An international youth that promotes the values of an open society We, Urban Strandberg and Cecilia Malmström, would like to announce the creation of an exciting and innovative new initiative: an international youth think tank that promotes the values of an open society.

With contemporary populism and nationalism sowing seeds of mistrust and threatening the values of open society, it is more important than ever to exercise optimism and critical thinking to bolster democracy and sustainable development. Stability, creativity, and diversity are promoted when public institutions and decision-making are built on active citizen participation, knowledge based on science and well-tried practice, rule of law, and a dynamic cultural life. Open borders make it possible for individuals and organizations to seek out where their goals can best be realized.

Despite their current contentiousness, the value of open borders is self-evident for many young people, who acknowledge a multifaceted world in which they can benefit from these values and realize their projects. We think that young people’s visions and experiences should be mobilized to counterbalance contemporary narrow-minded and pessimistic political agendas. We strongly believe in the power of young people in Europe and want to convey their ideas and perspectives to decision makers in public institutions, civil society organizations, and the business community.

We have therefore designed what we believe to be a unique approach, namely to start an entirely new organization that combines the typical features of think tanks and international youth conferences. This creates both a supportive forum for young people where they can develop their projects, and a trans-generational bridge between young people and established decision-makers in business and societal institutions. The overall objective of the organization will be to strengthen and support democracy and open society as well as to create an international platform for discussions about the conditions for future sustainable development and prosperity.

Annual youth conferences will be organized, with participants ranging from 18-25, with different employment and educational backgrounds, and from various European cities, suburbs, and rural settings. We strive for diversity and are looking for enthusiasts – people who are passionate about what they are doing. The participants’ main task will be to set the agenda for the think tank’s following year by distinguishing two or three future challenges to suggest to the think tank’s Fellows and staff for special attention.

Our goal is to set up the think tank as a legally and economically independent organization located within Global Business Gate (https://globalbusinessgate.se), inaugurated with a youth conference in the autumn of 2021, when the City of Gothenburg is celebrating its 400th anniversary. We envisage that Global Business Gate will offer a splendid location for our think tank, since it will summon great economic, political, and organizational power, and therefore be attractive for the youth. Urban Strandberg Dr and Associate Professor in Political Science Manager for the International Youth Think Tank Project

E-mail: [email protected] Phone +46 730 59 55 15

We are very inspired by and have strong confidence in the two very long-term operating initiators of the Global Business Gate project. On the one hand the global trading company Elof Hansson which is run as a foundation. Elof Hansson started in Hamburg, in 1897, and moved to Gothenburg in 1904. Elof Hansson is trading globally with pulp, paper and board; timber and building materials; plants and machinery for the pulp, paper, packaging and sugar industries; and electrical home appliances. The other initiator of Global Business Gate is Alecta, who manages occupational pension plans for 2.4 million people and 34,000 businesses across . Alecta was established in 1917 as a result of a common desire of Swedish employers and their employees to provide greater security to more people also after the end of their working lives.

KVVS – The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg (http://kvvs.se/) hosts the project during the planning process, and Global Business Gate provides planning means. KVVS was founded in 1778 and is an independent learned society encompassing different disciplines in Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences. We very much appreciate the long-term aptitude of KVVS as well as its overall societal mission, and are thus very happy that KVVS supports the think tank project by hosting it during the planning process.

A milestone in the planning process is to organize a youth conference on November 11-14, 2019, which can also partly be considered a follow-up to the EU social summit held in Gothenburg in 2017. We will invite a diverse group of 40-50 European 18-25 year-olds, and give them three assignments: (1) develop their views on the values of open society and how they can be defended; (2) develop ideas on how the think tank can be organized to promote these values and to be attractive to future youth conferences; and (3) come up with suggestions for naming the think tank.

The conference will be embedded within Kvalitetsmässan, Europe’s largest conference and trade fair on organizational and social development (http://kvalitetsmassan.se/). The majority of the time, the youths will hold their own meetings: getting to know each other, meeting specially invited inspirational lecturers, and working on their three assignments. They will also report progress on their assignments in two pop-up occasions, receiving comments from Kvalitetsmässan’s visitors. Finally, the youth will be the main event in Kvalitetsmässan’s grand closure after lunch on November 14, when Swedish EU-minister and members of the think tank’s international reference group will participate. The youths will hold a press conference and present what they have achieved regarding their three assignments. This will also make up the first grand launch of the entire think tank project.

Cecilia Malmström, Commissioner for Foreign Trade and Trade Agreements, . Urban Strandberg, Dr. and Associate Professor in Political Science, Director of Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg

Urban Strandberg Dr and Associate Professor in Political Science Manager for the International Youth Think Tank Project

E-mail: [email protected] Phone +46 730 59 55 15

International reference group to the planning of the international youth think tank

Monica Frassoni is the co-chair of the European Green party, and the president of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EUASE). Monica is the President of the Management Board of European Centre for Electoral Support (ECES). She is a former Member of the , where she served for two terms until 2009. She is also a member of the board of trustees of “Friends of Europe” a leading think tank that works for the promotion of a more inclusive, sustainable and forward-looking Europe. In addition to that Monica is also a board member of the “ Women Caucus” an inter-institutional platform for discussion, bringing together female leaders in the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Council of the European Union and the representations of the EU Member States to the EU. Monica is a Political Science graduate from the University of Florence Cesare Alfieri. Her political career started in 1983, when she became actively involved in the European Federalist Movement, before being elected as Secretary General of the European organization of Young European Federalists (“JEF Europe”) in 1987. Monica’s involvement in youth policies continued when she was appointed president of the European Co-Coordinating Bureau of Youth NGOs, position she held from 1991 to 1993. Monica Frassoni also took part of the executive of the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) in 2006. Monica is part of Spinelli Group, an initiative launched in 2010 that promotes the federalist push within the European Union decisions and policies.

Pam Fredman is President of the International Association of Universities (IAU), a membership- based organization, created under the auspices of UNESCO in 1950, serving the global higher education community. Pam is appointed by the Swedish government to investigate the model for governance and resource allocation to Swedish Higher Education Institutions. Pam Fredman previously served as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Gothenburg from 2006 until 2017. She is a Professor of Neurochemistry and has held several leading positions within the University of Gothenburg, for example as Dean of the faculty of medicine at the University of Gothenburg – the Sahlgrenska Academy. Over the years, Pam has been active in a large number of scientific and scholarly contexts. Pam Fredman has for example been Chair of the European Society of Neurochemistry and she is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, IVA.

Allan Larsson is Special Adviser on the European Pillar of Social Rights, to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. Allan has an extensive policy experience at national, European and international levels, as well as in academia. Allan is a former Swedish Social Democratic politician. From 1990 to 1991, he served as Minister for Finance. From 1991 to 1995, he was a Member of the Swedish parliament. From Sweden’s entry into the European Union in 1995 to 2000, Larsson served as Director General for DG Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities in the European Commission under Commissioner Pádraig Flynn. Allan has previously been chair of the board of .

Cecilia Malmström is a Swedish politician who has served as for Trade since 2014. She previously served as European Commissioner for Home Affairs from 2010 to 2014, and Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs from 2006 to 2010. She was a Swedish Member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2006. Cecilia holds a doctoral degree in political science from

Urban Strandberg Dr and Associate Professor in Political Science Manager for the International Youth Think Tank Project

E-mail: [email protected] Phone +46 730 59 55 15 the University of Gothenburg, where she also is awarded honorary doctoral degree. She has researched and taught in the fields of European politics, regionalism, immigration and terrorism. Cecilia is actively participating honorary member of REGU – The Council for European Studies at the University of Gothenburg. She participates as keynote speaker at numerous meeting at conferences in Europe and overseas.

Rainer Münz (PhD, Social Sciences, University of Vienna) is Senior Adviser on Migration Policy to Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission. Prior to joining the EPSC as special adviser on Migration and Demography, Rainer was Head of Research and Development at Erste Group, a Central European retail bank headquartered in Vienna. He also worked as Senior Fellow at the European think tank Bruegel (), the Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWI) and at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI, Washington DC). Until 2004, Rainer had an academic career as researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 1980-1992 and at the Department of Mathematics of Finance/ TU Vienna, 2002-2004 as well as university professor at Humboldt University, Berlin (1992-2002). He also was visiting professor at the Universities of Bamberg, UC Berkeley, Frankfurt, HU Jerusalem, Klagenfurt, Vienna and Zurich. He currently teaches at the Central European University (CEU), Budapest. In 2000-01 Rainer was member of the German commission on immigration reform (Suessmuth commission). Between 2008 and 2010 he was Member of the high level “Reflection Group Horizon 2020-2030” of the European Council (Gonzales commission). Currently he is one of the chairs of KNOMAD, the World Bank’s Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development and co-chair of IOM's Migration Advisory Board.

