Europe2020-ZEI Seminar / Preparing Europe’s future – The contribution of the commission’s White Book governance Workshop

Organised by ZEI (Center for European Integration Studies) and Europe 2020

In cooperation with the Representation of North Rhine – Westphalia to the European Union in Brussels

Concept

The often discussed gap between expectations ( formuled or not ) and disapointments of European citizens is the core problem the new White Paper on Governance tries to deal with. It proposes to strengthen Europea civil responsibility by stronger involvment and a transparent and democratic decision making process, so far dominated by the national governments. The future challenge will be to give a political face to the European civil society; and to give a human face to the democratic project of the european construction. But how far the White Paper on European governance answer these questions? How far does it meet the political and democratic challenges of the next decades?

The round-table discussion with representatives from European think tanks and the current EU presidency will focus on such aspects.

Programme

15.00 – Welcome: Folker Schreiber, Director, Representation of North Rhine – Westphalia to the European Union in Brussels

15.15-18.00 – Roundtable discussion: Preparing Europe’s Future The contribution of the commission’s White Book governance

18.15 – Reception

Chair : Ludger Kuhnhardt, Director, Center for European Integration Studies

Contributors

. Franck Biancheri is Director of Research of the Foundation Europe 2020, a european think tank and an advising ressource for the governments of candidates countries. As a student in 1985 he founded the student network AEGEE-Europe at the Paris institute of Political Science.

. Martyn Bond is director of the Federal Trust for Education and Research. He began his career with the BBC in 1966 and was lecturer at the New university of Ulster from 1970-1973. Then he became press officer at the Council of ministers in Brussels in 1974. From 1981-1983 he was the BBC correspondent in Berlin. He was appointed Head of the euopean parliament information office in London in 1989.

. Raoul Delcorde is in charge of first pillar negotiations of the EU in the belgian ministry of foreign affairs. He earned a PhD in poilitical science at the University of Louvain and a ba in Philosophy and History at the University Paris lV Sorbonne. Delcorde is member of the belgian embassy in Washington from 1996-2000.

. Marcus Horeth is a senior fellow at the Center for European Studies (ZEI). He is currently working on a critical comment to the White Paper on Governance. He started his academic career as lecturer in Political Theory at Freiburg University. After his PhD thesis on the problems of legitimacy in Post Maastricht Europe in 1999, he was the press officer for Normos Publishers.

. Ludger Khunhardt is Director of the Center for European Integration Studies since 1997. Between 1991 and 1997 he was Professor of Political Science and Dean at Freiburg University. Studies in History, Philosophy and political Science at Bonn Geneva, Tokyo, and Harvard universities. He was speechwriter for Germany’s federal President Richard von Weizsacker and visiting professor at various universities.