European solidarity : where do we stand? Should we foster it and how?
Synthèse de séminaire | 14/06/2011 
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English Version available on 27 June 2011.

Synthesis of the 2010 edition of the « European Forum of Think Tanks » was organised by Notre Europe in Barcelona, 30 September-1 October 2010.

The « European Forum of Think Tanks » - which is organised by Notre Europe – brings together, every 18 months, not only Europe’s most dynamic think tanks, but also high-calibre European and national politicians, leaders form the business sector, trade unions, and the media. Such diversity is the Forum’s “trademark”, with the overall goal being to promote group-level reflection and debate on key issues in EU affairs.

The 2010 edition of the « European Forum of Think Tanks » was organised by Notre Europe in Barcelona, along with the Generalitat de Catalunya and the CIDOB, and in partnership with Aspen France, Agence Europe and the members of the European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN). The edition was devoted to European solidarity: where do we stand? Should we foster it and how?

How to define solidarity? What are the different significations that the notion covers concerning inter- and intra-state relations? How has the economic and monetary crisis affected European solidarity? What is the external dimension of European solidarity, and in particular what does it mean when applied to the EU’s energy policy? These are the questions that were addressed in Barcelona and to a certain extent answered in this review.




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Articles by Elvire Fabry :
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The author
Elvire Fabry
Senior Research Fellow. Head of the « Think Global Act European » project. Email: efabry@notre-europe.eu
In view
A test for European solidarity
| 22/06/2011
With the economic and financial crisis having hit European countries in different ways since 2008, the EU is considering how far each country is responsible and what kind of solidarity is needed to overcome this challenge. Europeans have hastily set up solidarity mechanisms that their monetary union was lacking. Questions about the legitimacy and the limits of European solidarity are now very much being asked out in the open...
See also
Is the CAP a ground for European solidarity or disunion?
Policy paper by Nadège Chambon | 24/06/2011
Whilst it was a pioneer in European solidarity, the CAP causes a division which peaks regularly during budgetary negotiations. The CAP has been based on three types of solidarity since 1962: financial solidarity between Member States, Community preference and the solidarity of the Community towards farmers. These types of solidarity have been led astray or weakened over time while new measures favourable to European cohesion have been incorporated into the CAP in the 1970s and the 1980s: compensation of natural handicaps, food programme for the most deprived persons, rural development. This policy paper proposes the state of its mechanisms, evaluates the relevance of it in the modern context and comes up with proposals to reform them after 2013.
Migrants, 'Schengen area' and European solidarity
Notre Europe's viewpoint | 22/06/2011
The 'Schengen area', which is both an old and symptomatic achievement of European integration, is today in the firing line to the extent that its management and its 'reform' were on the agenda of the European Council of 23 and 24 June. The arrival of migrants on the Italian coast is the source of this criticism but there had already been difficulties along the Greek-Turkish border and also concern in the perspective of the Bulgarian and Romanian accessions...
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European Forum of think tanks
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