Events of 2004

Global Europe
07/12/2004
The Politics of the new Balkan Economy
This Summit took place shortly after the new Commission entered into office and the European Parliament welcomed its new members. The event therefore served as an opportunity to put the Balkans and their relationship with the European Union back on the EU’s agenda.
Life Quality Europe
06/12/2004
What is the European Union doing for its citizens in the field of Transport Policy?
The new EU Commission has undergone a baptism of fire at the hands of the European Parliament, but arguably begins its 5-year mandate with a strong groundswell of favourable opinion, in European capitals as much as in Brussels.
Competitive Europe
30/11/2004
Better Regulation for the Transport Industry to ensure European Competitiveness
Very informal yet targeted lunch and dinner debates involving MEPs and participants from other EU and national institutions along with a number of NGO and industry representatives to discuss specific themes.
Global Europe
29/11/2004
How should the new EU Commission and U.S. Administration mend their transatlantic fences?
Transatlantic tensions have engendered heavy political and economic costs for governments and business in the EU and in the U.S. What do incoming policymakers in Brussels and Washington need to do to mend fences and establish a new Atlantic consensus on key issues? What contribution can Big Business make to the process through mechanisms like the Transatlantic Business Dialogue, and what is now the outlook for the WTO’s Doha world trade round?
Life Quality Europe
22/11/2004
How to safeguard sustainable health care in the face of an ageing population?
Projections show that by the year 2050, 60% of adults in Europe will be over 65 and Germany, Spain and Italy may have more citizens over 80 than under 20. This trend poses major challenges to the EU’s health and social systems. What measures should be taken to promote the idea of “ageing healthily”?
Global Europe
09/11/2004
CHARTING CHINA'S IMPACT ON THE WORLD ECONOMY
The European Union and China initiated their annual summit mechanism in 1998, and it appears to have come of age with the 2003 meeting in Beijing. Where is this important new relationship now headed? Does geography dictate that Sino-European relations will chiefly be limited to economic spheres, or does the changing nature of the global political agenda herald a different style of relationship? What, for instance, are the implications for EU-China relations of efforts to combat climate change and international terrorism?
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
18/10/2004
What results does Europe seek from its space strategy?
How much has been achieved in the four years since EU leaders agreed a common space policy? With the important legal basis offered by the new European Constitution, what are the goals now aimed at and what will be the rewards?
Global Europe, Competitive Europe
18/10/2004
Transatlantic and Global Trade Issues
This exclusive lunch debate at the European Parliament featured Pascal Lamy, EU Commissioner for Trade and Robert Zoellick, US Trade Representative.
The Future of Europe
15/10/2004
WHAT 'BIG IDEA' FOR THE BARROSO COMMISSION?
The upshot of the roundtable’s deliberations was in a sense simple; there is no single big idea that Mr Barroso will be able to champion. Instead, there are five messages that his commission should be hammering home. If these can be lodged in the public mind, the EU’s political stock will rise.
Global Europe
11/10/2004
Is Europe building new relations in Asia?
This dinner-debate looked at how the EU's well-established relationship with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc can be further developed to cement closer political and economic links with the region both as a whole, and specifically with China, South Korea and India.
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
04/10/2004
How to unleash private sector R&D funding?
All those at the Café Crossfire Debate on October 4 agreed that private investment in research is vital. Some progress has been made, more must be done to get private business more involved.
Life Quality Europe
27/09/2004
What Priorities for the streamlining of the European Employment Strategy?
In spite of the fact that the European employment strategy has, in the countries where it has been implemented, led to job creation and high productivity, accusations that it prevents growth and does not encourage people to work remain. Europe needs a framework which will keep it competitive and also provide a strong social safety net, and the EU aims to maintain a balance between these two objectives.
Life Quality Europe
22/09/2004
REACH and the Lisbon Strategy
The REACH proposal for higher levels of regulation for chemicals has generated a great deal of controversy. On the one hand, business argues that it will damage competitiveness, cause job losses and make the Lisbon goals unattainable; whilst NGO’s respond that implementation of reach will cost the chemical industry a miniscule proportion of its annual turnover and the effect on competitiveness will be similarly insignificant.
