a potential world reserve currency. We find country-specific opt-outs from the Euro to be undesirable and welcome those member states that are not yet using the Euro with open arms.
It is a substantial problem of the European economic architecture that countries interact in the
common market, and share the same currency, but are not coordinating their fiscal policies. To alleviate this problem, we propose that the EU take a much larger role in economic cyclical stabilisation and that it receives the budgetary power to do so and taxation power to back such a budget.

European Stability Mechanism

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) is the Eurozone’s bailout fund and a key mechanism for its stability. It is currently run by national governments and thus works as an intergovernmental mechanism. Bolt supports the ESM becoming an institution under EU law accountable to the European Parliament. The transformation of the ESM should respect the following three key aspects:

Creation of an EU Finance Ministry

Currently, executive decisions in Eurozone and EU economic policy-making are being made in an opaque manner involving the Commission, the Eurogroup and Euro Summit. Instead of this plethora of competencies, we propose the creation of a European Economic and Finance Ministry, with the clear role of leading fiscal and economic policy in Europe.

Complete the European Banking Union

Financing conditions in the European Union differ widely between states. We want to ensure that an entrepreneur with an innovative idea can access funding under the same conditions anywhere in Europe. Thus, we deem it necessary that the long-promised “banking union” is finalised at last. This will involve solving the problem states and their banking sector being intimately linked through banks holding significant portions of their own government’s debt,
creating a situation where the failure of either of the two parties can easily lead to the failure of the other. This vicious dependency of banks and States is often called the “sovereign-bank nexus”. We support the established pillars of the banking union, including the single supervisory mechanism (SSM) with the ECB as the central prudential supervisor of credit institutions in the euro area and in non-euro EU countries that choose to join the SSM. However, the banking Union must be extended further through European portfolio insurance, empowering the European banking supervision, and the introduction of a European safe asset to break the “sovereign-bank nexus”.

Fighting Excessive Debt with European Fiscal Rules

High government debt levels in some countries have proven one of the most prevalent roadblocks to European integration, and the problem is very unlikely to
disappear on its own. Our proposal is for the European Union to issue its own debt, and take over a portion of its member states’ debt to achieve a manageable debt level once again. In return, new and binding fiscal rules shall be agreed upon and states adhering to such rules shall see further debt relief.

Justice & Home Affairs

Vision

Bolt wants a Europe that ensures citizens’ rights are respected throughout the Union. Citizens must be able to participate fully in the democratic process. This includes the right to vote for and stand as a candidate wherever they are registered as a resident, be it in local, regional, national, or European elections. Citizens must not be discriminated against on the basis of their nationality, sex, racial or ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability, age, or sexual orientation. Bolt wants a Europe in which citizens are able to move and reside freely. This is one of the four pillars on which European integration rests, and it is essential for a prosperous, free, and inclusive European society. To guarantee free movement internally, external borders need to be managed more effectively, efficiently, and humanely. This is a common challenge that should not be left to individual states, but one that Europe should take on as a community, respecting the common principle of solidarity.

Bolt wants a Europe whose Member States adhere to the principles of democracy and the rule of law, building on the European Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights. These principles are the bedrock of the political community: both aspiring and current Member States need to fully respect them,
and if they are violated, Europe must have the power to restore them.

Bolt wants a Europe that protects its citizens and makes them feel secure. Europe needs more than just police cooperation and intelligence sharing between member states; it needs its own capacities and legal competence to safeguard the security of its people. This is much more important than the sensitivities and prestige of national elites. At the same time, threat perceptions by political leaders should not be exaggerated; the level of objective security is unprecedented in European history, and it is the responsibility of political actors to act on objective facts and not exaggerate threats to pursue their own political agendas.

Border protection

The protection of European borders should become an exclusive competence of the European Union. Current national border protection should be integrated into a coherent and efficient European border protection system. The EU needs a political community that supports all its Member States when necessary to protect common borders. Bolt believes we must insist on a political community that ensures human rights are upheld throughout its jurisdiction, including on its borders and beyond. A functional protection of the EU border is a prerequisite for the free movement of people within the EU. Therefore, we want to create and support a system that upholds the integrity of EU borders, fights cross-border crime, and ensures the safety of European residents. We want an EU border protection system that provides initial reception of asylum seekers in an orderly and humane way, upholds European values, and makes sure that first points of contact with refugees exemplify what European citizens stand for.

