Our World in 2014

NEW EUROPE

Our World
in 2014
Hassan Rouhani

Enrico Letta

Edi Rama

SPECIAL EDITION ISSUE#1064 JANUARY 2014 €5

Alexis Tsipras

Bill Gates

Joseph E. Stiglitz
Wang Yi
Tsvetan Vassilev

James Cicc oni

Dominic Barton
Jimmy Jamar
Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou

Welcome to New
Europe’s Our World in
2014. Leaders have
written about the
challenges and hopes,
for the year ahead.
It is an edition that
will carry the political,
business, and civil
society agenda for
the year to come, and
shine a light on the
winding footpath for
#ourworld in 2014

Giovanni Kessler

Rick Falkvinge

Gianni Pittella
Christine Lagarde

Nicos A. Rolandis

Androulla Vassiliou
Shinzo Abe
Eamon Gilmore

The world in 2014 has
many colours, some
darker and some
lighter. Europe, at a
turning point, drawn
back by austerity
and inequalities both
on the national and
European level, looks
apprehensive as it
heads to elections this
coming spring while
other parts of the
world enjoy the fruit of
growth but also face the
challenges of accrued
rapid expansion. It
makes for a colourful
world and the colours
are changing.

Christopher J. Loeak

Neelie Kroes
Park Geun-hye
Emily O’Reilly

Artur Mas i Gavarró

Jean-Marc Ayrault
Anni Podimata
George Osborne

EPA/JAGADEESH NV

www.neweurope.eu/2014

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

02 JANUARY 2014

NEW EUROPE

The five stages of grief
By Konstantin Tsapogas-von Taube
Managing Editor,
New Europe

NEW EUROPE

n school history textbooks the description
of the decline and fall of empires, great
civilisations and legendary cities was always factual and sterile. It never went into details, never answered questions about the way
these obviously monumental historic events
were felt and understood by the people living
through them.
Did they recognise the process of decline?
Did they see the fall coming? Did they recognize events for what they were? Did they
delude themselves? Did they gradually and
unconsciously adapt to a lower level of self
confidence, of living standards, even of self respect? Did they go through the Kübler-Ross
model of the “five stages of grief” (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance)?
Knowing all this would be helpful to interpreting the contemporary flux in world
dynamics as it becomes increasingly felt. It
would also provide intellectual analytic tools
to dissect the accelerating change on different
levels and to put each flux manifestation into
perspective.
For the first time in human history, the
modern shift in the global center of gravity is
happening between oceans. A centuries-old
paradigm based on the universal cultural dominance or hegemony of the West is fraying, as is
the term “West” itself.
Originally used to describe a comprehensive cultural model native to Europe, “West”
expanded to encompass all points in the globe
where this model was transplanted, either
through colonial expansion as in the Americas
and Oceania, or through imperial reach as in
Asia and Africa.
This is the reason why previous change, as
the one following WW2, was not a change in
paradigm but an internal re-arrangement within the existing one. Power shifted from Europe
eastwards, but there it was stop-gapped by the
EDITOR
Basil A. Coronakis
coronakis@neweurope.eu
Managing EditorS
Konstantin Tsapogas von Taube
kt@neweurope.eu
e
Th odoros Benakis (Print ed.)
tb@neweurope.eu
Senior Editorial Team
Kostis Geropoulos

(Energy Russian Affairs)
kg@neweurope.eu
A dy Carling (EU Affairs)
n
ac@neweurope.eu
Dan Alexe (EU Affairs)
da@neweurope.eu
Christina Vasilaki (EU Affairs)
cv@neweurope.eu
A iti Alamanou (Legal Affairs)
r
aa@neweurope.eu
L uise Kissa (Fashion)
o
lk@neweurope.eu

Shrinking Europe. The Brussels tourist attraction, Mini Europe has had a reprieve till 2016, but what about ‘big’ Europe?

Contrary to the optimistic
declarations of European officials,
there is no indication of positive
progress or of inspiring vision
same basic western/European cultured powers, however changed and adapted by new
evolutionary tracks. Even this comparatively
minor adjustment of the center of gravity towards the Atlantic produced shattering effects
felt around the world and re-shaped the old
western cradle, Europe.
Seen within this context, the current economic and geopolitical shift of gravity from the
Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean underpins the many

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individual “crises” manifestations around the
West. In West’s European core, the magnitude of
the adjustment involved is expressed in the most
grievous terms and is certainly been felt this way
by societies long settled in the perceived inviolability of their supremacy.
Across the Atlantic, at least across the
Northern half of it, the effects, both actual and
perceptual are mitigated by the fact that both the
United States and Canada, have both an Atlantic
East Coast as well as a Pacific West Coast. The
United States was and remains an Atlantic power
but also (or more so) a Pacific power.
So does another “Western” continent/
state in the South, Australia, which plays an increasingly important role in the Pacific.
While these regional players are in a position to adapt or even to strongly influence the
shaping of the new geopolitical environment,
the real driving forces have no Western/European roots.
Obviously China and India are the main
actors, together with Japan, Korea and Indonesia. Other regional ascending powers may not
have the global reach of the bigger and more
established players but are rapidly gaining

BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM

ground. A prime example is Vietnam.
These countries would certainly deny
that they are revisionist states. Some would
even go to great lengths to disprove any such
suggestions. But the sheer mass of their development leads to a revision of the existing
geopolitical and geo-economic situation, as
mass always tends to exert huge gravitational
forces.
Europe is subject to these forces. At the
moment, perhaps partly as a result of their
influence, it seems to be locked in an introversion stasis, as it is searching for a new place and
role as an international actor.
This period of flux may explain European
navel-gazing as it may also explain the lack of
any clear direction or statesmanship that might
indicate such a direction. This may come after
European societies go through the “five stages
of grief ” and are able to move on, adjusting to
new challenges and new opportunities.
Contrary to the optimistic declarations
of European officials, there is no indication
of positive progress or of inspiring vision. An
increasingly bureaucratic “play safe” attitude
in Brussels combined with uninspired political
leadership in the member states attests to the
more than demographic aging of the European
societies that leads to a “circling the wagons”
attitude based on past perceptions.
The final stage of “acceptance” must be
reached, the earlier the possible, in order for
new ideas and approaches to be developed. So
Europe goes down in future history books as
one of the civilisations that reacted to stimuli,
adapted and averted oblivion.

