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2007
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about the CER The CER is a think-tank devoted to improving the quality of the debate on the future of the European Union. It is a forum for people from Britain and across the continent to discuss ideas on how to meet Europe’s social, political and economic challenges. The CER works with similar bodies in other European countries, North America and elsewhere in the world. It is pro-European but not uncritical. It regards European integration as largely beneficial but recognises that in many respects the Union does not work well. The CER therefore aims to promote new ideas and policies for reforming the EU. The CER makes a point of bringing together people from the world of politics and business. Most of our meetings and seminars are invitation-only events, to ensure a high level of debate. The conclusions of our research and seminars inform our publications, as well as the private papers and briefings that business people, senior officials, ministers and commissioners ask us to provide. The CER is funded by donations from the private sector. It has never received core funding from governments or EU institutions. The CER’s work programme is centred on seven themes: ★ The euro and economic reform ★ Enlargement of the European Union ★ Reform of the EU’s institutions and policies ★ European foreign and defence policy ★ Transatlantic relations ★ Justice and home affairs ★ The EU’s relations with Russia and China
From left to right: Clara Marina O’Donnell, Tomas Valasek, Katinka Barysch, Susannah Murray, Philip Whyte, Charles Grant, Hugo Brady, Kate Meakins, Simon Tilford and Catherine Hoye
The CER in 2007 The signing of the Treaty of Lisbon in December 2007 may well prove to have been an important step in the history of the European Union. Not because the treaty will lead to big changes in the way the EU works – it will not, though it does promise to make the institutions more effective. But the agreement on the new text – assuming that all 27 members ratify it in 2008 – should allow the EU to leave behind six years of dull and sometimes acrimonious debates on treaties, institutions and constitutions. The Union will have more time and energy to deal with the crucial external challenges that will shape the way the continent develops in the coming years, and which most European citizens care more about than treaty change. These include the revival of Russian power, the economic success of China and India, climate change, energy security, international terrorism and migration.
In October Simon Tilford’s pamphlet on the EU’s emissions trading system proposed a new and independent institution to allot carbon allowances to each member-state (the current system involves an unseemly haggle between national governments and the Commission). David Miliband, the foreign secretary, picked up this idea and included it in his Bruges speech in November. In 2007 we held 42 seminars and conferences, not only in London, but also in Berlin, Bournemouth, Brussels, Istanbul, Moscow, Paris, Rotterdam and Washington. We published seven essays, two working papers, five policy briefs, three longer pamphlets and five web-only briefing notes. We also produced the CER bulletin – our most widely read publication – every two months, as well as a blog that allows us to react instantly to events.
The CER was busy with all those subjects in 2007. It is always hard to judge a thinkThe CER extended its work into new policy fields, publishing papers on the EU’s role in tank’s influence. One measure is presence in the media. We are cited more often than fighting organised crime (by Hugo Brady), and on how the Union should do a better job any other European think-tank in the international media. One Brussels think-tank, of promoting development in poorer countries (by Aurore Wanlin). Together with the Bruegel, carried out some comparative research. It counted the Dutch defence ministry, we ran a conference in Rotterdam on the need number of press mentions in the Factiva database, which covers more to bring about a convergence between defence, diplomacy and than 10,000 publications in 152 countries, in the year starting April development in post-conflict reconstruction. We managed a conference 2006. The think-tanks compared were Bruegel and the Centre for on the future of Taiwan in Brussels, and published a policy brief on the European Policy Studies in Brussels, the Centre for Global Development significance of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation, by Oksana and the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington Antonenko (from the International Institute for Strategic Studies). DC, and ourselves. Bruegel worked out how many mentions each think-tank had achieved per million euros of budget. The CER won Yet the bulk of our work continued to be in areas that we know well. easily, with 257, followed by the Peterson Institute with 175. One of