European police, intelligence, and cyber security

Bolt supports the unification of national police, intelligence, and cyber security services across Europe, starting with automatic information-sharing to identify and address cross-border crimes and threats. As the EU’s law enforcement agency, Europol’s competences in these areas should be gradually extended,
its capabilities strengthened, and it should be brought under tighter parliamentary oversight. In the long term, the agency should develop into the EU’s federal-level police department.

Migration and refugee policy

Bolt believes that we need a common EU Migration and Refugee Policy to define a unified approach to manage inward migration and refugee flows. Member States
need to take major steps towards a common system to handle applications and appeals, resettle migrants among Member States, and return rejected applicants to their countries of origin. But there is more scope for the EU to use its leverage to sign readmission agreements with countries of origin or to support Member States in brokering readmission agreements. The EU can also deploy a wide range of incentives to secure readmission agreements, from visa policies to bilateral aid. This common policy approach should operate as part of a larger framework for international cooperation on the prevention and mitigation of refugee crises. This is why the Dublin system needs to be reformed and a new settlement system defined, for instance, based on population, population density, wealth, age, and growth. The amended system should provide for penalties for contravening countries.

Abiding by the UN Refugee Convention

A common EU asylum agreement must include binding mechanisms to ensure that all EU Member States follow the provisions of the UN Refugee Convention. This
includes:

Principle of country of first arrival

Other provisions

Foreign and Neighbourhood Policy Reform

Vision

Bolt believes that European integration is one of the biggest achievements in international politics in the 20th century. However, the ongoing destabilisation of the global order calls for a far more proactive and coherent EU foreign policy. Our vision is that of an outward-looking Europe that plays a constructive and stabilising role in the world and does not shirk responsibility but uses its political and economic weight to stand up for multilateralism, peaceful conflict resolution, and a coordinated response to global challenges such as nuclear proliferation, climate change, or economic
imbalances. The EU should tell its success story of integration and achieving peace and prosperity after centuries of conflict to promote integration and diffuse tensions in other parts of the world. Europe must be an example of how former enemies can become friends and partners in a common project and of how democracy can be organised beyond the nation-state for the benefit of citizens. The EU should encourage the replication of its success elsewhere through the promotion of regional integration across the world and support for multilateral institutions, most notably
the United Nations. At the same time, the EU must recognise that some challenges, including those in its own neighbourhood, cannot be solved in the short term or by the EU alone. Bolt thus supports the adoption of a two-pronged approach to increase its capacity to withstand crises it cannot solve in the foreseeable future while working within multilateral institutions and with key partners towards a solution to these crises in the longer term.
Apart from supporting multilateral institutions, the EU should also seek to engage bilaterally with key partners around the globe. For this, the European External Action Service (EEAS) should be strengthened and EU representations around the world should be transformed into EU embassies. Furthermore, the EU needs to step up its efforts to stabilise and integrate its immediate neighbourhood.

EU Institutional Capacity-Reform of the EEAS

EU relationships with the United Nations multilateral institutions

Highly connected to the rest of the world, Europe is also highly exposed to its lingering problems. Europe therefore stands to directly benefit from multilateral action in favour of increased development and a greater respect for human rights, in particular in the least developed countries.

The United Nations, through its work on the peaceful resolution of disputes, humanitarian aid, development, and global health, is the cornerstone of the
international system. Bolt shares and supports its values of peace, justice, human rights, and shared prosperity. It is by far the most legitimate actor for global action, with nearly universal membership. Yet, we are not blind to its shortcomings and the limitations triggered by its organisational set-up and financing mechanism. Bolt therefore supports reform efforts that better enable the United Nations to fulfil its ambitious mandate and give it the tools to act more decisively and more efficiently. As supporters of democracy, Bolt also believes that no transfer of power should take place without ensuring democratic control of those powers. Bolt therefore supports increased democratic control of the UN by its member states. Likewise, Bolt supports cooperation and multilateral action in other fora, from development and economic governance with the various “G” formats, the OECD, regional organisations, and international financial institutions, to security cooperation with the OSCE, NATO, and other ad-hoc fora with like-minded countries.

