The trends I feel the most are the technological development and diversification of education. For me as a student, the need of education that can react to actual situation (on the market especially) is rising. That goes hand in hand with the usage of technology. Since the job market shifts towards digitalised environment, so is the education sphere. We all are learning how to make it work in a system which is hundreds of years old in some of the countries and it surely changes the character of education.
I do not thing the situation would change much in Europe over the next 20 years. The consumption will grow, the inequalities will widen and the demographic imbalances will become a real problem, mainly with governmental social programs in national countries. All the 14 mentioned megatrends are not addressed enough in my opinion; therefore, I think the evolution will follow the current pattern.
Those megatrends are a great threat to EU’s economical competitiveness. If we want to take steps towards sustainability, it means we are giving our opponents an opportunity to take our place in a particular part of the market – that is already happening. That situation is directly connected to EU becoming vulnerable to political influence from countries taking our economic places. That applies especially to China, with which we must have a relationship, but we can never be sure with their intentions.
Regarding my own field, which is electrical engineering, I find the biggest challenge that is occurring to make the renewable energy sources actually work without increasing the risk of blackout. Without them, the ongoing decarbonization through technological development cannot happen sustainably – or even safely. The energetic stability is crucial for EU (and also the world in general) to remain a stable region, considering several points of view.