ZARZALEJOS WELCOMES STUDENTS FROM THE UNIVERSIDAD FRANCISCO DE VITORIA TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

On 20 November, MEP Javier Zarzalejos welcomed to the European Parliament in Brussels a group of students from the Master’s in Political Action at the Universidad Francisco de Vitoria, young people particularly concerned about their future and about the political direction of Spain and Europe. During the meeting, Zarzalejos outlined a demanding panorama for the European Union, marked —as he explained— by a “wave of Euroscepticism” in an international context full of tensions.

He recalled, however, the historical strength of the European project and its success as a model of cooperation, even as it faces a central challenge today: maintaining its democratic vitality in the face of rising populism, institutional weakening, and increasingly fragile national governments.

The MEP expressed his concern about the renationalisation of key policies and the weakening of the roles of the Commission and the European Parliament after the pandemic, when parliamentary life was nearly paralysed. In this context, he identified the Rule of Law as a top-tier concern and criticised Brussels’ excessive leniency towards breaches observed in countries such as Hungary or Spain. Nevertheless, he stressed that for countries like ours, the EU remains essential: it is a space where legislation is crafted with rigour, where agreements are reached, and from which strategic challenges such as Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, migration, or social integration are addressed. Despite the difficulties, Zarzalejos insisted, the Union retains a unique quality: its ability to reinvent and refound itself — an idea the students took away as a reminder of the role their generation will have to play in the Europe of the future.