Members of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion on the cost of non-Europe. They stressed that it is important in mapping a way out of the financial crisis, but also because it is crucial to the success of the Europe 2020 strategy and the next Multiannual Financial Framework.

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) adopted an opinion which proposes to revamp Mr Cecchini's study to reflect current circumstances: the cost of incomplete integration in the context of the economic crisis. In 1988, Paolo Cecchini drew up a study for the European Commission on the cost of non-Europe in relation to the single market. In May 2012, the EESC already stressed that the way to go out the crisis is to focus on growth and employment.

In this opinion, the EESC emphasises the cost of taking the wrong path: the cost of non-Europe. The Member States – under pressure from the financial markets and from new binding institutional rules – seem to be heading for a period of austerity that jeopardises the growth demanded by the financial markets. Faced with this downward spiral, which is reducing people to poverty and destitution, the EESC calls for decisive steps to pool expenditure at European level, thus creating a virtuous circle of growth.

The EESC calls for a full accounting of the cost of non-Europe and the impact on employment and growth, and for the Europe 2020 strategy to include objectives for reducing this cost, accompanied by a clear action plan and a systematic evaluation of its progress. According to the EESC members, it is a useful perspective from which to take forward the debate on pursuing European integration at a time of rising anti-European sentiment among citizens, growing populism and extremism.