TEPSA’s Activity Report 2007 TRANS EUROPEAN POLICY STUDIES ASSOCIATION (TEPSA) Rue d'Egmont, 11 1000 Brussels tel : 32 (2) 511 34 70 fax: 32 (2) 511 67 70 e-mail : [email protected] www.tepsa.be 1 Activity Report 2007 2 TRANS EUROPEAN POLICPOLICYY STUDIES ASSOCIATIOASSOCIATIONNNN Activity Report 2007 3 Table of Contents I FOREWORD II ABOUT TEPSA III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY IV TEPSA’ S ACTIVITIES IN 2007 IV.1. TEPSA PRE -PRESIDENCY CONFERENCES IV.2. CITIZEN ’S EUROPE 1. TEPSA Friends meetings 2. Other meetings and conferences 3. BECSA-TEPSA project IV.3. CO-OPERATION WITH PROJECTS AND NETWORKS OF EXCELLENCE 1. EU-CONSENT 2. THESEUS IV.4. POLICY -RELATED ACTIVITIES 1. Accompanying change in the EU 2. Briefings for the European Parliament IV.5. COMMUNICATION STRATEGY 1. Newsletter 2. Website 3. Publications IV.6. ACTIVITIES OF TEPSA’ S CONSTITUTIVE BODIES 1. Board 2. General Assembly V. TEPSA’ S ACTIVITIES PER MONTHS VI. MEMBER INSTITUTES AND ASSOCIATE MEMBERS Activity Report 2007 4 « L'Europe ne se fera pas d'un coup, ni dans une construction d'ensemble : elle se fera par des réalisations concrètes, créant d'abord une solidarité de fait. » Robert Schuman, Déclaration du 9 Mai 1950 I FOREWORD The year 2007 has changed the face of the European Union considerably. Starting with the enlargement to include Romania and Bulgaria on 1 January 2007 and the enlargement of the Eurozone, making Slovenia the first of the new member states to adhere to the common currency, the borders of the EU have again been altered. The Schengen Agreement’s border controls were abolished on 21 December 2007 for Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Cyprus, Slovenia and the Czech and Slovak Republic. These developments mean a systemic challenge TEPSA’s headquarters at the Fondation for European decision-making, and also the Universitaire, Rue d’Egmont, Brussels furthering of the European project through the elimination of old divisions within Europe. Also in the context of deepening the European Union has made important steps in 2007. Besides the 50 th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March 2007, the Treaty of Lisbon has been negotiated and signed, and is likely to enter into force on 1 January 2009. This success resolved the deadlock after the failure of the Constitutional Treaty due to the negative referenda in France and the Netherlands, enabling now the EU to advance its institutional architecture, modes of decision-making and policy areas. In times where the “permissive consensus” of the public concerning European affairs is said to have come to an end, it is more and more important for independent analysts to assess developments on the European and national levels, and to give as far as possible advice to political, economic and societal actors. In this context, TEPSA has throughout 2007 furthered dialogue as one of its key instruments: with its member institutes, the European institutions, the public and media. It has contributed to current debates concerning European integration and also pointed to challenges which will eventually come up in the future. In terms of its membership, TEPSA has expanded by including the “Institute of International Relations and Political Science”, Lithuania, as a member institute, and the “Centre International de Formation Européenne” (CIFE) as an associate member. This leads to TEPSA being composed of 29 member institutes and associated members throughout Europe, making it a leading and pluralistic research network in Europe. TEPSA furthermore plans to admit more member institutes in 2008 and is actively pursuing a dialogue with Maltese, Romanian and Slovakian candidates. Moreover, the activity of TEPSA’s briefings provided for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has brought different institutes into the network and enabled Activity Report 2007 5 TEPSA to develop links with the Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey. Thus TEPSA has in 2007 again underlined its claim to be a truly “transeuropean” network. Two events have shaped TEPSA’s calendar of activities to a considerable extent: The Pre-Presidency Conferences held in Lisbon in June 2007 and in Ljubljana in December 2007. These conferences have again brought together the different member institutes, the representatives of governments taking over the EU Presidency, media and civil society. They have also put TEPSA in a position to make the expertise of their researchers and members available at an early stage to political actors within the EU context and thus to provide advice to them. TEPSA has with its programme in 2007 tried to balance different forms of activities, to shed light on various policy areas and to advance the discussions on the future design of the EU. With this activity report, TEPSA highlights its past events and draws conclusions from what has been elaborated. The report is thus structured around the different lines of TEPSA’s work as a transeuropean network of research institutes, furthering cooperation and the development and dissemination of ideas in Europe. Brussels, 21 January 2008 Graham Avery, Secretary General of TEPSA Yvonne Nasshoven