these is EU enlargement. We published a policy brief on Serbia José Manuel Barroso by David Gowan (former British ambassador in Belgrade) but most of and Charles Grant, launch of Another measure of influence is the placing of opinion pieces in our efforts focused on Turkey. The CER believes that the question of ‘The Lisbon scorecard VII’, Brussels newspapers. In 2007 CER staff had seven pieces printed in the Turkish accession is of strategic significance for the future of the EU. Financial Times (more than any other think-tank), as well as a number in other We are one of the very few European think-tanks that devotes resources and attention reputable publications such as the International Herald Tribune and the Wall Street to this issue. We published essays on Turkey’s role as a European energy hub, on what Journal. In October, at the think-tank of the year awards hosted by the British European public opinion thinks of Turkey, and on the role of European businesses in magazine Prospect, the CER was named the best international think-tank. the accession process. At the fourth of our annual Bosphorus conferences, in October, we had not only Carl Bildt and a host of other European thinkers and politicians – Every now and then, think-tanks can point to a direct influence on policy. In June 2007, just including sceptics on Turkey such as Frits Bolkestein – but also three senior Turkish before the Brussels summit that agreed the text of what became the Treaty of Lisbon, the ministers: economy minister Mehmet Simsek, foreign minister Ali Baba¸ can and energy British government made a U-turn: it said it would veto the creation of an ‘external action minister Hilmi Güler. service’ (EAS), the plan to merge the foreign policy bureaucracies of the Commission and Council of Ministers. We believe that an EAS – an innovation that the CER first proposed in A second priority in 2007 was the Lisbon agenda of economic reform. We make no 2000 – would make EU foreign policy more effective, and we explained why in a piece for apology for continuing to focus on an area that sometimes inspires yawns: generating the Guardian website. We sent this to our contacts in the British government which, at the debate on how to improve Europe’s economic performance is of crucial importance. summit, finally supported the EAS. We were later told that our efforts had helped to stiffen As it has done every year since 2001, our annual Lisbon scorecard awarded the spines of those within the government who wanted the EAS. governments praise and criticism, depending on whether they had fulfilled or broken
their pledges on economic reform (the ‘heroes’ in 2007 were Denmark and the Netherlands, while Greece and Poland were the ‘villains’). But the 2007 edition included more economic analysis and, for the first time, contributions by outside authors. Commission President José Manuel Barroso launched this seventh Lisbon scorecard at a conference in Brussels, as did Italian Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli in Rome, and shadow chancellor George Osborne in London. Our line is that although there is much progress to be made, the Lisbon agenda has achieved more than many people acknowledge. We also published an essay by Ed Balls, then Britain’s minister for the City, on how the EU should best regulate financial markets; and a policy brief by David Shirreff of The Economist that analyses why there is no single market in retail banking. Our series of breakfast seminars in London and Brussels included events with Neelie Kroes, the competition commissioner, Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, Joaquin Almunía, the economics commissioner and Philip Lowe, the director-general for competition policy.
Priorities for 2008 In 2008 we shall continue ploughing all these furrows. We also expect to increase our work in four particular areas. One is the transatlantic relationship, in light of the forthcoming US presidential elections. In 2007 our DaimlerChrysler Forum on World Order and Global Issues – organised by the CER, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik and the Brookings Institution – continued to bring together top officials and thinktankers from both sides of the Atlantic, meeting for the 16th time in Berlin and then for the 17th time in Washington. At the end of 2007, we published an essay by Kori Schake, Bradley Professor at West Point, ‘The US elections and Europe: The coming crisis of high expectations’. This argues, convincingly, that the departure of George W Bush is unlikely to usher in a new era of transatlantic harmony – whoever wins the White House. A second priority for 2008 will be the European security and defence policy (ESDP). We are proud to have been at the heart of the debate over ESDP ever since its conception. Our proposal for the EU to merge with the Western European Union and take on a role in defence, published in September 1998, predated the Franco-British summit at St Malo – which gave birth to ESDP – by three months.