Relationship with the United Nations

Relationship with other multilateral institutions

Smart Power

We want to launch the concept of “smart power”. Essentially, it is about the balancing of hard and soft power. Certainly, the EU’s biggest contribution to the world scene so far has been its soft power, but its main weakness remains its lack of hard power. To avoid the historic mistakes of other superpowers, it is important that we strike a balance between hard and soft approaches to international relations. We must be vocal in supporting what is right. We must not yield to international bullying, and certainly, we must never be warmongers or gung-ho interventionists. Peace and stability are a priority, as is the minimising of international suffering. With that in mind, we strive to retain the soft power profile that has become the EU’s trademark, while consciously and strategically developing the EU’s hard power capabilities. It should also be highlighted that the EU’s famed soft power is insufficient in itself
as well. The EU must distil and crystallise its ability to be one foreign policy actor, with all the necessary tools provided to it.

EU neighbourhood policy

Bolt supports the principle of “more-for-more conditionality”. According to this concept, Bolt encourages closer ties with its neighbourhood, but conditions these ties on concrete reforms in line with the EU’s standards and values: more proximity for more reforms. Bolt encourages independent governance and democratisation reforms in the EU’s neighbourhood, including through reduced dependence on foreign powers. In particular, Bolt outlines five core elements: the promotion of our values (human rights, democracy, and the rule of law), energy security, trade and economic growth, migration, and crisis and conflict management. As it does more broadly through its foreign policy, Bolt calls on the EU to promote its values in neighbouring states and encourage them to pursue the democratic reforms necessary for accession to the Union. Beyond the issue of values, it is also in the EU’s own interests to be surrounded by stable democracies governed by the rule of law. Human rights violations must be strongly condemned and be considered a red line for accession to the EU. Bolt urges a rapid reduction of the EU’s reliance on non-renewable energy, especially oil and gas. In light of the Russian aggression against Ukraine and the resulting destabilisation of global supply lines, dependence on fossil fuels has become a threat not only to the environment but also to the strategic independence of the EU and its immediate neighbourhood. A core objective is the successful implementation of the European Parliament’s 2008 “20/20/20” plan, which focuses on an energy transition from fossil fuels to renewables and on the creation of a single energy market (the Energy Union). This measure would prevent foreign energy providers from pitting Member States against each other for cheap prices. 25 Similarly, Bolt advocates for the
EU to help achieve a reduction in the dependency on foreign energy suppliers in future member states and other neighbouring countries. Trade and economic integration should be further encouraged in the neighbourhood. Bolt aims at extending Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Areas (DCFTAs) to other parts of the neighborhood as a means to bring those countries closer to the EU’s standards in terms of food quality, economic diversification, and the rule of law.
Migration is a key factor to consider. In the Southern Neighbourhood, this mainly takes the form of migration across the Mediterranean through human trafficking; in the Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans, the main subject of interest here is visa liberalisation. As proposed in more detail later, Bolt supports using visa liberalisation as a soft power instrument in their Neighbourhood Policy. The many crises and conflicts in Europe’s neighbourhood need to be treated purposefully and individually. The EU should try to act as an intermediary in conflict resolution if requested by neighbourhood countries,
and, in that case, support mediation efforts between all parties involved and foster dialogue between them.

Western Balkan integration

Eastern Partnership

Southern Neighbourhood

Bilateral relations with Türkiye (Turkey)

EU China Policy

Human Rights

Bolt acknowledges that human rights are universal and inalienable, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated. Everyone is born with and possesses the same rights, regardless of where they live, their gender or race, or their religious, cultural or ethnic background.

