Publications

Publications

Quelles marges de financement pour l'Europe dans les contraintes budgétaires actuelles?

Madariaga Report - 22 February 2010

What Room for the Financing of the EU under Present Budgetary Constraints?

Against a backdrop of crisis in the Eurozone, and as the EU gains in competences under the Lisbon Treaty, where can alternative sources of finance be found to ensure that the EU plays its role and drives policies that meet these challenges?

To answer this question, the Madariaga Foundation held a Citizen's Controversy on 22 February with Hervé Jouanjean, Director General for DG Budget, European Commission, and Jean-Luc Dehaene, MEP (EPP), Vice-Chairman of the European Parliament's Budget Committee.

Report

La Belgique osera-t-elle une ambition européenne?

Article by Pierre Defraigne, published in La Libre Belgique on 3 March 2010.

Read the Article in French

The WTO Ministerial Conference: Was it Worth a Try?

Madariaga Report - 27January 2010

The Doha Round, launched in 2001 in the wake of the attacks on the World Trade Center, has seen its agenda shrink and its conclusion postponed at each ministerial conference. Are the negotiations moving towards a workable deal or are they heading for an impasse? Will the crisis complicate the conclusion of the Doha Round?

To answer these questions, the Madariaga - College of Europe Foundation held a Citizen's controversy on 27 January with Esperanza Durán, Executive Director of AITIC (Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation), and Denis Redonnet, Head of Unit for WTO and OECD cooperation at DG Trade, European Commission.

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What's Wrong with Social Democracy in Europe?

Madariaga Report - 22 January 2010

A decade ago, social democratic parties were in power in 12 of the 15 EU Member States. They only govern 7 of the 27 EU countries today. Assumptions that the economic crisis would work in their favour proved flawed in light of the June 2009 European election results, which confirmed social democracy’s unrelenting decline in most EU countries. What are the causes for this retreat? At a time when Europe is at risk of being deserted by its citizens, will social democracy be able to play its fully-fledged role and breathe life back into the concept of democracy? Can it call into play the European dimension to counter the crisis and thereby recover its credibility? To debate these issues, the Madariaga – College of Europe Foundation held a Citizen’s Controversy on 22 January 2010 with Philippe Marlière, Reader in French and European Politics at University College London, and Ernst Stetter, Secretary General of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS).

Report Philippe Marlière's speech Ernst Stetter's speech

Through an Intergovernmental Decade: All Heads on Deck!

Madariaga Speeches - January 2010

Talking at the first annual forum of nine leading Brussels think tanks, Pierre Defraigne addressed the Opening Plenary with his thoughts on the European Union after the Lisbon Treaty and its ability to deal with the global recession in his speech entitled 'Through an Intergovernmental Decade: All Heads on Deck!'. Defraigne explained that while the Lisbon Treaty strengthens the EU in many ways, it not only offers no further objectives, but embeds unanimity in key areas and puts huge pressure on the European Council. Pointing-out that the coming decade will be marked by greater intergovernmentalism, Defraigne also explained how only the collective leadership of Heads of State and Governments and the President of the Commission under President Van Rompuy's chairmanship can break the deadlock over the EU's economic governance and defence.

With the tone clearly set the forum split into four parallel working groups;

Workshop One - Leadership Lost? Developing the EU Climate Policy Model after Copenhagen;

Workshop Two - Dealing with Europe's Economic Challenges in a Post-Crisis and Post-Lisbon World;

Workshop Three - Stockholm Plus: Transforming Political Goals into Coherent Policies on Migration, Social Cohesion and Human Rights;

Workshop Four - Towards New Global Governance in a New Global Order: How can the EU Position Itself?.

Speaking in the second workshop co-organised by the Madariaga - College of Europe Foundation, the European Policy Centre and Bruegel, panelists and audience members addressed the two-fold challenge of short-term crisis management, and the longer-term need for structural re-orientation. Speaking on the EU2020 Strategy, the workshop agreed that Europe must return to financial, fiscal, monetary and structural normality but that quite what one considers 'normal' has to change. Concluding, panelists surmised that the key question is ascertaining what Europe's role in a future global economic order characterised by the US' continued role as the engine of innovation and competitive pressure from rapidly emerging economies will be.

Read Pierre Defraigne's Speech