The frontier between personal and professional life is getting blurry. The time we dedicate to work as well as where we work are getting confused. You might not be always working, you might be working intensively for a few months in a year, you might work for 10 years in your life. Paths of life are now far from unique. We cannot disregard the fact that flexibility is crucial to our modern world; wether it is forced or chosen for better or worse this flexibility became for many of us a way of life. For some it creates de facto a fluctuent and unreliable income, which is everyday’s headache as soon as you are looking for a flat, paying your taxes or social contributions. For others it encourages to choose a path “risk free”, following the safer path of life, out of fear. At the same time many activities essential to a functioning society are not gratified by any remuneration. When we invest time to take care of our community, your social contribution needs to be rewarded. I’m not contending there should be a remuneration there, but that we should, as social democrats recognise the social contribution made. That is why I believe that as progressives we should provide “law” to this new reality. It is important to adapt to this urge for flexibility in a part of the society but should not get abused by people confusing flexibility with legal insecurity; communities need legal safety to flourish and show their full potential. Legislations favouring involvement at the European level, with the definitive aim to provide for a minimum wage and an European Universal Income coupled with the recognition of harmonised rights; all are not just about fairness, it will simplify life of businesses and administrations all across the EU, by making sure that one internal market really means one.

Saying yes to the youngest continent on earth and making it our ally is not charity; the truth is, we might need it more than they do. In this changing world we need an inclusive partnership with high ambitions for the next generations. A partnership made of concrete cooperation based on common values away from the “post colonial business as usual type of partnership”. As socialists and progressives, I believe that we shall not let what the European Union inspires around the world to be tarnished by policies made of walls, fear and bigotry; we should insist on a partnership that looks with hope into the future and invest in it. If we want to be taken seriously, our ambition for this partnership should be visible in the next MFF, Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027). Currently under discussion, I believe it is our responsibility as progressives to carry a very clear objective: as a symbol it is unacceptable that we spend more on EU border management than on development aid in this next budget. At the same time, we should insist on a partnership of equals; the funding of international development aid should be a question segregated from the policies where we can find collaboration with African countries. We also need to reinforce the framework of our cooperation: it means a shared budget where both the European Union and the African Union contribute to develop specific policies in fields such as education, science, but also less traditional areas humain rights, space or tax cooperation and others. More important finally in my view is the substance of what should be our cooperation; we need to implement programs close to people, fostering grassroots cooperation of africains and europeans in lines with commons objectives; for example with young people in a joint volunteering program, with professionals in a designated field, with civil servants from relevant administrations, … .