Bolt refutes the alleged contradiction between economic and political rights and rejects the argument that governments can limit human rights based on national sovereignty. Therefore, Europe should:

Climate

In order to fight climate change more effectively, Bolt calls on the Chinese government to peak its emissions before 2030 and achieve net climate neutrality
by 2050, in line with the EU’s ambition. Both sides should cooperate on these issues.

Europe

Europe should:

Development Cooperation

Bolt supports the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and believes that the SDGs should be achieved while
respecting the environment, peace, justice, and gender equality. Therefore, Bolt urges Europe to:

Supply Chains, Trade Inequality, Technology & 5G

Bolt urges Europe to:

South China Sea

Bolt aligns its position on the PRC’s maritime claims in the SCS with the Tribunal’s decision. Specifically,

Taiwan

Bolt recognizes the achievement of the people of Taiwan in developing and maintaining their democracy and recognises the positive impact Taiwan has on
democracy in its region. Therefore, Bolt:

The future of China

The democratisation of China would not only be a historical achievement for the country itself, but also immensely beneficial for the world. An international
community where three great powers (Europe, China, and the USA) collaborate based on shared values to develop international justice and prosperity would
mark the start of an era of peace and stability. Therefore, Bolt urges Europe to:

Security and Defence Policy Reform

Security is a prerequisite for a well-functioning society. Security provides the basis for all other matters of governance and society, and sets the conditions for further development in all fields. It is a resource that the EU requires in order to guarantee safety, peace, democracy, and prosperity for all Europeans. For the past seventy years, citizens of Europe have lived in peace. EU Member States have known safety and security and have been able to develop in peace. Unfortunately, since the end of the Cold War, the European neighbourhood has known strife. The Yugoslav war raged in the Balkans during the 1990s. We have known social instability in the Maghreb, terrorism in the Levant and the Sahel, a war between Russia and Georgia, the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and, most recently, an open, full-scale war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine. The latter of which destroyed the existing European Security Network, as it existed until February 2022. Adding to this, cyber threats are on the rise, with state-sponsored attacks from Russia,
China, and North Korea. Instability and threats to European security, once thought long gone, have resurfaced, and the EU has not been able to respond to them, let alone resolve them. Further afield, other sources of tension or conflicts can also impact our way of life. About 18 percent of our natural gas and 21 percent of our crude oil pass through an unstable Middle-East, other resources cross the vulnerable straits of Hormuz and Malacca, and commercial traffic faces piracy threats in the Gulf of Guinea and around the Horn of Africa. NATO and the United Nations have tried to face these challenges, but have only done
so with limited success. Our future will be home to even more complex threats, and both organisations are unable to develop and adapt fast enough to new types of warfare or conflict. Neither can we keep counting on our American allies. The Trump administration has shown that this once-considered mainstay has become uncertain. In this challenging geopolitical environment, only one conclusion remains: the EU must be able to develop and maintain its own security and defence policy and capabilities. Other actors and organisations can be partnered with, but they cannot be expected to keep warranting European safety. Our security is European and requires European patronage.

Vision

A strong Europe must stand up for its citizens. The protection of our citizens, territory, and values is one of the core tasks of the EU, and one we can only accomplish by coming together. The universally acclaimed values recognised by the UN and the international community must be defended. In this complex geopolitical environment, it is up to our political leaders to tackle the challenges we face and ensure peace and security. These challenges do not end at
national borders and therefore cannot be appropriately and fully dealt with at the national level or by national institutions. Our respective security is the security of all Europeans, and the defence of the continent is the defence of all Europeans. As such, the only level where these challenges can be adequately dealt with is at the continental level. In the short term, the EU’s policy and cooperation on security and defence must be strengthened; in the medium term, the EU must achieve the integration of all its security and defence components. Future EU defence policy must aim to protect the EU and its citizens by constructing a common defence system capable of dealing effectively with threats both near and far. The pooling by Member States of their financial, human, logistical, and intelligence resources will be far more efficient and greatly improve safety across the EU. Overall, we must not lose focus on the ultimate goal of security and defence, be it local, national, or continental, to ensure our society and our citizens are free to strive
and prosper. Currently, national security policies, including military deployments and procurement strategies, focus too often on individual national interests and domestic political aims. Meanwhile, 75 percent of Europeans favour close cooperation between European armies, and 41 percent of them do not even see the need for the independent deployment of national armies. We believe that the security of European citizens takes precedence over individual nations’ or governments’ domestic political or economic agendas. In the end, only a united European security and defence policy can ensure permanent
security while operating on the most efficient, innovative, and impactful basis. Our vision for European security and defence has three building blocks:

