Project "New Pact for Europe" as an initiative of the European Union expert communities

The threat of the collapse of the European Union or the exit of individual countries is one of the constant factors of the European integration. The article is devoted to an initiative of a consortium of European experts whose task is constant monitoring of the situation in the European Union and the weakening of excessive public pressure through organization of public hearings on the problems within the EU. The article considers the initiative of a Belgian public fund (King Baudouin Foundation). The Belgian fund proposed the creation of a European community of experts to develop proposals in the form of New Pact for Europe. This initiative led to the creation of a transnational consortium which included several European public funds and expert groups from Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Finland. The project was started in November 2013 and its planned completion is in late 2015. In the consortium an analytic group and a group of advisers were set up which are a form of communication between politicians and citizens of countries outside the EU. The analytical group consists of fifteen representatives of various countries, well-known researchers of the European Union, the heads of analytical centers from Belgium, Slovakia, Spain, France, Great Britain, Finland, Greece and Poland. Advisors Group consists of twenty five influential political figures, representatives of non-governmental organizations, European parliamentarians, prominent scholars and public figures. Among them are former Italian Prime Minister, former Prime Minister of Hungary, former Irish Prime Minister, Ambassador of Denmark in Brussels, the European Commission President, MEPs. From December 2013 to April 2014 more than 50 public hearings in the EU were organized. The main result is the first synthesis report prepared by a consortium, the "New Pact for Europe." Experts have identified five strategic answers to modern challenges of the EU, namely: (1) Return to the starting position of European integration, as if rewinding the story in reverse, and then start a new movement, free from errors; (2) consolidation of past achievements and clipping the wrong decisions; (3) an ambitious move forward, with errors ignored; (4) "Great Leap Forward" (economic and political union is the only answer); and finally, (5) a fundamental revision of the logic of integration. In the first report, the group of experts came to the conclusion that there is no single answer to the challenges of the present and it is even impossible to formulate a clear hierarchy of actions. There is a considerable intertwining of internal and external factors that must be addressed in the future European Union. Expert "think tanks” and the involving of the general public in the discussion of the pressing problems of the EU contribute to sustain EU’s high readiness to look for new options for the development, reforms and modernization of the EU institutions in the name of sustainable development.

Keywords

Authors

References