Tag: eu future

Although the imminent completion of the Lisbon Treaty ratification process should allow the EU to emerge from its "period of introspection", "we should be under no illusions" as the "long and painful" ratification experience revealed problems with the legitimacy of EU integration and the direction the Union is taking, write Loukas Tsoukalis, Olaf Cramme and Roger Liddle in an October paper for the Policy Network.

An "ideological coalition" holding a majority in the European Parliament should be formed after the EU elections in June 2009 to push forward a substantial package on the economy, Graham Watson, leader of the liberal group in the Strasbourg Assembly, told EurActiv in an interview.

The institutional crisis after the negative vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty has made Europe "boring and unattractive", says the chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Ivan Krastev, in a 25 June commentary for Open Democracy.

European Investment Bank (EIB) President Philippe Maystadt could find that his term comes to an early end as the race for the EU top jobs heats up and member states seek to achieve a new balance of power.

An innovative online forum has been launched to narrow the 'yawning gulf' between the concerns of young professionals and those of the EU institutions.

Tony Blair has set out his vision for the future of European democracy as speculation mounts over the identity of the first president of the EU, set to be inaugurated in 2009.

As European leaders prepare to sign the Treaty of Lisbon on 13 December, a new publication from the European Policy Centre (EPC) considers the outlook for the future of EU integration.

Europe is tired and faces decline unless there is a renaissance that goes further than EU-level regulation, writes Bela Kadar, Hungary’s former minister for international economic relations, for Europe's World. 

Last week's treaty summit may mark the end of an entire phase of the European integration process in which progress has chiefly been made through institutional "giant leaps forward", argues a post-summit analysis from the European Policy Centre (EPC).

The Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee has approved a plan to revise the composition of the European Parliament, agreeing that the largest member states should retain the same number of MEPs after the 2009 legislative elections.

Europe "urgently needs a proper debate as well as choices about its political direction" if it is to "regain the interest of its citizens" and include them in its deliberations, writes Olaf Cramme for Open Democracy.

The accelerated rise of the Chinese economy and the deepening of its relationship with the EU are likely to facilitate a change of forces in the international system and help promote the multipolarisation of international relations, argued panelists at a 2006 IFRI conference entitled "The EU, China and the quest for a multilateral world."

The EU needs a two-chamber Parliament and a real European government headed by an elected leader, argues Jo Leinen – chairman of the European Parliament's Constitutional Affairs Committee – in a July article for Europe's World.

As the German Presidency searches for a way out of the impasse over the Constitutional Treaty ahead of the June summit, European Policy Centre (EPC) analysts Sara Hageman and Antonio Missiroli examine the alternatives that have been suggested for moving forward. 

A youth summit in Rome is the centrepiece of the EU’s ‘youth package’ to celebrate the signing of the Rome Treaties 50 years ago.

EU leaders have almost all declined a proposal by French President Jacques Chirac to save the EU Constitution by splitting it up into single chapters and integrating those into the existing EU framework.

The French socialist parti (PS) and the German social-democrats (SPD) published a common text, entitled "Building Europe's future together". The three-page text advocates a Europe in the form of a political union of a federalist nature.

The European Commission made an announcement, on 23 January 2002, on how it intends to implement the reform of its senior employment policy over the coming months. The reforms stipulate that, from 2002 onwards, all senior (A1 and A2) officials will need to consider career moves after 5 years in a particular post and not stay in the same position longer than 7 years.

At the 78th Franco-German summit in Nantes (France), France and Germany issued a common declaration on the future of Europe, supporting the creation of a European constitution. French and German leaders said they wanted their countries to be a "driving force for European integration."

Speculations are circulating on who will be the president of the Convention on the future of Europe. Several leading figures have already been tipped for this position, among whom former Italian Prime Minister Giuliano Amato and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari.

David Byrne, European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, addressed the Irish Senate on 14 November and shared some of his own ideas on "a new track for Europe".

Michel Barnier, the EU's commissioner in charge of institutional reform, has rejected British Prime Minister Tony Blair's proposal for a second chamber in the European Parliament made up of national parliamentarians. According to The Guardian, Mr Barnier said that the idea was overly complex and had little support among other Member States. His remarks were made during a visit to London where he held talks with British Foreign Minister Jack Straw.

The Austrian National Council unanimously adopted the Nice treaty, on Tuesday 24 October.

The European Liberal Democrat Andrew Duff published a contribution to the future EU debate, entitled "Towards a Liberal Laeken". The draft paper, drawn up by a task force chaired by British MEP Andrew Duff, includes a series of observations concerning the legal, political and institutional problems that EU policy making is confronted with, and suggests concrete solutions to those problems.