Étude | 04/03/2010 

This report was presented in Brussels on 4 March 2010.

With the establishment of the permanent European Council presidency and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the role of rotating presidencies has changed. This will have an impact on the role of the Trio Presidency in future. Does the rotating presidency still matter?

In this new edition of Think Global - Act European (TGAE), launched by Notre Europe, 14 Europeans think tanks answer that question by scrutinizing the 18-month agenda of the Spanish, Belgian and Hungarian Trio Presidency. For each specific issue (structural reform, economic governance, energy, climate change, migration, internal security, global governance, foreign policy defence, enlargement, neighbourhood, EU institutions, European political space and budget) they analyse the global context, existing challenges and put forward concrete proposals concerning key initiatives that can be taken by the Trio Presidency during this period.

In the sensitive context of the Lisbon Treaty implementation and complex management of the economic crisis, specific attention is given to the decisive coordination role that can be played by the Trio Presidency in defining more efficient - more integrated - European strategies.

Abstracts

• Towards a New Energy Policy for Europe: the Need for a New Framework, Sami Andoura (Notre Europe)
  
  
• Reforming the CAP Budget - A Perfect Test for the EU, by Nadège Chambon (Notre Europe)
  
  
• The Challenge of Building a Low-Carbon European Future: Combining Economic, Social and Environmental Policies into a Post-2010 Lisbon Strategy, by Elvire Fabry and Eulalia Rubio (Notre Europe)
  
  
• From Institutional Reform to Mass Politics or How to Engage Citizens in the Union of Lisbon, by Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul (Notre Europe) and Göran von Sydow (Sieps)
  
  
  

15 recommendations collectively signed by

Attila Ágh Corvinus University/GKI, Adam Balcer demosEUROPA, Hugo Brady CER, Filippa Chatzistavrou Eliamep, Elvire Fabry Notre Europe, Jacques Keller-Noëllet Egmont, Thomas Klau ECFR, David Král Europeum, Piotr Maciej Kaczyñski CEPS, Ignacio Molina Real Instituto Elcano, Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul Notre Europe, Daniela Schwarzer SWP, Anna Stellinger SIEPS, Fabrizio Tassinari DIIS:

1. Ensure that the new General Affairs Council - chaired by the Trio Presidency -fulfils the role of a strategic coordinator of policy-making in the EU.
2. Focus on improving European economic governance and strengthening Economic and Monetary Union within a broadened framework of macroeconomic coordination and surveillance.
3. Endorse a highly constructive role for the Ecofin presidency, along with a pro-active Commission and a strong Eurogroup chair, in order to foster better economic coordination.
4. Maintain the momentum for reform of financial-market regulation, specifically through close coordination with the G20.
5. Strengthen EU influence through a single representation in international bodies, starting with the Eurogroup, in the institutions and forums of world economic governance (G20, IMF, World Bank).
6. Ensure that the EU-2020 Strategy, integrating social, environmental and growth objectives, rests on an in-depth diagnosis of the economic crisis and its social impact. Striving for quick agreement should not take precedence over the need to build a solid political consensus.
7. Identify complementary EU initiatives within a framework of Europeanwide employment policies in order to better meet the challenge of high unemployment.
8. Build an internal European energy market supported by a Europe-wide infrastructure network.
9. Complement the EU climate change strategy by a transport and climate change package, major initiatives on clean coal technologies, and an increase in carbon prices, with the aim of preserving the credibility of the EU's emissions trading scheme.
10. Guarantee that cooperation with third countries concerning illegal immigration and pre-border controls does not undermine the right of asylum and other human rights obligations.
11. Work with the United States towards shared priorities on counter-terrorism, specifically on aid for North and West Africa as well as stabilising Pakistan.
12. Help the High Representative set up a European External Action Service (EEAS) that adds real value to EU foreign policy. The EEAS should be given the means to deliver high-quality political reporting and to tackle energy, migration, and security issues.
13. Contribute to a peaceful debate on enlargement in order to maintain the issue high on the agenda, with a clearer roadmap, and to make sure that the momentum for reform in the countries applying for accession is not damaged.
14. Encourage intensified dialogue with national parliaments in order to foster constructive attitudes in a way that allows EU affairs to enter the national political scene earlier in the policy-making process.
15. Start the debate on the revision of the EU budget with a clear understanding of political priorities and common principles, such as coherent and consistent EU funding for traditional policies (particularly Cohesion and Agriculture) and for new priorities (such as the EU-2020 Strategy); work on overcoming the net-contributor logic, linking revenue and spending sides and reforming the Common Agriculture Policy beforehand.

More Informations

This document is made available under a Creative Commons license.

Press_kit_of_the_report_TGAE_versionfinale_01.pdf

• "The EU and the World: Shrink or Swim?"
• Interview of Elvire Fabry on the Trio Presidences by Rzeczpospolita
• "Only 'solidarity' can save Europe's economy" article in Public Service Europe
• The contribution of 16 European Think tanks to the Polish, Danish and Cypriot Trio Presidency of the EU
• European solidarity : where do we stand? Should we foster it and how?

• Report Haug, Lamassoure, Verhofstadt: Europe for Growth : Towards a radical change in financing the EU
• "Un grand commis européen", Le Monde 24 December 2010
• From institutional Reform to Mass Politics or How to Engage Citizens in the Union of Lisbon
• Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul for France 24: European Diplomacy: united they stand?
• Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul : "La revendication régionale a toujours été considérée comme relevant des Etats" - Le Soir, 17 June 2010