Assistant Secretary General Activity Report 2007 6 II ABOUT TEPSA GOALS AND ACTIONS TEPSA has been established in 1974 with the goal to “study or organize research on problems relating to the development of European integration, based on human rights and democracy, to propose solutions, and to promote their taking into consideration by institutions, both private and public, at national or Community level, and to diffuse the results of its work.” (Article 3 of the statutes of the Trans European Studies Association) TEPSA is a multinational network comprising 29 members. It aims at accomplishing its goals of analysis, assessment and advice, which have been the major guidelines for the activities of the TEPSA network in the past years. Following this approach, TEPSA provides high quality research on European integration in order to stimulate discussions on policies and political options for Europe. The main channel for transferring ideas and results of research from the national to the European level and vice versa is TEPSA’s member institutes which operate independently but in line with TEPSA’s goals on the national and transnational level. The Trans European Policy Studies Association exemplifies the ‘bottom-up’ approach to European governance, contributes to the EU’s dialogue with citizens and reaches out to an informed debate in member states and applicant countries. The activity of the TEPSA network has been accompanied over the past decades by a broad and target-group oriented communication and dissemination strategy. This includes a regular newsletter, publications and the use of mass communication such as the TEPSA website. Also TEPSA’s member institutes contribute with their own communication policies to the efficient dissemination of TEPSA’s work. In 2007, TEPSA has been focusing particularly on the following priorities: The critical analysis and assessment of selected policy areas of the European Union, mainly in the field of the EU foreign policy and on issues related to EU constitutional change The linkage of citizens to the European Union and discussion of main policies of the European Union, mainly through TEPSA Friends meetings The provision of advice on and analysis of current issues of the European Union by TEPSA’s Pre-Presidency Conferences TEPSA’ S INTERNAL ORGANISATION The governing body of TEPSA is its Board which is composed of the Chairperson Prof. Wolfgang Wessels (Jean Monnet Chair, University of Cologne), the Secretary General, Graham Avery (Honorary Director General of the European Commission) and the following members: Prof. Gianni Bonvicini (Istituto Affari Internazionali, Italy), Andrew Duff (MEP), Dr. Gunilla Herolf (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute), Dr. Nikos Frangakis (Greek Centre of European Studies and Research), Prof. Iain Begg (London School of Economics, Great Britain), Jean-Victor Louis, Hanna Ojanen (Finnish Institute for International Affairs), and Dr. Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (The College of Europe, Natolin, Poland). Activity Report 2007 7 The decision-making structure furthermore consists of the General Assembly, composed of the representatives of all Member Institutes and Associate Member Institutes. TEPSA’s secretariat is based in Brussels, composed of the Secretary General and three assistants. III EXECUTIVE SUMMARY In 2007, the Trans European Policy Studies Association has been responding to the EU’s main challenges , ready to evaluate and investigate at the internal and external level the key aspects and developments of EU integration. TEPSA’s activities are supported by a grant received from the European Commission’s ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme. The grant has been especially useful to allow TEPSA to achieve its objective of supporting its Europe-wide network of member institutes in the implementation of ongoing projects, and in the preparation of applications for new projects. TEPSA’s activities focused on the following elements: • Pre-Presidency Conferences These conferences took place in Lisbon in June 2007, and Ljubljana in December 2007. • Citizens’ Europe In the field of “Citizen’s Europe” TEPSA undertakes a variety of activities such as its “TEPSA Friends” events, conferences and a joint project with its Bulgarian member, the Bulgarian European Community Studies Association. • Cooperation with projects and networks of excellence TEPSA is an active partner in the network of excellence “EU-CONSENT” and the Franco-German initiative, THESEUS. • Policy-related activities Concerning policy-related activities, TEPSA has published a declaration on the occasion of the 50 th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome and especially provided expertise for the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee. TEPSA members have been able to take part in several conferences organised by the EU institutions. • Communication Strategy TEPSA’s communication strategy consists of its bi-monthly newsletter, its website and selected TEPSA publications. • Enlargement of TEPSA In order to optimize TEPSA’s outreach within an ever growing European Union, TEPSA’s membership was also enlarged in 2007.