Abridged Version of the Final Statement from Le Cercle des économistes 19th Edition of Les Rencontres Économiques d´Aix-en-Provence

- Business Wire

This final statement from Le Cercle des économistes is a call to reason, to greater lucidity and to action in the face of the great disruptions of our time. We see a generalized loss of trust, which we believe can only be re-established through actions in five major fields.

(Graphic: Business Wire)

1. To recreate social cohesion and bring territories back together

- We ask that the government organize a conference on the subject of employment opportunities in the future, with all social partners and political parties present;

- Encourage all levels of governance to regularly call on citizen conventions, for which participation should be mandatory and partly determined by a random draw;

- We ask that regions become the architects of major plans for education and training, which they will finance through the transfer of production taxes to their competencies;

2. To reclaim our lives

- Establish, protect and respect independent institutions whose mission is to inform the general public and create a permanent body for fact checking. We also ask that the Banque Publique d'Investissements create a fund dedicated to startups in the field of fact checking;

- Start a debate in Europe on the refusal of any form of a monopoly in the treatment, stocking and sharing of data, leading to a possible dismantlement of large technology firms;

3. To create a project-based Europe

- Create a Franco-German agency for cooperation on projects for breakthrough technologies;

- Modernize European commercial policy by centering it on competitive issues and by working towards a 'climate club' which could establish incentivizing taxation measures at its borders. We also ask that the EU/MERCOSUR agreement not be put into provisional application;

4. To rekindle new forms of international cooperation

- Launch a Geneva Congress, on the subject of new approaches to international cooperation;

5. To ensure security in tomorrow's world

- Finance the ecological transition either through a great loan financed and guaranteed by the European Union, or by taking advantage of the low and potentially decreasing interest rates on debt;

- Prioritize the treatment of ocean waste on a global scale at the upcoming COP25;

- Form a partnership between Europe and Africa with the objective of increasing access to water and electricity threefold in Africa in the coming 15 years;

- Establish an international conference on cybersecurity, which clearly defines what can be considered a critical digital infrastructure and forbids any attack on them.

Please find below the full statement: Lesrencontreseconomiques.fr