Life Quality Europe, The Future of Europe
20/09/2004
Are Referendums Europe's Way Forward?
With several states having decided to hold referenda on the EU constitution, direct democracy is a hot topic right now. A direct vote may give citizens a greater feeling of belonging to Europe, however the outcomes are in doubt in various member states and the consequences of a ‘no’ vote are uncertain. One fundamental question needs to be asked: can referenda foster a greater sense of ‘Europeanness’ and if so, how can the constitution best be sold to the European people?
The Future of Europe
17/06/2004
TURKEY'S EU END-GAME?
Friends of Europe European Policy Summit “Turkey’s EU end-game?” took place on 17th June 2004. Over 150 delegates representing European and Turkish business, policymakers and academia attended this conference. This event provided the last public opportunity to debate Turkey’s membership aspirations before the drafting of the Commission’s report on Turkey. This report, due in September will advise EU governments whether Turkey has made enough progress on human rights and democracy to begin accession negotiations.
The Future of Europe
16/06/2004
Corks pop at Davignon's Dinner
The Friends of Europe annual Dinner took place not only on the eve of the June 17-18 European Council in Brussels, but also of the June 17 conference « Turkey EU end-game ? » that Friends of Europe organised in partnership with TIM, ITKIB, TOBB, Standard & Poor’s, Tüsiad, IKV and EurActiv.com. Turkey’s Foreign Trade Minister Kürsat Tüzmen was also a speaker at the dinner.
Greening Europe
03/06/2004
OUTLOOK 2010 - Sustainable Policies for a greener and wider Europe
The one-day international high-level European Policy Summit, held 3 June 2004 during the European Commission’s Green Week, provided an invaluable opportunity for stakeholders, including NGOs, industry, politicians and policymakers, to come together and debate how to best “green” a wider Europe. This Summit moved discussions further, well passed the entrenched positions of the 1990s.
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
24/05/2004
WHERE IS EUROPE’S SINGLE FINANCIAL SERVICES MARKET? - New opportunities for consumers
When and how is Europe going to develop the unified financial markets and borderless financial products like loans, pensions and mortgages that the arrival of the euro promised? How is Europe to reduce obstacles to this integration? Are there alternatives to the harmonisation of national consumer protection regimes? How can we get rid of the patchwork of national rules and at the same time ensure the best services for users and savers?
Global Europe
17/05/2004
Do Europe and the U.S. have the political will to re-launch Doha ?
What share of the blame for the Doha Round’s collapse at Cancun should the EU and the United States accept? With approaching U.S. presidential elections and an incoming European Commission, what are the chances of saving the present WTO round? Would it be preferable to start afresh, and if so on what premise should the next round of multi-lateral trade negotiations be launched?
Global Europe
14/05/2004
Russia and Europe
Held just before the Moscow EU-Russia Summit, Friends of Europe’s latest European Policy Summit focussed on ‘Russia and Europe’. Throughout the conference, it was clear that Russia saw itself as part of Europe, and it was gratifying to hear Russia Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Alexander Gorban describing the EU and Russia as “good natural neighbours and real partners”.
The Future of Europe
13/05/2004
HARNESSING THE POWER OF ENLARGEMENT
Enlargement guru Günter Verheugen set the tone by placing definitive restrictions on future enlargements, declaring that the process was finished for the time being. After reviewing the status of Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Turkey, Verheugen declared “And that’s it!”.
Global Europe, Life Quality Europe
26/04/2004
WILL THE EU OF 25 HAVE A BIGGER ROLE IN WORLD AFFAIRS?
The EU will grow in size to 25 countries this spring, but it doesn't necessarily follow that bigger means stronger. How much more weight will the union of 25 have in international affairs? Will the relative poverty of newcomer nations undermine the economic power of the EU?