Our third focus in 2007 was the debate on treaty change, which created much more excitement among sections of the British media In 2008 the EU will be discussing a new European security strategy, than among most Britons. We argued against a British referendum to update the one agreed upon in 2003. As part of the preparatory on the Treaty of Lisbon, on the grounds that it would change little of work, Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt commissioned us to write significance in the way the British people were governed. Our a paper on the future of European foreign and security policy. In an approach was to encourage cool, calm and dispassionate debate, extended version of the paper that we published in December, as but we still earned plenty of abuse from those who reject our views. one of our series on Europe in 2020, we made proposals on how Turkish foreign minister My colleagues sometimes wished that they could spend more time Ali Baba¸can at the 4th Bosphorus to strengthen Europe’s defence capabilities, and we outlined on other, more stimulating think-tank projects. But within Britain strategies for the EU to adopt towards the Middle East, Russia and conference, Istanbul there is a great shortage of pro-European talking heads. CER staff China (the first essay in our 2020 series, Mark Leonard’s ‘Divided therefore consider it their duty to make themselves available to the media, when world: The struggle for primacy in 2020’, was published in January 2007). We also required. On treaty change, as on other subjects, we talk as often to journalists from published a paper by Tomas Valasek on how NATO and the EU could and should other countries as to those from Britain. work more closely together. We plan to remain in the thick of the debate on the new security strategy in 2008. In May our policy brief ‘Why treaty change matters for business and for Britain’ was launched at a joint meeting with Business for New Europe, with Richard Lambert, A third area where we shall step up our efforts is Russia. In 2007, as the rhetoric of director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, as keynote speaker. Then in Russian leaders became increasingly anti-western, Russia’s relationship with the EU July, in collaboration with Clifford Chance, we organised a major conference on the drifted from bad to worse. Since 2003 the CER has argued that the EU should deal significance of the new treaty. Speakers flew in from many European countries, with Russia as it really is, rather than as we would like it to be. That realist line has including Giuliano Amato, the Italian interior minister, Margot Wallström, the now become conventional wisdom in EU circles. But we persist in our efforts to foster Commission vice-president, Dimitrij Rupel, the Slovene foreign minister, Peter Altmaier, a better understanding between the two sides. We published two papers by Katinka Germany’s deputy interior minister, Ivan Miklos, the godfather of Slovakia’s economic Barysch on the EU-Russia relationship, organised a roundtable in Moscow on Russian reforms, and Maria João Rodriguez from the Portuguese presidency. Britain’s Jim energy policy, and (together with Russia Profile magazine) managed a major Murphy joined them to make his first speech as Europe minister. conference in Brussels on the EU and Russia. An impressive Russian delegation at that
event included Konstantin Kosachev, chairman of the Duma foreign affairs committee, Vladimir Chizhov, Russian ambassador to the EU, Stanislav Naumov from the Russian ministry of energy and industry, and Fyodor Lukiyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs. The CER is not entirely pessimistic about Russia-EU relations. Many influential figures in Moscow and in European capitals wish to maintain and deepen the European dialogue with Russia. Both sides share many common interests, particularly in the fields of energy, finance and security, and will benefit from collaborating on them. However, the EU and Russia will find it difficult to work together in their common neighbourhood: some Russians believe that the EU has no business to be involved in countries such as Ukraine, but European leaders must support the independence of these countries, and their democratic aspirations. A fourth priority in 2008 will be China. Since our first pamphlet on the EU-China relationship, published in 2005, both the EU’s trade deficit with China, and tensions over the undervaluation of the renminbi, have grown dramatically. We agree with the Commission that unless China takes steps to lessen the economic imbalances, there is a risk of Europe responding with protectionism. Economic arguments threaten to spill over into what has been, until now, a fairly friendly political relationship. In October, at a conference in London, we brought together leading European and Chinese intellectuals and policy-makers, to debate China’s impact on the world. Speakers included François Godement, Will Hutton, Jim Moran, Volker Stanzel, Adair Turner, Pan Wei, Martin Wolf and Zheng Yongnian. In the first quarter of 2008 we shall publish a comprehensive pamphlet, by myself and Katinka Barysch, on the EU-China relationship.
We will also continue to strengthen our advisory board, which is chaired by Nick Butler, Director of the Centre for Energy Studies in Cambridge. The new recruits in 2006 and 2007 were Iain Conn, chief executive of BP’s refining and marketing business; Caio Koch-Weser, vice chairman of Deutsche Bank; Christine Ockrent, editor in chief of France Télévision; and Kori Schake. Meeting twice a year, the board plays a crucial role in steering our work programme. British politics Although we regard ourselves as a European think-tank that happens to be based in London, we cannot ignore the local political scene. With the result of the next general election completely open, British politics promises to be unusually interesting in 2008. The economic policies of the three main parties are broadly similar, but on Europe they have very different positions. Nick Clegg, the new Liberal Democrat leader, leads an overtly pro-European party. He has written two CER publications, the first of which, ‘Do less to do more: A new focus for the EU’ (2000) made controversial proposals for the EU to pull out of several areas, including social policy. The second, ‘Learning from Europe: Lessons in education’, compared the British, Danish, Dutch and Swedish secondary education systems, concluding that Britain should learn from its neighbours by decentralising more.
