Speech by Hans-Gert Poettering MEP, Chairman of the EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament,
at the opening session of the fourth EIN Summer University,
Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon - 22 September 2005

Thank you very much, Luís (Marques Mendes) and Wilfried (Martens) for being here today and for your kind remarks about the Group and the European Ideas Network. My special thanks go to James Elles, the initiator and the "soul" of the European Ideas Network, for once again setting up an outstanding event.

As leader of the EPP-ED Group - the largest political group in the European Parliament - it is my pleasure to welcome you to this opening session of our European Ideas Network summer university for 2005. I am delighted to see so many of you here with us this morning.

This is our fourth summer university - after Oxford, El Escorial and Berlin. Some of you will have been at our first gathering in Oxford three years ago - when 150 people from a dozen countries came together at the start of an interesting and exciting journey. This weekend, here in Lisbon, we will be over 300 people from 30 countries - all brought together by our common desire to discuss policy and ideas among political friends.

We did not choose Lisbon for this year's summer university by coincidence. Five and a half years have passed since the Lisbon European Council of March 2000 set out its strategic goal for the next decade "to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion". It was always my conviction that we have to be modest in language, but ambitious in action. After most EU member states have further fallen behind instead of out-competing other economies, the new strategy now favours an increased focus on two principal tasks: Delivering stronger, lasting growth and creating more and better jobs.

The European Ideas Network has been an important political initiative by our Group. We have been attempting to build - I think successfully to date - something unique: a network think tank on a continental scale. A network designed to promote lively discussion and new thinking about the key issues facing the countries of the European Union.

The widening and deepening of the Ideas Network reflects the fact that opinion-shapers and policy-makers in Europe - whether from the worlds of politics, business, academia, think tanks, or the media - want to come together to discuss the big economic, social and foreign-policy questions of our time.

We are particularly delighted to be joined by the representatives of over 40 think tanks - now working with the EIN across Europe. In Berlin last year, we brought these friends together for the first time. Now they are helping to build a self-confident community of thinkers who can in-put directly into the policy process.

For the centre and centre-right in European politics, the EIN has already become an important generator of policy ideas. Our own group is finding its contribution very valuable. Increasingly, as Wilfried Martens has hinted, the EPP parties nationally find the same.

In the European Parliament, the centre and centre-right is now the dominant force in shaping policy outcomes. The power that we enjoy there we want - and try - to use well and wisely. The EIN is the think tank process that can help us make the right choices for Europe.

An important task confronting the European Union is to insure the proper functioning of the EU institutions and to guarantee an efficient decision making procedure.

We thought we had found a constitutional settlement that could improve democracy and accountability in the European Union. Now we must ensure that the constitution or the best parts of the constitution are saved. We must also ensure that Europe really does "less but better", with fewer legislative proposals addressing the key problems in a more professional way. We must look at ways of making the institutions function in a more legitimate and a more effective manner - for example, through opening up law-making in the Council, in the absence of treaty change.

The European Union is a system of values linking peoples and nations together and providing them with an identity. The European identity is the result of both European history and culture. European integration never went beyond its natural borders and there was no necessity until now to reflect on our common European identity. Today, we have to address the issue of the limits to enlargement of the Union - and its capacity to absorb new members. We need an effective Eastern policy for the EU and we need to define the borders of the Europe Union.

As a result of our definition of the European values and its identity, we have to give a response to the Turkish application for EU membership. Personally, I am convinced that a Turkish membership would overstretch the European Union in every dimension, financially, geographically, historically and culturally. Our group agrees that the negotiation process, which might last many years, has an open-ended character and in order to be successful, will require from Turkey constant and substantial efforts to pursue its modernisation.

In the French and Dutch referenda on the European Constitution in May and June, we witnessed, in many ways, a new phenomenon. Fear of loss of European identity, but also fear of market forces in modernising our economies led many to say 'no' to a constitution.

In my view, the European Ideas Network is now at the cutting edge of the battle of ideas in Europe. It can and should play a key role in freeing people from the fears of the future - of globalisation and an interdependent world - and help us all in identifying workable solutions to many of the challenges of tomorrow.

The political left in Europe has a strategy of playing on people's fears - and making them worse. The disappointing result of the elections in my own country last Sunday highlights the resilience of the left in resisting change and mobilising a constituency of fear. Fear of change. Fear of the future. We represent the political forces that want to offer a better future, by embracing the possibilities of economic change and spreading the benefits widely, to increase the well-being of our citizens and to make our continent more successful.

These are the kind of issues the EIN is addressing:

• Understanding globalisation and harnessing it positively;
• to ensure that the economic advance of China and India becomes an opportunity, not a threat;
• Embracing the digital economy;
• Using the market to generate better education and healthcare.

Addressing the consequences of climate change, which will shape not just environment policy, but energy policy, and potentially our whole way of life. This involves revisiting the issue of nuclear power - because the energy crisis requires it, and because it can be more environmentally friendly than fossil energy sources.

Making Europe a force for freedom and prosperity in the world - by promoting human rights, advancing free trade, and offering a hand of partnership to countries that want to become modern democracies.

Above all, "putting Europe to work" - so that we can end the absurdity of 20 million unemployed, by freeing our economies to generate jobs and wealth. Demographic change and the pensions crisis require it. Europe will face a major challenge in the decades ahead: The ageing of its population as a consequence of the unprecedented growth in the number of elderly, combined with a decline in the number of young people. By 2050, Africa and Asia will account for about 90% of the increase in the world population while the population of most European countries will decrease. The attitude of our society towards children must change. Without children, there will be no future for Europe!

Fortunately, the European Ideas Network is looking at these, and many other, key questions. That's why - as I have said before - it is genuinely "an idea whose time has come".

So now, for us all today, the time has come to start work - and begin the task of thinking afresh. Today's discussions are structured around ten working groups.

As you will see, we have put together a strong cast of chairmen, rapporteurs and panellists to help lead the discussion in the working groups. Around sixty of you have kindly agreed to serve on panels in some ways. We are all very grateful to you.

The cast list of guest speakers at our event is also impressive. After lunch today, we will have a general discussion on the future of centre and centre-right politics with Chris Patten, one of the most stimulating thinkers in Europe. This evening, I am delighted that we will be joined over dinner by José Manuel Barroso, who will be exploring some of the globalisation issues so important to our future. Tomorrow morning, José María Aznar will lead a discussion on transatlantic relations, a subject critical to the success of the West. And so it goes on.

On Friday evening, at the start of the 'European Ideas Fair', we are very privileged to welcome over dinner in Sintra, Anibal Cavaco Silva, the man who brought Portugal into the European Union and is likely to be the centre-right candidate in January's presidential election. The Ideas Fair itself then has a terrific line-up of outside speakers, including Carl Bildt and Bernard-Henri Lévy.

These promise to be very stimulating days. The Ideas Network is all about the free flow of ideas in a relaxed setting, with no right or wrong answers.

I have always believed that the "idealists are the true realists". Let us think new thoughts - and refine old ones - together, in this unique international forum that it is such a pleasure for me to attend and a privilege for my group to sponsor.

Thank you very much.