.
Focus
A: The EU, a major actor
of globalisation in the
XXIst century
By Adrian Taylor
Thanks to a lively participation
of excellent participants
and speakers, Pole A conclusions
led to two questions and
three affirmations:
1. Is belonging to the
European Union a question
of geography or a question
of principles?
2.
Is the EU a model or an
inspiration for the world?
3.
There are new actors and
new technologies emerging
to upset the established
way of conducting international
relations.
4.
Europe's own citizens
do not understand the
EU hence it is no surprise
that nobody else in the
globe comprehends the
importance of European
integration.
5.
The EU-US relationship
must change.
1. Is belonging to
the European Union a question
of geography or a question
of principles?
In other words, can
any country, regardless
of its geography, join
the EU if it meets certain
key principles of democracy
and market economy? Concretely
our group asked about
Turkey and Morocco. There
was no clear response
to the question, however,
. there was broad agreement
that Europe tommorrow
will and must be multi-cultural,
open to peoples from the
whole planet
. there is a desparate
need to overhaul the functionning
of the EU for it to accept
many more members.
2. Is the EU a model
or an inspiration?
Does globalisation
mean everybody copying
the US economic model
of liberalisation and
the EU political model
of regional political
integration? The group
did not seem to believe
this. Each nation must
find their own path to
development. However,
the EU is an inspiration
in showing that we must
start thinking about the
"post nation state"
world.
3. There are new actors
and new technologies emerging
to upset the established
way of conducting international
relations.
Civil society has
become an actor, like
it or not. However, for
real participation by
individuals, transparency
of official bodies (EU
but also national govts
and WTO) is essential.
Moreover Technology is
not enough. It is vital
that individual citizens
have the chance to meet
and to discover other
cultures. Exchanges of
people - in Europe an
globally - should be encouraged.
Visa requirements for
those from neighbouring
countries - including
applicants like Romania
- were particularly unhelpful.
4. Europe's own citizens
do not understand the
EU hence it is no surprise
that nobody else in the
globe comprehends the
importance of European
integration.
It is essential for
Europe to be more efficient
democratic and comprehensible
inside, for it to be a
positive force in the
world.
5. The EU-US relationship
must change If it does
not change, the result
will be disaster.
The US must recognise
that the EU is no longer
a small fragile child,
it is nearly grown up
and should be taken seriously.
The EU must understand
that this also means it
must become more responsible,
and share the burden.
Both EU and US must realise
that together, their size
will scare the rest of
the world. It is essential
to engage with everybody,
not just across the Atlantic.
.
Focus B: Managing a Europe
of 500 million Euro-Citizens
By Lorraine de Bouchony
1. In January 2002 the
euro will be here for
good! We are well aware
that Europe cannot go
into reverse gear, it
has to succeed. From now
on the emphasis must be
put on transparency, simplification
and institutional reforms
in order to remobilise
citizens and obtain their
support.
2.
European citizens wish
to live in an environment
of freedom and security
that Europe has to be
able to offer them. Interesting
initiatives are taking
shape, such as the European
legal network and Eurojust.
Harmonisation in this
field should involve not
setting up a centralising
European system but rather
co-operation between existing
systems in member countries.
3.
The European Union is
trying to set up a modern
democracy whilst maintaining
its original values of
democracy, peace, tolerance
and fundamental citizen
rights at the heart of
its process.
At the same time, candidate
countries for membership
are concentrating on their
transition and the problems
posed by enlargement.
Progress on both sides
is difficult and we wonder
how the EU can truly accompany
candidate countries in
their transition.
4.
Over the last 20 years,
Europe has been building
up networks functioning
in numerous fields such
as civil society, universities,
business and even civil
servant groups. The real
obstacle to the network
mode becoming an operational
political and administrative
tool is due mainly to
a lack of mutual trust
between member states.
5.
Unity in diversity poses
the crucial problem of
the languages used in
European functioning.
We would like to know
why this problem area
does not seem to be at
the hub of political decision-making.
The budget allocated for
research in this field
is still ridiculously
small and our communication
problem today involves
11 languages, soon to
increase to 15 or 20.
6.
Eurocitizenship will more
specifically be expressed
through joint elections.
Projects for online Internet
elections, a tool that
is truly commensurate
with a public forum of
500 million citizens,
are improving constantly.
Will the political deciders
be ready to recognise
this new democratic means
rapidly?
.
Focus C: Placing man at
the heart of tomorrow's
Europe
By
Pierre-Henri d'Argenson
This Focus highlighted
on the one hand the oldest
of human activities, agriculture,
and on the other, the
ultimate in contemporary
technical progress in
the communications field,
Internet.
The seminar work demonstrated
that these activities
have two points in common:
1)
The importance that technology
has taken on:
·
in communications:
Internet itself.
· for agriculture:
machinery, chemical
products, transport,
GM organisms, etc.