Gordon Brown, who became prime minister at the end of June 2007, has so far taken a pragmatic but cautious approach to the EU. He supports the Treaty of Lisbon, yet seems reluctant to devote time to Katinka Barysch and Commissioner Brussels institutions and processes. We offered him some advice in a Almunía, breakfast seminar on CER pamphlet, ‘European choices for Gordon Brown’. This urged ‘Global financial stability and the Brown and his ministers to explain to the British people how the EU EU economic outlook’, London helps to deliver a wide range of benefits that one government on its own cannot achieve. The pamphlet also argued that they could best achieve their Early in 2008 we shall welcome Bobo Lo to the CER, as director of our Russia and objectives in the EU by putting time and effort into cultivating relationships with other China programmes. Bobo has been director of the Russia and Eurasia programmes at European governments, including those from small countries. Chatham House, and is the author of a forthcoming book on the Russia-China relationship. In 2007 we bade farewell to Aurore Wanlin, who took up a job in Paris. David Cameron, the Conservative leader, says very little about the EU, though many Three new researchers joined the team: Tomas Valasek, formerly policy director in the in his party are viscerally opposed to it. We hope that, as the prospect of power Slovak defence ministry, became our director of foreign policy and defence; Clara approaches, Conservatives become more pragmatic and less ideological in their Marina O’Donnell, who had worked at NATO, became a research fellow in foreign and attitude to the EU. We welcome the fact that many senior Conservatives are willing defence policy; and Philip Whyte moved from the Economist Intelligence Unit to the to exchange views with the CER. Pauline Neville-Jones, the shadow cabinet member CER, as a senior research fellow. Despite these changes on the research side, we have responsible for security, is an active member of our advisory board and took part in had great stability in our admin team for many years. Catherine Hoye, Kate Meakins half-a-dozen of our seminars in 2007. George Osborne launched the Lisbon and Susannah Murray continue to manage our wide-ranging activities with great cool scorecard VII and William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, was the guest of and aplomb. honour at our 9th birthday party, hosted by the French ambassador.
Ten years of the CER The CER was conceived at the annual British-German Königswinter conference, on the banks of the Rhine, by two British delegates. One was Nick Butler, then a senior policy adviser at BP, and the other David Miliband, who was about to become chief policy adviser to Tony Blair. Both were disappointed by the quality of the debate on Europe’s future – and in particular by the rigidity of an exchange between ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ Europeans that left no room for a pragmatic analysis of the need for reform and change. They decided that a new grouping was needed, and over the next two years brought together a set of like-minded people to design and plan what became the Centre for European Reform. The first CER pamphlets emerged in 1996, but only in January 1998 did the CER launch itself with an office and staff, consisting initially of just myself and Ben Hall. We wanted to set up a think-tank that would favour further integration where there was a strong case to justify it, but which eschewed traditional federalist thinking. We designed the CER to work not only on institutional issues and foreign policy, but also on questions of business, finance and economics. Those who built the CER wanted the EU to be open, outward-looking, business-friendly and willing to consider further enlargement. For the past ten years, we have held true to these principles. Our emphasis has always been on reform: how can we make the policy or the institution under consideration more effective? Thus most of our publications contain lists of recommendations, aimed at policy-makers and opinion-formers. The CER is not the most academic of think-tanks. Our concern is to bring about change, which means that our proposals have to be practical. It is gratifying to see that some of our ideas, regarded as unrealistic when they first appeared, have subsequently entered the mainstream. For example, in 2000 we proposed the abolition of the EU’s rotating presidency for foreign policy, and the merger of the jobs of the High Representative and the commissioner for external relations. At that time no EU government agreed with the CER. But if the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified, those reforms will be implemented in 2009. Since its establishment ten years ago, the CER has changed in some important respects. We began as a New Labour think-tank. But we soon realised that we would have more credibility if we worked closely with people from all the main British political parties. We are now a cross-party think-tank. A second change is that our mission has evolved. In our early years, our main aim was to improve the quality of the British debate on Europe. We have not succeeded in that task. The British discussion of the EU – particularly in some sections of the media – is less well-informed and more prone to exaggeration and simplification than it was ten years ago (tellingly, several British newspapers have closed