IEP Lunch Debate with Sir Peter Torry: “After the European Council: The British Council Presidency on Balance”
The British Ambassador Sir Peter Torry initially emphasised that the true crisis of the European Union is not of an institutional or financial kind, but rather that one speaks of a job crisis. High unemployment in individual member states is the central problem that must be solved in order to keep pace with global competition. Moreover, the EU can only be politically successful if its economic basis is maintained and expanded. In doing so, the trust of the citizens will also be won back. Regarding the Hampton Court summit, Ambassador Torry explained six working areas in which the heads of government of the member states agreed to continue to develop in the future. He identified research as the first of these five areas. The establishment of a European research council must be strived for and paths to stronger engagement of private enterprise in the research sector must be found. Closely related to this is Torry’s second point: The elevation of universities to high-performance educational institutions. Thirdly, answers to demographic development must be found. The fourth main point of the concrete measures presented is in the area of energy policy, where, in addition to deregulation, a diversification of energy suppliers must be pursued in order to be able to provide citizens and enterprises with energy under “affordable conditions” in the long term. The fifth point, the area of security and immigration, is equally important for an increase in acceptance of the EU among the citizens. However, in addition to protecting against illegal immigration, it is important that the opportunities brought for European economies by legal immigration are appreciated. Sixthly, the roll of Europe in the world must be made more visible, which is why a reform of the ESDP and CFSP must be sought. Through this bundle of measures, said Torry, the significance of Europe will be made more clear in the eyes of the citizens, which would be the first step to overcoming the current acceptance crisis.
According to the ambassador, these priorities also enable an agreement on the financial framework 2007–2013. In the future, the focus must lie with investment and not in large subsidies for agricultural policy, which lead to enormous distortions in the payment structure of the EU. If this anomaly is corrected, said Torry, Great Britain will be prepared to negotiate on its accession rebate.
In his conclusion, Ambassador Torry provided a broad overview of the state of affairs in a diverse array of questions, such as opening accession negotiations with Croatia and Turkey, developments in climate protection, the negotiations on the service directive, and EU positions on the upcoming WTO negotiations. He stated that it was still too early to offer concluding remarks on the British Council presidency, because analyses are only now coming to a close, especially due to the Council presidencies in the second half of the year that were delayed by the summer recess.
Dr. Daniel Göler is a research associate in the project “A Citizens’ Europe – Constitution and Efficient Policy”, carried out by the ASKO EUROPA Foundation and the IEP. Timo Goosman is a research associate at the IEP.
