Trustees Speak Out

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France and Greece vote - Good and bad news for democracy

By Robert Cox François Hollande and fellow European leaders must concede that austerity on its own leads nowhere. For now, they only offer often confused theories about more infrastructure, freer labour markets, boosts for SMEs and bank lending etc. Arguably Merkel too must use the week before she sees Hollande to ponder German growth and inevitable European economic and financial support mechanisms. Read more

See Debating Europe’s InfoBox: Arguments For and Against Tougher Austerity
Read Friends of Europe's fact sheet Rise and fall: When the fate of political leaders is tied to that of financial markets

Upcoming event	• • •
Water security: Policies for better access
23 May 2012 As part of the official programme of the European Commission’s 2012 Green Week, this European Policy Summit will focus on how to tackle Africa’s water scarcities and how to improve Asia’s water governance. The debate will be over ways African governments should address water scarcities and what the private sector can do to boost infrastructural investment. It will examine how competing territorial claims affect water governance in Asia and analyse what governments in Asia are doing in terms of water diplomacy to increase the diversity of water supplies for agriculture and energy. Programme

Upcoming Event

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Enhancing aid effectiveness:
Tackling private sector challenges

6 June 2012 With many donor governments implementing austerity measures, the focus is increasingly on ensuring the effectiveness of scarce donor resources and getting more bang for each euro spent on development assistance. In this context, the private sector has emerged as a powerful, flexible and nimble stakeholder. Programme

Read the policy paper The private sector and development cooperation by Shada Islam, Head of Policy at Friends of Europe, and Patricia Díaz, Project Manager at Friends of Europe
Read the report Policies for promoting the private sector's role in development

Upcoming event

The rise of the bio-based economy

29 May 2012 This roundtable debate will ask what the bio-based economy is and how it can help the EU deal with its overarching priority to spur growth and create jobs. How can the bio-based economy address challenges such as resource scarcity, sustainable agriculture and climate change, while also being profitable for farmers? Programme

Read the report The future of farming


Europe's World
Practical ways Europe can harness the Arab Spring
By Günter Gloser Europe needs to radically re-think half a century of political and economic relations with the Arab world. Gloser sets out practical proposals for creating a fruitful dialogue with Arab countries and their public opinions. The Arab Spring will be discussed further at the conference Europe and the Arab Spring: Responding to the changing Arab order on 31 May 2012


Recent Event
EU-China Urbanisation Partnership
“To be successful, our partnership needs to be based on a peer-to-peer process between city mayors and local governments,” advised Li Keqiang, Vice Premier of China. Photos, videos and report Read the op-ed EU-China Partnership on Sustainable Urbanisation by Shada Islam, Head of Policy at Friends of Europe Read the report Greening China's cities of tomorrow

News

Rise and fall: When the fate of political leaders is tied to that of financial markets
When investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy in September 2008, the global economic decline that had begun in late 2007 took an abrupt downward turn. The ensuing economic crisis has not only impacted on business, but also on the political arena. Leaders across Europe struggle to maintain credibility as their electorate protest against austerity measures and public spending cuts.

Votes speak louder than words: France and Greece say no to austerity
Socialist candidate François Hollande is to be France’s first left-wing president in 17 years, after securing nearly 52% of the vote in the second round of elections on May 6. Hollande has notably vowed to renegotiate the current European budget discipline pact, moving the focus away from austerity and towards growth.

All News

Trustees speak out

John Monks: Europe – Some threats and a bright star
As one who believes that Europe’s nation states need to move closer together and on from their past, if they are to exert influence in the world, the current times are very worrying. The EU is under threat as never before, economically from the crisis and politically as the forces of nationalism grow stronger.

Michel Barnier: The Single Market 20 years on
Our Single Market will be 20 years old at the end of this year. This birthday is a chance for us to reflect on how far we have come, and especially to reflect on how far we have yet to go. What obstacles do we need to overcome to adapt the Single Market to the 21st century?

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Europe's World

The issue: Is the EU en route for political union? My verdict: If we are, we’ll need a European demos by John Bruton Europe’s economic woes are creating fresh interest in political and/or fiscal union within the EU. The former Irish prime minister traces the events and arguments that feature in the debate, and emphasises that only the direct election of EU leaders will be politically acceptable.

How Africa can pioneer green growth by Donald Kaberuka African countries’ development strategies must soften the environmental impact of economic growth, and they must also position themselves to benefit from the promotion of green economies. Donald Kaberuka, who heads the African Development Bank, explains how best they can scale-up the climate finance system and embrace green growth.

Europe’s World is the only Eu-wide policy journal with a readership of over 100,000 mark. Issues can be consulted at www.europesworld.org, as well as articles from a wide range of other sources on “Think Tank Europe” and the “European Ideas Community”.

Publications

Encouraging healthy eating and active living in the family setting

Changing health behaviours or encouraging healthy practices is a complex undertaking. Typically, behaviour change interventions target individual, social and environmental factors. One important influence that partly straddles all three is that of the family.

LiveWell for LIFE: Eating our way to a healthy planet

The 'LiveWell for low impact food in Europe (LIFE)' project was launched in Brussels on 28 February

2012 with a policy debate with stakeholders. The project tackles head-on two of the big challenges

facing modern society - rising levels of chronic diseases and runaway climate change – and looks for

solutions that will tackle both simultaneously.

40 under 40: European Young Leaders’ work plan on Europe’s future

Key messages from the first European Young Leaders (EYL) seminar in Paris: think European but work trans-nationally, re-engage with European citizens yet look beyond Europe’s borders. ‘40 under 40’ promotes a European identity by engaging 40 of the EU's brightest young minds from a wide range of backgrounds.

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Friends of Europe is a leading European think-tank that aims to stimulate thinking on the future of the EU. For over a decade our contribution has been the confrontation of ideas that is vital to policymaking and to encouraging wider involvement in Europe's future.