their Brussels offices, leaving only The Economist, Financial Times, Guardian and Times with staff correspondents). However, we believe that without the CER’s presence, the UK debate would be even more dumbed-down than it is. The CER is still committed to raising the intellectual calibre of the British discussion on Europe. But ever since our first few years, our second mission has become increasingly important. This is to promote new ideas and policies for making the EU work better. We have become a European think-tank that wrestles with European problems and happens to be based in London. Few of our publications have a British focus. Quite often, politicians and officials in other EU countries take what we say and write more seriously than those at home. A third change is that our horizons have become more global. In our early years the CER was very focused on the EU’s internal development, such as the single market, the creation of the euro and institutional issues. Those issues remain germane to our work, but in recent years, as external challenges have started to shape the EU’s agenda, our own priorities have shifted. We now work extensively on places such as Turkey, Russia and China, as well as on global economic issues and climate change. Despite such changes, when I look back over ten years of the CER I am struck by the strong element of continuity. The first year that we published an annual report similar to this one was in 2002. In that report I wrote an article looking back over our first five years, and noted ten attributes that I thought set us apart from some other thinktanks. Those ten principles still shape the way the CER works, and are worth repeating. ➞
★ Teamwork. All staff help each other with their work. For example, defence experts help to edit papers on economics, while our economists work on defence papers. ★ Presentation. Our publications are rigorously edited, so that they are well-argued and readable. www.cer.org.uk is a clear, simple and user-friendly website. ★ The practical nature of our proposals. Some of our ideas are radical, but most of them are down-to-earth and practical, which increases the chance of them being adopted. ★ Small size. For the past five years the total staff has consisted of ten people or less, and we shall remain one of Europe’s smaller think-tanks. Staying small and employing mostly senior staff means that we stay flexible, focused and committed to quality control. ★ Proximity to the media. All researchers spend a lot of time explaining complex issues to journalists, who thank us by citing the CER’s work regularly. ★ Proximity to governments and EU institutions. We are in close touch with officials and politicians, in Europe and other parts of the world, which helps our proposals to be well-informed and relevant. ★ Proximity to the private sector. We spend a lot of time talking to business people, which helps us to stay abreast of trends in the corporate world, and to advocate a pro-business agenda (while not forgetting the issues raised by the more constructive and thoughtful trade unions and NGOs). ★ The quality of our seminars. We know how to run a good seminar. Most of our events are invitation-only and bring together small numbers of people from the worlds of business, politics and the media, which encourages a stimulating and frank exchange of views. ★ An international identity. Ever since our early years, more than half of our researchers have been non-British, and around half our seminars have been held in other countries, rather than in our home base of London. Surprisingly, few foreign policy think-tanks have built the kind of international networks that we have. ★ The activity of our advisory board. The role played by our distinguished board members – from business, politics, diplomacy and academia – is not decorative. They devote time and energy to helping us with our work programme. One constant has been the high quality of our staff, on both the administration and research sides. Those researchers who have passed through the CER have all gone on to great achievements. In alphabetical order: Alexandra Ashbourne runs Ashbourne Strategic Consulting, a successful defence consultancy; Edward Bannerman is the senior Treasury official at the British embassy in Paris; Dan Bilefsky is a staff correspondent of the International Herald Tribune; Steven Everts is in the cabinet of High Representative Javier Solana; Heather Grabbe is in the cabinet of Commissioner Olli Rehn; Ben Hall is Paris correspondent of the Financial Times; Daniel Keohane is a research fellow at the Paris-based EU Instititute for Security Studies; Mark Leonard is the founder and executive director of a new transnational think-tank, the European Council on Foreign Relations; Alasdair Murray is director of CentreForum, the Liberal Democrats’ think-tank; Adam Townsend is the commercial manager at Aconex, a fast-growing software firm; Kitty Ussher is an MP who was appointed to the government in July 2007 as economic secretary to the Treasury; and Aurore Wanlin works for Publicis, one of France’s leading public affairs and advertising companies. I suspect that there will still be a CER in 2018. After all, some or other aspect of Europe is bound to need reform. Whatever the CER looks like in 2018, I am confident that it will remain committed to excellence and originality, that it will employ only the best people, and that they will work as a team.
