Roundtable - EU beyond tomorrow – Barroso’s proposal for the next Commission

On 7 September 2009 the Centre for European Studies organised an open roundtable discussion with the President-designate of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso. The event titled EU beyond tomorrow – Barroso’s proposal for the next Commission took place in the European Parliament with the participation of the high level panellists and more than 200 guests and visitors, many whom are prominent MEPs.

It was the first public presentation of Barroso’s political guidelines for the next 5-year mandate and the first opportunity for representatives of renowned European think-tanks to examine the guidelines presented by their author.

The event was opened by CES’ Director Tomi Huhtanen who underlined the challenges the EU and Europe were and still are facing on various fronts, as well as the importance of wider public engagement in the European project, with the special emphasis on the role think-tanks, NGOs and foundations are to play in bridging the gap between citizens and European politics.

In his introductory remarks, the President of the European People’s Party and CES Wilfried Martens reminded that the European Union was built on 3 main values as its pillars – freedom and responsibility, justice and solidarity and welcomed the guidelines saying that they reflect those values in a profound way. President Martens underlined the importance of the long-term strategy presented by the President-designate, reminding that 2020 is in many respects an anchor year for our continent. He equally emphasised the pride of the EPP’s political family in being the ones who put Barroso’s candidacy in 2004 and this year prior to the European Parliament Elections, reflecting on the fact that both citizens and the European Council supported his candidacy.

Presenting his vision for the EU, President-designate Jose Manuel Barroso congratulated CES on bringing the civic aspect into the political debate, while commanding the ideas and expertise which think-tanks provide.

Barroso described the role of the EU as a promoter of humane globalism and an example of globalised governance, stressing out that only a united Europe can do so, while divided it glides towards irrelevance.

The President-designate described his programme and guidelines as transforming agenda of political convergence and fully committed himself to goals and aims described therewith.

He stipulated that despite the need to have a long-term strategic approach, some actions are necessary to be taken immediately, first and foremost regarding the economic and financial crisis and its collateral effects. Barroso said that his Commission and he personally will engage in a reform of the financial markets, making them more effective, more ethical, more legitimate and more efficient. He also emphasised that gradual phasing out of stimulus packages needs to be priority as overstimulation of the economy could lead to different sorts of problems. He stated that it would be irresponsible to simply scrape them in one quick move.

President-designate explained that in his view, future of Europe lies within fields of innovation, technological excellence and education, but also in cleaner and more sustainable energy production. He described Europe 2020 agenda as target for several important goals – reaching the re-evaluated goals of the Lisbon Agenda, next to preset climate and energy goals, achieving fully inclusive social market economy, but also having Europe as a promoter of human rights, peace, freedom, sustainable development and growth on the World stage.

Opening the roundtable discussion, Antonio Lopez-Istúriz, Secretary Treasurer of CES highlighted the openness of President-designate to questions coming from across the spectrum, with the special emphasis on tellBarroso.eu project, that attracted more than 150 000 Europeans to contribute to the European project.

Debaters were: Zoltan Balog, President of the advisory board of the Foundation for a Civic Hungary, Peter Weilemann, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Brussels, Pascale Joannin, Executive Director of the Robert Schuman Foundation, Werner Fasslabend, President of the Austrian Political Academy and chairman of the CES Academic Council, Jamie Mayor Oreja MEP, the Chairman of the European Ideas Network, John Palmer, founder of the European Policy Centre, Teija Tiilikainen, the Director of the Network for European Studies at the University of Helsinki, H. Onno Ruding, President of the Board of Directors of CEPS and Ferdinando Riccardi, founder and Director of Agence Europe.

After the roundtable discussion, the floor was open for questions from the audience.