2)
Alongside the importance
taken on by technology,
there is neglect of
the human dimension
(i.e. man's place) that
should enable this progress
and a need to put people
back in a central role:
-
the notion of rural
and cultural heritage
and transmission
to future generations
- the notion of
countryside
- the environment
- the quality of
our food
- inequalities of
access and the social
consequences of these
inequalities
- the sometimes negative
consequences on communications
modes and behaviour
- the question of
cultural standardisation
(the role of English
etc)
- contrasting with
the transnational
networks for which
Internet is an essential
vector is the resurgence
of local management
for political, cultural
and territorial issues.
The
solution to these challenges
is perhaps to be found
in the last seminar of
Focus C, which dealt with
solidarity between/within
societies. For in the
end it is indeed democratic
society that is at stake;
at a time when technological
progress is specifically
enabling the human race
to control its destiny,
as opposed to just suffering
it, it appears necessary
to reintegrate each citizen
into the decision-making
process and place human
beings at the heart of
21st-century European
society.
Why
has European society a
major role to uphold in
this field?
- because Europe provides
a context for controlling
these developments and
technology in general
in this era of globalisation.
- because Europe provides
the scale for a decision-making
process within which European
societies can co-ordinate
their actions and respond
to this objective.
.
Focus
D: Security, limits and
neighbourhood in Europe
by 2020
By
Ralf Teschner and Mireille
Van der Graaf
We discussed four major
issues:
1. The future constitutional
framework for a fast-track
EU foreign and security
policy It now appears
more likely than ever
before that the European
Union will embark on a
2-speed integration. But,
if a core of 8 or 10 countries
will establish a fast-track
integration of their foreign
and security policy, they
will need to support it
with new institutions
(just like the European
Central Bank manages the
single currency). What
characteristics should
this new institution have?
2. If this core of EU
countries finds a way
to speak with one voice
and generate credibility
both with its friends
and its foes, what kind
of relationship will it
have with the United States
(and NATO):
Will the U.S. feel
a) threatened, because the
new more assertive EU might
challenge the U.S.'s role
of sole superpower and world
policeman,
b) support the new common
foreign and defense policy
because it can share in
the burden, responsibilities
and costs of international
peace operations?
3. How can the EU communicate
the new fast-track common
foreign and defense policy
to its citizens? How can
it close the gap between
its political actions
and ambitions and its
public perception? What
will make EU citizens
identify with those policies,
without giving them the
impression of losing their
national policy and cultural
identities?
.
Focus E: Preparing human
resources to tomorrow's
Europe
By
Dan Luca
The
debates in this Focus
highlighted the dual European
challenge of the coming
decades in terms of education
and training:
1.
to train human resources
capable of utilising
the European dimension
to the utmost, either
to run the EU (administration,
politics) or to optimise
its added value (business,
universities, NGOs).
2.
to educate citizens
capable of comprehending
the functioning complexity
of the EU along with
its limitations.
The
continent's education
systems are thus facing
a dual constraint of democratisation
(2) and efficiency (1).
Over
and above European integration
as such, there are also
new educational demands
in terms of content and
methods coming to light
because of our societies'
evolution and the entire
globalisation process:
A.
a need to train individuals
in understanding and
mastering an ever-increasing
social and technical
complexity.
B.
the need to train middle
and upper management
from all work sectors
in multicultural environments.
C.
the need to train deciders
capable of anticipating
and facing up to the
increasing number of
constraints generated
by rapid progress and
the long-term impact
of decisions.
Alongside
this, in geographical
terms Europe's educational
efforts must fit in with
a logic of opening up
to allow unrestricted
exchanges with all parts
of the world, with four
main aims:
I.
intra-EU student and
teacher mobility.
II.
the introduction of
integration preparation
programmes closely involving
universities in candidate
countries.
III.
setting up a system
of preferential educational
partnerships with the
EU's neighbour countries.
IV.
developing university
partnerships with major
regions of the world
that are developing
regional integration.
The
new information technologies
will supply the fundamental
technical tools enabling
us to integrate the European
dimension into all levels
of educational curricula,
and not least will provide
a unique tool for bringing
the mass of European students
into the processes involved
in defining European education
policies (cf. the EuroStudentVote
project), which is the
best Eurocitizen school
imaginable. These approaches
involving broad consultation
with the actors in the
European educational world,
particularly via Internet,
demand far-reaching revision
of present policies founded
on models developed during
the second half of the
80s, before the many late-90s'
crises that affected EU
management methods.
ERASMUS,
SOCRATES, TEMPUS et al
have had their day and
must give way to new initiatives
focusing on 2020 and not
intended to indefinitely
perpetuate old models
and methods. In this the
European Commission should
play an essential role,
in order to revitalise
these approaches by drawing
on the one hand on national
institutions and on the
other directly on in-the-field
operators in education
and training.
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