Charles Grant, Director
CER Events 2007 15 January: Launch of ‘Will the eurozone crack?’ with Marco Annunziata, Willem Buiter, Daniel Gros, Jean Pisani-Ferry and Martin Wolf, London 16-17 January: Seminar on ‘The future of European foreign policy’ with Robert Cooper and Mark Otte, Brussels 23 January: Breakfast meeting on ‘EU trade policy and the WTO round’ with Commissioner Peter Mandelson, Brussels 25-26 January: Seminar on ‘Ways to improve co-operation between defence, diplomacy and development’, Rotterdam 20 February: Breakfast meeting with The Rt Hon Geoff Hoon MP on ‘Is the EU good for business?’, London 23 February: Breakfast meeting on ‘The future of the European Commission’ with Catherine Day, Brussels 26 February: Launch of ‘The Lisbon scorecard VII’ with Francesco Rutelli, Rome 28 February: Launch of ‘The Lisbon scorecard VII’, with George Osborne MP, London 5 March: Launch of ‘The Lisbon scorecard VII’ with José Manuel Barroso (left), Brussels
American policy towards China and Taiwan’, Brussels
Britain’ with Richard Lambert (left), London
environmental balance for 2012’, London
20 April: Launch of ‘Divided world: The struggle for primacy in 2020’, London
19 June: Breakfast meeting on ‘The state of transatlantic relations’ with John Micklethwait, London
12 October: Forum on ‘China and the world’ with François Godement, Will Hutton, Adair Turner, Jim Moran, Volker Stanzel, Pan Wei and Martin Wolf, London
23 April: Roundtable with Business for New Europe on ‘Should British business think about EU institutional reform?’, London 24-25 April: CER/Brookings/SWP Forum on ‘World order and global issues’ with Christoph Heusgen and Tomas de Maizière, Berlin 26 April: Launch of ‘The EU and the fight against organised crime’ with Otto Schily (left), Brussels 9 May: Roundtable on ‘The French presidential elections’ with Dominique Moïsi, London 16 May: Dinner seminar with Ed Balls MP to launch ‘Britain and Europe: A City minister’s perspective’, London 22 May: Launch of ‘What future for EU development policy?’ with Gareth Thomas MP, London 23 May: Breakfast meeting on ‘The evolution of EU competition policy’ with Philip Lowe, Brussels
13 March: Roundtable with Linda Lanzillotta, on ‘The economic reform process in Italy’, London
9 June: Fringe meeting at the Compass conference on ‘The EU and globalisation: Help or hindrance?’ with Roger Liddle and Vicky Pryce, London
20 March: CER 9th birthday party hosted by the French ambassador. Speaker: The Rt Hon William Hague MP, London
14 June: Breakfast meeting on ‘Global intellectual property’ with Andrew Gowers, London
26-27 March: Conference on ‘The future of cross-strait relations, and European and
18 June: Launch of ‘Why treaty change matters for business and for
19 June: Roundtable on ’Public opinion and Turkish accession: Can perceptions be changed?’ with Simon Anholt and Sinan Ülgen, Brussels 26 June: Breakfast meeting on the new treaty with Sir John Grant, London 27 June: Roundtable on ‘What does reciprocity mean in EU-Russia energy relations?’, Moscow 5 July: Launch of ‘The EU should not ignore the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation’ with Oksana Antonenko and Pierre Morel, London 12 July: Seminar ‘Is Europe ready for global challenges?’ with Peter Altmaier, Giuliano Amato, Ulrike Guérot, Sylvie Goulard, Jim Murphy MP (left), Maria João Rodrigues, John Kerr, Ivan Miklos, Dimitrij Rupel, Stephen Wall and Margot Wallström (below), London 25 September: Fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference on ‘Does the centre-left have a vision for Europe?’ with The Rt Hon Peter Mandelson MP, Jim Murphy MP and Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, Bournemouth 5-6 October: 4th Bosphorus conference with Ali Babacan, Carl Bildt, Olli Rehn and Mehmet Simsek, Istanbul 11-12 October: Conference with the German British Forum on ‘Solutions for sustainability: Striking the energy and
