The pursuit of intergenerational fairness could potentially help to depolarise the current tense political situation. Encouraging the creation of a shared and positive vision of the future could prevent policymaking from becoming locked into positions that can sometimes be reactive and highly focussed on the short term. It could ensure that due attention is being given to social cohesion and environmental regeneration.
To promote this, the Commission could co-host a series of workshops and focus groups - perhaps including a Citizens Assembly - both within the EU and internationally, with diverse participants. Collective exploration of the many different facets of intergenerational fairness and identification of common goals could help lay groundwork for constructive political discussions on matters such as rebalancing international trade and the global financial architecture, and refocusing economic objectives away from endless GDP expansion as an end in itself and towards collective wellbeing in a thriving environment (a ‘Wellbeing Economy’).
The EU needs the help of other parts of the world to succeed in this - and it can also provide enormously useful help to others. So the Commission would benefit from working in partnership with the UN and with other trade blocs or nation-states, building on the groundwork that has been laid at the Summit of the Future and by jurisdictions which already have Future Generations Commissions.