(1) Democratic decision -making. European capabilities go hand-in-hand with European decision-making. Matters of European security and defence must be
decided at the European level, as part of the democratic and parliamentary process; no backroom deals between national governments will be allowed when it comes to the security of European citizens. European military capabilities must be directed by a European Central Command ( eventually under the responsibility of a European Ministry of Defence and under parliamentary control) following a common plan and a common military doctrine.

(2) A fully integrated defence force. Under this unique civilian command, there must be one European military force for the assurance that Europe can independently respond to conventional and non-conventional threats to its territory and population. This must include expeditionary forces that will, whenever necessary, act autonomously, as part of a comprehensive security approach and across the spectrum of war. This approach also includes peaceful instruments of conflict resolution (e.g. humanitarian operations, military assistance, peace enforcement, peace building, disarmament, and state building). While command structures will be unified, integrated European military forces will be disseminated across the continent and European citizens will be able to enlist irrespective of their country of origin.

(3) Create a common security culture. Events in recent years have shown cracks in classical security theories. On the one hand, 9/11 reminded us that we do not only face governmental actors. On the other hand, the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine and the emergence of China as a major military power that seems willing to use its military to assert illegal territorial claims show that geopolitical conflicts between states have not ended and that the world has
become increasingly multipolar and fragmented. Collective defence scenarios have resurfaced. We cannot prepare for a single type of military engagement but must be ready for all types of military actions at the same time, be it to ensure our own defence, act under a UN mandate, or implement the Responsibility to Protect principle. Armed forces have to simultaneously prepare for expeditionary counter-insurgent interventions (such as in Afghanistan and Mali), military assistance (as in Niger and the Democratic Republic of the Congo), conventional wars, and large-scale cyber attacks against civilian and military targets. Rapid changes, including the withdrawal of the US from collective security and the emergence of new powers, must be closely followed. These
challenges require a flexible and forward-looking European security and defence doctrine to replace the current mosaic of national policies. We require real security, not a false sense of security. In practice, security measures often make us feel safer but limit our rights and freedom without increasing our actual safety. Bolt calls for the development of a common European security policy: a system that provides a workable framework for European defence. This includes a system of checks and balances to limit the scope of security policy in European society while allowing us to build European capacities to participate swiftly and impactfully in global assignments, with the explicit goal of acting within existing global conventions and principles,
respectfully of the rule of law and humanitarian law, and, whenever possible, as part of UN-mandated missions.

Bolt supports the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and supports the global disarmament of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. While pursuing disarmament to the fullest extent possible through these means, Bolt supports research and development in the field of defensive systems against cutting edge delivery nuclear warhead delivery systems. As for the current European arsenal of nuclear warheads being owned by France, in
the long term, Bolt naturally supports the Europeanisation of this arsenal once European security forces are united under a single chain of command overseen by a functioning European democracy. Until this point, France will maintain its nuclear arsenal. Given growing concerns about the US’s long-term commitment to European security, the European Union must seek adequate methods of deterrence, offensive and defensive, to provide for its own security going forward.

Democratic Decision-Making

Military actors may only act in the name of the political institutions to which they owe their loyalty. In return, these political institutions provide the military apparatus with the required means to perform their tasks and provide them with a place in society. Military and civilian institutions should always be interlinked.

Integrated European Defence Forces

Permanent operational headquarters (OHQ’s) should be under the oversight of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
and an elected representative of the EU Parliament. ( similar to the North Atlantic Council ).
In the event of a military emergency, the OHQ must act to stop this emergency. The mandate for this is limited by the duration of the emergency and until the
EU Parliament or the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy intervenes.
Finally, permanent OHQ’s countries. can serve as a link to various organisations and/or

Relationship with other security actors