16 October: Breakfast meeting with Commissioner Neelie Kroes, Brussels 30 October: Seminar on ‘The EU and Russia beyond 2008’, with Patrick Child, Vladimir Chizhov, Christian Cleutinx, Konstantin Kosachev, Fyodor Lukiyanov, Joan MacNaughton (left) and Helga Schmid, Brussels 7 November: Lunch seminar on ‘The EU’s role in regulating the City’ with Kitty Ussher MP, London 9 November: Roundtable with Valeriu Ostalep, Moldovan deputy foreign minister, London 13 November: Launch of ‘The US elections and Europe: The coming crisis of high expectations’ with Kori Schake, Washington 13-14 November: CER/Brookings/SWP Forum on ‘World order and global issues’ with Nicholas Burns, Washington 16 November: Breakfast meeting with Commissioner Joaquin Almunía (right), London 20-21 November: 3rd Franco-British Defence Forum with Desmond Bowen, Pierre Moscovici, Pauline Neville-Jones and General Wolsztynski, Paris 14 December: Roundtable on France and globalisation with Hubert Védrine, London
CER Publications 2007 Pamphlets
Policy briefs
The Lisbon scorecard VII: Will globalisation leave Europe stranded? Katinka Barysch, Simon Tilford and Aurore Wanlin (February 2007)
The EU should not ignore the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation Oksana Antonenko (May 2007)
European choices for Gordon Brown Charles Grant (July 2007)
Why treaty change matters for business and for Britain Hugo Brady and Charles Grant (May 2007)
How to make EU emissions trading a success Simon Tilford (October 2007)
Serbia’s European choice David Gowan (June 2007)
Essays
Russia, realism and EU unity Katinka Barysch (July 2007)
Divided world: The struggle for primacy in 2020 Mark Leonard (January 2007)
European retail banking: Will there ever be a single market? David Shirreff (December 2007)
Britain and Europe: A City minister’s perspective Ed Balls MP (May 2007)
Briefing notes (web only)
EU business and Turkish accession Katinka Barysch and Rainer Hermann (June 2007)
What to expect from the German presidency Katinka Barysch (January 2007)
What Europeans think about Turkey and why Katinka Barysch (September 2007)
Three questions that Europe must ask about Russia Katinka Barysch (May 2007)
The US elections and Europe: The coming crisis of high expectations Kori Schake (November 2007)
Hurrah for an end to EU navel gazing Hugo Brady (June 2007)
Preparing for the multipolar world: European foreign and security policy in 2020 Charles Grant with Tomas Valasek (December 2007)
Portugal’s presidency Katinka Barysch (July 2007)
Turkey’s role in European energy security Katinka Barysch (December 2007)
Working papers The EU and the fight against organised crime Hugo Brady (April 2007) What future for EU development policy? Aurore Wanlin (May 2007)
The CER guide to the Reform Treaty Hugo Brady and Katinka Barysch (October 2007) The roadmap to better EU-NATO relations Tomas Valasek (December 2007)
CER snapshots
Seminar on ‘The EU and Russia beyond 2008’ with (L to R) Helga Schmid, Andrei Zolotov and Konstantin Kosachev, October 2007, Brussels
Launch of ‘The Lisbon scorecard VII’, with (L to R) Charles Grant and George Osborne MP, February 2007, London
Launch of ‘Will the eurozone crack?’ with (L to R) Marco Annunziata, David Marsh, Katinka Barysch, Simon Tilford and Martin Wolf, January 2007, London
Giuliano Amato at ‘Is Europe ready for global challenges?’, July 2007, London
Forum on ‘China and the world’ with François Godement, Will Hutton, Adair Turner, Jim Moran, Pan Wei and Martin Wolf, October 2007, London
Ann Mettler at the launch of ’The Lisbon scorecard VII’, February 2007, London
Launch of ‘What future for EU development policy?’ with Gareth Thomas MP, May 2007, London
Lord Kerr at ‘Is Europe ready for global challenges?’, July 2007, London
4th Bosphorus conference with (L to R) Oguz Demiralp, Neil Kinnock, Can Paker, Ali Baba¸can and Frits Bolkestein, October 2007, Istanbul
Financial support Corporate members of the CER include: Accenture, Access Industries, APCO Worldwide, AstraZeneca, BAT, Barclays Bank, Berwin Leighton Paisner, The Boeing Company, BP p.l.c., British Bankers’ Association, BT, Citi, Chubb Investment Services, Clifford Chance, Daily Mail and General Trust, Deutsche Bank AG, EADS, EDS, The Economist, Euromoney, Finmeccanica, Fortis, German Marshall Fund of the US, Goldman Sachs, Group 4 Securicor, HBOS plc, JP Morgan, KPMG, Lehman Brothers, Lockheed Martin, Masterfoods, Merck, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Rolls-Royce, Scottish & Newcastle, Shell, Telecom Italia, Tesco, Thales, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Time Warner Europe, UBS AG, Unilever and United Parcel Services. In addition to our corporate members, numerous other companies have supported specific publications and events.
Income and expenditure Audited accounts for year ending 31.12.2006
Income for 2006 Total £982,072
Expenditure for 2006 Total £943,691
Donations
Staff
Projects/events
Administration/office
Other
Publishing
Publications/subcriptions
Events/travel
Advisory board members
Staff 2007
PERCY BARNEVIK .....................Board member, General Motors and former Chairman, AstraZeneca ANTONIO BORGES ..................................................................................Former Dean of INSEAD
Charles Grant is the director. His interests include transatlantic relations, the future of Europe debate, European defence, Russia and China.
NICK BUTLER (CHAIR) ..Director, Centre for Energy Security and Sustainable Development, Cambridge IAIN CONN ...............Group Managing Director and Chief Executive, Refining and Marketing, BP p.l.c. LORD DAHRENDORF ..............Former Warden of St Antony’s College, Oxford and EU Commissioner
Katinka Barysch is the deputy director. She also manages the programmes on Russia and Turkey, and takes a keen interest in EU enlargement and globalisation.
VERNON ELLIS .........................................................................International Chairman, Accenture RICHARD HAASS ................................................................President, Council on Foreign Relations
Simon Tilford is the chief economist. He focuses mainly on competitiveness, macro-economics, economic reform, demographics and the environment.
LORD HANNAY ..............................................................Former Ambassador to the UN and the EU IAN HARGREAVES ......................................................................................Senior Partner, Ofcom LORD HASKINS .........................................................................Former Chairman, Northern Foods
Tomas Valasek is director of foreign policy & defence. He specialises in European foreign and security policy, transatlantic relations, and the defence insdustry.
FRANÇOIS HEISBOURG .............................Special Advisor, Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique LORD KERR ................Chairman of Imperial College London and Deputy Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell
Philip Whyte is a senior research fellow. He specialises in fiscal and monetary policy, micro-economic reform and the EU budget.
CAIO KOCH-WESER ..............................................................Vice Chairman, Deutsche Bank Group FIORELLA KOSTORIS PADOA SCHIOPPA ..............................Professor, La Sapienza University, Rome
Hugo Brady is a research fellow. He specialises in justice and home affairs as well as the reform of EU institutions.
RICHARD LAMBERT ......................................Director General, The Confederation of British Industry PASCAL LAMY ......................................Director General, WTO and former European Commisisoner DAVID MARSH .........................................................................Chairman, London & Oxford Group
Clara Marina O’Donnell is a research fellow. She specialises in European foreign and defence policy, European neighbourhood policy and the Middle East.
DOMINIQUE MOÏSI .............................Senior Advisor, Institut Français des Relations Internationales JOHN MONKS ............................................General Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation
Catherine Hoye is the events and office manager. She also manages the accounts and is PA to Charles Grant.
BARONESS NEVILLE-JONES .................National Security Council Adviser to the Leader of the opposition CHRISTINE OCKRENT ...................................................................Editor in chief, France Télévision WANDA RAPACZYNSKI ......................................Former President of Management Board, Agora SA
Kate Meakins is publications manager and website editor. She designs all CER publications and organises their production. She also manages subscriptions, sales and marketing.
LORD ROBERTSON ........Deputy Chairman, Cable and Wireless and Former Secretary General of NATO KORI SCHAKE ...........................Research fellow, Hoover Institution and Bradley Professor, West Point LORD SIMON OF HIGHBURY .....................Former Minister for Trade and Competitiveness in Europe PETER SUTHERLAND .......................................Chairman, BP p.l.c. and Goldman Sachs International LORD TURNER ................................................................Non-Executive Director, Standard Chartered plc ANTÓNIO VITORINO .....................................................................Former European Commisisoner
Susannah Murray is the events assistant. She also provides administrative support to the researchers and manages the CER’s database.
annual report “The Centre for European Reform, by far the best of all EU think-tanks in London” The Guardian “A think-tank that manages to be both Atlanticist and Europhile” The Economist “A think-tank with an increasingly influential role in the shaping of official policy” The Financial Times
Centre for European Reform 14 Great College Street London SW1P 3RX UK
Tel: +44 20 7233 1199 Fax: +44 20 7233 1117 info@cer.org.uk www.cer.org.uk © CER 2007
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