New Concept for Europe

The 'Renew Europe' report presents a consultative vision for the continent's future, focusing on a human-centric approach to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the revitalization of liberal democracy, strategic security autonomy, holistic migration management, and the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement.

• The Fourth Industrial Revolution presents a risk of widening social and economic divergence, with an estimated $1.9 trillion in wages and 62 million workers in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom associated with technically automatable activities.
• To address the need for continuous reskilling in a digital economy, the report proposes a 'Universal Right to Learn' (URL) system where the EU provides adult citizens with tokens redeemable for skills training, funded by employers through a quota-based scheme.
• Trust in European institutions is declining, with 72% of Europeans believing the EU is 'heading in the wrong direction' and 68% saying the same of their national governments.
• The report suggests a 'Digital Democracy Compact' to establish commitments from the technology sector to strengthen democratic principles, alongside a proposal to lower the EU voting age to 16 for European Parliament elections.
• Europe faces fragmented security capabilities despite a combined defence spending of €227 billion in 2016; the report advocates for 'strategic autonomy' and proposes a 'SeCURE Cities' initiative to link urban areas facing similar violence and terrorism threats.
• Europe's migration policy is viewed as insufficient for attracting necessary talent, despite a projected decrease in the working-age population of 42 million between 2013 and 2050.
• To improve the management of asylum flows, the report proposes a common digital identity for refugees and asylum seekers to prevent individuals from being lost in the bureaucratic system.
• While Europe is a leader in the transition to lower-carbon energy, it remains heavily dependent on fossil fuels and suffers from significant energy inefficiency, such as wasting one-third of the food it produces.
• The report proposes that energy data ownership be transferred to consumers to optimize supply and demand matching, and suggests a goal of zero-emissions new buildings by 2030.

APA

World Economic Forum (2018). New Concept for Europe. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Renew_Europe_report_2018.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. New Concept for Europe. 2018. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Renew_Europe_report_2018.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=New Concept for Europe |date=January 2018 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Renew_Europe_report_2018.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2018new, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{New Concept for Europe}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2018}, month = jan, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/Renew_Europe_report_2018.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }