A MAKE OR BREAK YEAR FOR THE UNION APRIL 23, 2015 AUTOWORLD APRIL 23, AUTOWORLD #EUROPEANDIVIDES @POLITICOEurope GOLD SPONSORS 2 AGENDA 3 16.30 Registration 17.15 Welcome remarks Ralph Büchi, President International, AXEL SPRINGER John F. Harris, Editor-in-Chief, POLITICO Matthew Kaminski, Executive Editor, Europe, POLITICO 17.25 Interview: Enforcing EU Competition Policies Moderator: Carrie Budo Brown, Managing Editor, Europe, POLITICO Margrethe Vestager, European Commissioner for Competition 17.40 Panel: European Growing Pains Moderator: Pierre Briançon, Senior Correspondent, POLITICO Guy Verhofstadt, Member of the European Parliament, Leader of the ALDE Group Carl Bildt, Former Prime Minister and Former Minister for Foreign A airs of Sweden 18.00 Panel: Putting Europe on the Digital Map Moderator: Ryan Heath, Senior EU Correspondent, POLITICO Andrus Ansip, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Single Market Marietje Schaake, Member of the European Parliament Frédéric Mazzella, Founder and Chief Executive O cer, BlaBlaCar 18.25 Interview: How to Deal with a Resurgent Russia Moderator: Matthew Kaminski, Executive Editor, Europe, POLITICO Jens Stoltenberg, Secretary-General, NATO 18.40 Discussion: Insights into US Politics Mike Allen, Chief White House Correspondent, POLITICO John F. Harris, Editor-in-Chief, POLITICO 18.55 Interview: The Role of the European Parliament Moderator: Florian Eder, Managing Editor, Policy, Europe, POLITICO Martin Schulz, President of the European Parliament 19.10 Closing remarks and cocktail reception Program modifi cations due to the extraordinary European Council meeting. 4SPEAKERS MARTIN SCHULZ @MartinSchulz President EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Martin Schulz was born on December 20, 1955 and grew up in Hehlrath, Germany, close to the German-Dutch-Belgian borders. After high school, he decided to try to make a living out of his passion for books and he did an apprenticeship as a bookseller. In 1982, he opened his own bookstore in Würselen, which he successfully ran for 12 years. He joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany at the age of 19, where he started his political career. At the of age 31, he was elected mayor of Würselen, the youngest mayor of North Rhine-Westphalia. He held this post for 11 years. Since 1994, Schulz has been a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) and has served in a number of committees, fi rst serving on the sub-committee on Human Rights and then on the Committee on Civil Liberties and Home A airs. He led the SPD MEPs from 2000 and was subsequently elected Vice-Chair of the Socialist MEPs. In 2004 he was elected group leader of the second largest group in the European Parliament. As leader of the Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament, Schulz campaigned for social justice, promoting jobs and growth, reforming fi nancial markets, fi ghting climate change, championing equality and creating a stronger and more democratic Europe. Schulz was elected President of the European Parliament on January 17, 2012 for a mandate of two and half years with 387 votes. On July 1, 2014 he was re-elected President with 409 votes, becoming the fi rst President in the history of the European Parliament to be re-elected for a second term. He is married with two children, and his hobbies include reading, history and football. Among his favorite books are The Leopard by Tomasi di Lampedusa and all the books of Eric Hobsbawm. JENS STOLTENBERG @jensstoltenberg Secretary-General NATO Jens Stoltenberg has been Secretary-General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since October 2014. Between 1990 and 1991, Stoltenberg was State Secretary at the Ministry of the Environment of Norway. He then held the following posts: Minister of Industry and Energy of Norway (1993-96), Minister of Finance (1996-97) and Prime Minister of Norway (2000-01). Since 2002 he has been Leader of the Norwegian Labor Party. From 2005 to 2013, he was Prime Minister of Norway. While Stoltenberg was Prime Minister, Norway’s defence spending increased steadily, 5with the result that Norway is today one of the Allies with the highest per capita defence expenditure. Stoltenberg has also been instrumental in transforming the Norwegian armed forces, through a strong focus on deployable high-end capabilities. Under his leadership, the Norwegian government has contributed Norwegian forces to various NATO operations. During his tenure as Prime Minister, Stoltenberg frequently called for NATO to focus on security challenges close to Allied territory. Stoltenberg is a strong supporter of enhanced transatlantic cooperation, including better burden-sharing across the Atlantic. He sees NATO and the EU as complementary organizations in terms of securing peace and development in Europe and beyond. Stoltenberg has had a number of international assignments. These include chairing the UN High-level Panel on System-wide Coherence and the High-level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing. He was until recently UN Special Envoy on Climate Change. ANDRUS ANSIP @Ansip_EU Vice President for the Digital Single Market EUROPEAN COMMISSION Andrus Ansip was appointed Vice President of the European Commission with responsibility for the Digital Single Market in November 2014. Before moving to Brussels, he was a member of both the Estonian and European Parliaments. This followed almost nine years spent in Tallinn as Estonia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, when Ansip worked with both center-right and center-left parties to lead three di erent coalition governments. During his time as Prime Minister, he also acted as chairman of Estonia’s liberal Reform Party. Ansip fi rst entered national politics in September 2004 when he became Minister of the Economy. Up to this point, his career was spent in Estonia’s second largest city of Tartu where he was born in 1956. Ansip was Mayor of Tartu for six years after working in banking and business. A chemistry graduate from the city’s university, Ansip is married with three children. 6 MARGRETHE VESTAGER @vestager Commissioner for Competition EUROPEAN COMMISSION Margrethe Vestager was Danish Minister for Economic A airs and the Interior from October 2011 to September 2014, Minister for Education from December 2000 to November 2001, Minister for Education and Minister for Ecclesiastical A airs from March 1998 to December © Trine Sondergaard 2000, Political leader of the Social Liberal Party from June 2007 to August 2014 and President of the ECOFIN Council from January 2012 to June 2012. She has been a member of the central board and the executive committee of the Social Liberal Party and of the European A airs Committee since 1989. She was National chairwoman of Social Liberal Party from 1993 to 1997. She was a member of the board of directors of ‘ID-Sparinvest A/S’ from 1996 to 1998 and Chairwoman of the Advisory Board, Institute for Management, Politics, and Philosophy from 2003 to 2008. She was member of the Board of Advisors, Royal Greenland from 2004 to 2007, member of the executive committee of UNICEF Denmark from 2007 to 2011 and member of the Trilateral Commission from 2010 to 2011. She was the editor of the members’ periodical Radikal Politik (Social-Liberal Policy), from 1990 to 1991. She has written articles and given lectures on politics and political-organisational subjects, including the EU. She also contributed to: Brud (Break), 1994, Værdier i Virkeligheden (Values in Reality), 2000, Opbrud på midten (Departure from the Centre), 2002, and Epostler (Epostles), 2003. Vestager has a master of science in economics from the University of Copenhagen 1993 and is Matriculated from Varde Upper Secondary School 1986. She is married to Assistant Professor Thomas Jensen MA and they have three children: Maria, Rebecca and Ella. GUY VERHOFSTADT @GuyVerhofstadt MEP, Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Guy Verhofstadt was born in 1953, and attended school and university in Ghent, where he studied law. In 1972, he became President of the Liberal Flemish Students’ Union in Ghent and, four years later, was elected as a City Councillor there. Keen to follow his interest in national politics, Verhofstadt went on to take a number of high profi le posts including Political Secretary to Willy De Clercq, National President of the Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV), an MP in the House of Representatives, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget, a Senator, and National President of the PVV and National President of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). In July 1999, he became Prime Minister of Belgium, heading three separate governments over the course of nearly ten years. 7 In June 2009, Verhofstadt was elected to the European Parliament where he pursued his interests in European politics after winning the unanimous support of the ALDE Group in their leadership contest. In addition to his duties as a politician, Verhofstadt has written a number of books including The United States of Europe (2006), The New Age of Empires (2008) and Emerging from the Crisis: How Europe can Save the World (2009). Verhofstadt is married to Dominique Verkinderen. They live in Ghent and have two children, Charlotte and Louis. MARIETJE SCHAAKE @MarietjeD66 MEP EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Marietje Schaake (www.marietjeschaake.eu) has been serving as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Dutch Democratic Party (D66) with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) political group since 2009. © Bram Belloni Schaake is the ALDE Coordinator of the International Trade committee (INTA). She is the spokesperson for the ALDE Group on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). Schaake additionally serves on the committee on Foreign A airs (AFET), where she focuses on strengthening Europe as a global player. She works on the EU’s neighborhood policy, notably Turkey, Iran and North Africa and the broader Middle East. In the subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI) she speaks on human rights and coordinates the monthly human rights resolutions for ALDE.