Susan Owens Susan E Owens (OBE, FAcSS, FBA) is Emeritus Professor of Environment and Policy, Department of Geography, and Fellow Emerita of Newnham College, University of Cambridge. Susan has researched and published widely in the field of environmental governance. Her current projects are concerned with relations between science and politics, and with the role of argument, evidence, ideas and advice in policy formation and change. She has also worked extensively on interpretations of sustainable development in theory and practice, and has theorised connections between environmental planning conflicts (especially those concerned with contentious technologies and infrastructures) and developments in wider domains of public policy. She has supervised many PhD students on environmental and science/policy topics. She was appointed an OBE in 1998 and was a recipient of the Royal Geographical Society’s ‘Back’ Award in 2000. For the academic year 2008-09 she was the King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor of Environmental Science, hosted by Stockholm University's Resilience Centre and the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH); and she was Honorary Professor at the University of Copenhagen, 2008-13. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2011 and holds Honorary Doctorates from KTH, Stockholm (2012) and the University of East Anglia (2015). Susan is a member of Defra’s Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee (HSAC) and of the Science Advisory Council of the Stockholm Environment Institute (of which she is Chair-elect). She has previously served on the Research Committee of ESRC (2007–11), the Council and Research Committee of the Royal Geographical Society (2009-2012), the Science Policy Advisory Group of the Royal Society (2008–13) and the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP) (1998– 2008). From 2003-2006, she chaired the Governance Working Group of the European Environmental

Urban Strandberg Dr and Associate Professor in Political Science Manager for the International Youth Think Tank Project

E-mail: [email protected] Phone +46 730 59 55 15

Advisory Councils (EEAC), a network of official environmental advisory bodies in European countries, which prepares working papers and reports, and seeks to influence the direction of environmental governance within the European Union and its member states.

Lenka Rovná is Professor and Vice-Rector for European Affairs, Deputy Director of the Institute of International Studies, and Director of West European Studies, Charles University, Prague. Lenka has founded and managed the IIS Department of West-European Studies. She is a guarantor of the West- European Studies programme and Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in European Studies (first of its kind in Central and East Europe). She is interested in current issues of European Union and cultural studies of the United Kingdom and Canada. She has given lectures at Canadian universities in Ontario, Québec, and Calgary. She was an alternate member of the representative of the Czech government when the EU Constitutional Treaty was being created. In 2004, she was appointed a knight of the National Order of Merit by the French president for the contribution to European affairs. She has also been awarded the Jean Monnet Chair Ad Personam title for European political studies. She is a member of the University of Helsinki research council, the international advisory board of CERGU – Centre for European Research at the University of Gothenburg, ECSA-Canada in Montreal, an evaluator of the European Commission programmes Jean Monnet and Horizon 2020, and a member of the Czech Commission for UNESCO.

Anna Terrón Cusí is Director of the International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP), FSP. Anna is Chair of UNU-GCM’s Advisory Board. Anna’s career in the public sector has primarily focused on the European Union and international affairs. Internationally, she has developed much of her activity in the Middle East and Maghreb, and in the Atlantic Africa and Latin American regions. International migration and human mobility have been her fields of specialization. She is former Secretary of State for Immigration and Emigration of the Government of Spain (2010-2011) and former Secretary for the European Union of the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Catalan Government Delegate to the European Union (2004-2010). She has been a member of the Committee of the Regions (spokesperson at the Commission on Citizenship, Governance, Institutional and External Affairs) and member of the European Parliament (1994-2004). She was member and spokesperson of her political group (1999-2004) of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee. She has been appointed Special Advisor to Commissioner Cecilia Malmström on migration and Mediterranean issues. She holds a Political Science and Public Administration Degree.

Urban Strandberg Dr and Associate Professor in Political Science Manager for the International Youth Think Tank Project

E-mail: [email protected] Phone +46 730 59 55 15