Sevket Pamuk on "The Future of Europe: Turkey and the EU"

Upcoming Event - November 20

On Thursday November 20 2008, Professor Sevket Pamuk, Chair of Contemporary Turkish Studies at the European Institute, London School of Economics and Political Science will visit the IIEA to address a roundtable discussion on "The Future of Europe: Turkey and the European Union." The event will take place at 12.45 p.m. at the IIEA.

Professor Pamuk wil present his views views on Turkey’s progress towards EU accession and the impact that Turkish membership of the EU would have in terms of the promotion of common values and the development of enhanced intercultural dialogue in the European Union. This is the latest event in the IIEA's series of events on the Future of Europe under the Europe 2.0 project, which is sponsored by the European Commission.

ECB Board Member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi addresses IIEA and Young Professionals

click here for youtube video

On Thursday 25 September 2008, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank visited the IIEA to give a keynote speech on 50 Years of Europe. As part of the IIEA's series of keynote speeches, Dr. Bini Smaghi identified a number of symptoms that are affecting Europeans as they reminisce and reflect about the years gone by, often viewing the these years through rose-tinted glasses.

The first of these symptoms is amnesia, meaning that many Europeans appear to have forgotten what Europe is about, assuming of course that they knew in the first place. The lack of awareness of Europe and how it functions is often embodied in statements about “Brussels” and when the Union fails to take a decision “Brussels” is often blamed rather than the individual member states of which it is made up. Europeans sometimes do not understand the competences of the Union, or who does what. The Union is much more limited than people think of terms of what it can do. Here, Dr. Bini Smaghi used the example of taxation. Some Irish voters rejected the Lisbon Treaty under the false belief that Brussels would decide on taxation in Ireland. Overall, the range of the Union’s competences is quite restricted. In the economic sphere, for instance, with the exception of monetary policy, its competencies are limited to the coordination of the Member States’ policies. This is the worst of all worlds for the Union: being blamed for something it’s not responsible for.

The second symptom affecting Europeans is inconsistency. The period between 2002 and 2007 saw the world economy grow at its fastest rate since the 1970s. However, this has masked notable differences between advanced and emerging economies. With the birth of the Euro, monetary stability has been achieved in Europe. Europeans tend to forget about the advantages of being a member of the Euro and the European Union, and often, financial problems are blamed on the Euro.

The third symptom is myopia. Europeans in particular have a tendency to think that the world hasn’t changed much over the last 10 to 20 years, while in fact the opposite is true. Europe is getting smaller and smaller, and our economy is gradually accounting for a smaller share of world GDP. Individual countries are becoming smaller and less powerful and increasingly irrelevant. European states can either ignore this development or they can organise themselves as a major player in the international system, possibly in partnership with the United States.

In the future, there will have to be increasingly coordinated action on the part of the major economies to overcome the current financial market turmoil, through the agreement of new regulations and supervision. This will need to be discussed and agreed across the Atlantic. Europe must unite and speak with one voice on the international stage.

Finally, there is a sense of denial in Europe that the Union’s power is shrinking. Dr. Bini Smaghi gave the example of the manner in which major decisions concerning the IMF are increasingly taken in other fora, typically the G7 or the G20, where only the four largest European countries are represented.

He concluded with the belief that Europe needs to streamline its activities and go on a diet. The Union should clarify its role and show how few competences it actually has. This might give the people of the Union a better idea of what the Union does.

Bebo.com's Sofia's Diary

On the 10 July 2008, members of the IIEA's Young Professionals'Netwiork attended a presentation on BEBO.COM’s ‘Sofia's Diary’”.

Nuno Bernardo and Tiona Campbell discussed their interactive reality show on Bebo, the hugely popular "Sofia's Diary". In the space of two weeks, Sofia's Diary apparently gained five million hits. It may represent the future of media content delivered online, and embodies a paradigm shift in advertising models and audience input into media content.

See the YouTube video of the event above.

Roger Cohen (IHT) on McCain, Obama and Foreign Policy in the U.S. 2008 Presidential Election

Guest Speaker: Roger Cohen, Columnist and Editor–at–large,
The International Herald Tribune (IHT)

Topic: The Foreign Policy Priorities of the U.S. Presidential Candidates

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP2-XTgMZ_0

Columns by IHT International Affairs Columnist, Roger Cohen, have covered the Bush presidency, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, energy issues, the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign, the Obama phenomenon, development issues, the Beijing Olympics and European issues, including French and British domestic affairs and how these impact on the international stage. He has earned numerous awards and honours both for his work as a columnist and also as author of numerous books, including "Soldiers and Slaves"; "Hearts Grown Brutal: Sagas of Sarajevo" and "In the Eye of the Storm.”

Mr. Cohen previously occupied the position of foreign editor for The New York Times, also working from Berlin, Paris and the Balkans as New York Times Bureau Chief and Correspondent.

50 Years of the European Economy with Professor Barry Eichengreen

Barry Eichengreen was the guest lecturer for the latest event in the IIEA 50 years of Europe lecture series, chaired by IIEA President and former Taoiseach Garret Fitzgerald. In his presentation, Mr Eichengreen gave a comprehensive overview of the EU's economic performance since 1995. Focusing largely on the EU 15, he looked at why the EU's productivity has lagged behind the US' over this period and looked ahead to future challenges for EU output, namely likely developments in the French and German economies respectively and the challenge posed by manufacturing in China.

Barry Eichengreen is Pardee Professor of Economics and Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

The IIEA 50 Years of Europe lecture series forms part of the Institute's Europe 2.0 project which is sponsored by the European Commission.

BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell speaks to the IIEA Young Media Roundtable

"Immigrants: Does Europe Need Them?"

Mark Mardell, BBC Europe Editor, was the first speaker at the IIEA's Young Media Roundtable on the topic of immigration in Europe.

View the YouTube video below:

Jeremy Rifkin - EU Can lead the Third Industrial Revolution

Jeremy Rifkin, the Wharton Business School’s economic forecasting expert and economic and energy advisor to the EU, warned a capacity crowd at the Institute that EU governments and leaders in business must make critical changes to how they produce and distribute energy, to combat the looming oil crisis, rising energy costs and climate change.

Speaking to members of the Institute at an event sponsored by NTR plc, Mr Rifkin warned that: “To remain dependent of fossil fuels will have ominous consequences for the future of human civilisation and the ecosystems of the earth. Every government needs to explore new energy paths and establish new economic models with the goal of achieving as close to zero carbon emissions as possible.”

“Pivotal economic changes in world history have occurred when new energy regimes converge with new communications regimes. The First Industrial Revolution occurred when coal powered steam technology came together with the print press. The Second Industrial Revolution saw the convergence of first generation electrical forms of communications (telegraph, telephone, radio, etc) with the introduction of oil and the internal combustion engine.”

“The creation of a renewable energy regime will herald the Third Industrial Revolution. We need to envision a future in which millions of individuals can produce locally generated renewable energy – solar, wind, hydro, waves, biomass, etc - store that energy in the form of hydrogen and share their power generation across a Europe-wide intelligent intergrid, through sophisticated IT systems.”

“Just as second generation information systems allow businesses and individuals to connect with millions of desktop computers via the Internet, millions of local producers of renewable energy can potentially produce and share far more distributed power than the older centralised forms of energy – oil, gas, coal,” Rifkin concluded.