Life Quality Europe
29/03/2004
Working Group V on Information and Communication
This group regularly brings together 15-20 experts from a variety of backgrounds to discuss informally the practical steps that need to be taken to improve communication and information with the EU’s citizens. This group will present its report to the incoming European Commission and European Parliament in October 2004. (The report will also include the results of a Europe-wide Opinion Survey conducted in partnership with Gallup).
Life Quality Europe, The Future of Europe
22/03/2004
DEHAENE, BARNIER TO LAUNCH NEW FOE DISCUSSION PAPER
The outlook for the EU’s stalled constitutional project will be discussed by Jean-Luc Dehaene, the former Belgian Prime Minister who was Vice-President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Regional Policy and Institutional Reform also representing the Commission in the Convention on the Future of Europe; and Vicomte Etienne Davignon, President of Friends of Europe, at a special event to present a Discussion Paper on this topic.
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
16/03/2004
Who Gains from a 25-nation financial marketplace?
Banks, insurance companies and financial service providers across Europe have been pushing hard for the last of the barriers protecting national financial markets to be torn down. As the creation of a single financial marketplace is coinciding with the EU’s enlargement to 25, what will be its impact on the financial service sectors of the newcomer countries?
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
15/03/2004
Next steps in energy deregulation - How can Europe's SME's market benefit from competition?
The EU's efforts to liberalise electricity and gas sales and break long-held national monopolies in Europe have at last been successful. But it has been a gradual process, with major corporations the prime beneficiaries in most European countries. What now is the outlook for SMEs and even private energy consumers?
Life Quality Europe, The Future of Europe
16/02/2004
Is the €'s Stability Pact really dead ?
The refusal by France and Germany to accept the fiscal sanctions enshrined in the euro’s 6-year old Stability and Growth Pact looks to have undermined the political foundations of Europe’s single currency. But some experts argue that rather than destroy the pact, Berlin and Paris have merely made it more flexible.
Global Europe
13/02/2004
Focus Group on Turkey
Turkey has long complained that its way toward EU accession has been strewn with hidden and not so hidden barriers. Has public opinion’s prejudices against Turkish membership begun to soften, and if so what can Turkey do to accelerate the process?
Greening Europe
04/02/2004
Focus Group on Environment
The impact of 10 new member states on EU environmental policy will be considerable, but how is it likely to alter policies? Environmental experts from NGOs and companies will review with EU and national officials the themes to be featured at the Green Week Conference on June 3 with accompanying publication that Friends of Europe is preparing.
Greening Europe, Competitive Europe
02/02/2004
Is 'Sustainable Consumption' the New Policy Challenge?
The concept of ‘Sustainable Consumption’ has made rapid progress amongst EU-level policymakers as an important goal that would see industrialised countries reining in on wasteful and environmentally hazardous levels of consumption. Major corporations have also begun to support the idea, but what of EU’s consumers? Of the 75% who pay lip service to the idea, only a tiny 3% have so far put ‘Sustainable Consumption’ into practice. Can our consumers be persuaded, and by whom?
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
28/01/2004
Working Group IV on Information and Communication Policy
This group regularly brings together 15-20 experts from a variety of backgrounds to discuss informally the practical steps that need to be taken to improve communication and information with the EU’s citizens. This group will present its report to the incoming European Commission and European Parliament in October 2004.
Competitive Europe
26/01/2004
What contribution can the telecoms sector make to Europe's economic revival?
Broadband has been recognised as a key contributor to increased productivity and growth. As availability of access increases, and new content and services start to emerge, what are the likely economic effects in Europe ?
Global Europe
23/01/2004
Focus Group on Russia
Friends of Europe’s priority issues are being discussed by Focus Groups bringing together no more than 12-15 experts drawn from relevant governments, corporations, EU institutions, NGOs and think-tanks.
Life Quality Europe, Competitive Europe
19/01/2004
Will the EU's Chemicals Strategy build Consumer Confidence?
The EU's sustainable development agenda has now yielded a new chemicals strategy that includes revisions of the regulatory framework. The Commission warns that thousands of chemicals have not been evaluated for their potential health or environment risks, so its new scheme proposes registration, evaluation and authorisation procedures that would make producers responsible for supplying data on them.