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Last wish (fries)
Marta Zarina-Gelze (Latvia)

OUR WORLD IN 2014

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04 JANUARY 2014

INDEX

The five stages of grief
Konstantin Tsapogas-von Taube,
Managing Editor, New Europe

02

Catalonia moves to a vote

Three prerequisites to sustain
the European project

Artur Mas i Gavarró,
President of Catalonia

Beyond 2014

Basil A. Coronakis,
CEO, New Europe Group

08-09
EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE

21
Georgia’s dream: Europeanization as
democratic consolidation

22

Reforming France
Jean-Marc Ayrault,
Prime Minister of France

12 23

A future made in Europe
Enrico Letta,
Prime Minister of Italy

13 24

Acting and enacting
beyond borders
Edi Rama,
Prime Minister of Albania

14 25

Ireland on road to recovery
Eamon Gilmore, Tánaiste (Deputy Prime
Minister), and Minister for Foreign Affairs
and Trade of Ireland

Building a common space
of justice in Europe

33

Roadmap for investment
and innovation in 2014
James Cicconi, Senior Executive Vice
President External and Legislative Affairs,
ATT

For whom the bell tolls and is there
something rotten in Brussels?

34

Christian Engstrom, Member of The Greens European Free Alliance Group in the
European Parliament (Sweden)

The case for a new EU approach
in Bosnia and Herzegovina

35

Davor Ivo Stier, Member of the European
People’s Party Group in the European
Parliament (Croatia)

2014: Building a strong Greece
and resetting Europe

Tsvetan Vassilev, Chairman, Supervisory
Board, Corporate Commercial Bank

EU citizenship in crisis

Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Member of
the European People’s Party Group in the
European Parliament (Greece)

Mass surveillance is a danger
for democracy

Giovanni Kessler, Director-General,
European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF)

15 26

36

Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, Member of Alliance of
Liberal Democrats for Europe Group of the
European Parliament (Germany)

Making Europe Change Course
to Recapture Confidence

37

Saïd El Khadraoui, Member of the
Group of the Progressive Alliance of
Socialists and Democrats in the European
Parliament (Belgium)

The EU in perspective: lessons
from the people

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of
the European Commission

16 28
Carving a legacy in
education policy

Europa mutanda.
Dinosaur or gazelle?

Jimmy Jamar, Head of the European
Commission Representation in Belgium

Tanja Fajon, Member of the
Parliament (Slovenia), Vice-Chairwoman of
the Social Democrats of Slovenia (SD)

38

Our Affluenza-ridden leadership
and the relatable extremists

17 29

The Europe we want
Alexis Tsipras, Candidate for the
European Commission Presidency,
President of SYRIZA and leader
of the Greek opposition

David Usupashvili, Chairman of
the Parliament of Georgia

2014: EU at crossroads

Emily O’Reilly,
European Ombudsman

A new year’s message

Androulla Vassiliou, European
Commissioner for Education, Culture,
Multilingualism and Youth

32

Anni Podimata, Vice President of the
European Parliament, Member of the
Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European
Parliament (Greece)

Alexandros Koronakis,
Director, New Europe

It’s time to beat dementia

39

Islamophobia in Europe!

Minimum wage required in
all EU countries

Theodoros Benakis, Managing Editor,
New Europe (Print ed.)

19 30

Britain fights back

40
A strong EU needs a strong
parliament

George Osborne, Chancellor of the
Exchequer of the United Kingdom

20 31

Gianni Pittella, Vice-President of the
European Parliament and Member of the
Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European
Parliament (Italy)

Marina Yannakoudakis, Member of the
European Conservatives and Reformists
Group in the European
Parliament (United Kingdom)

Ria Oomen-Ruijten, Member of
the European People’s Party Group in the
European Parliament (Netherlands)

For a strong EU competition policy

41

Ramon Tremosa i Balcells, Member of the
Parliament (Spain)

OUR WORLD IN 2014

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INDEX

JANUARY 2014

05

Don’t limit solidarity, innovate it!
Lambert van Nistelrooij, Member of the
European People’s Party Group in the
European Parliament (Netherlands)

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

44

Fighting tax avoidance
a must for a social Europe
Satu Hassi, Member of The Greens European Free Alliance Group in the
European Parliament (Finland)

Reinventing the inter-Korean
relationship

45 56

Blacklisting
David Martin, Member of the
Socialists and Democrats in the
European Parliament (United Kingdom)

The formation of a
democratic Kyrgyzstan

Park Geun-hye, President of the
Republic of Korea

Has Iran Changed?
Mexico turns a corner
Enrique Peña Nieto,
President of Mexico

46 57

The fear of “L”

Hassan Rouhani,
President of the Islamic Republic of Iran

47 60
Europe needs a new path

48 61

Christopher J. Loeak, President of the
Republic of the Marshall Islands and
current Chair of the Pacific Islands Forum

Wang Yi, Minister of
Foreign Affairs of China

Mehmet Şimşek,
Minister of Finance of Turkey

51 64

73

52 65

Euroscepticism: Moving beyond
the naysayers

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director
of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

74

53 66

Making sense of pension reform

Niall Ferguson,
Professor of History, Harvard University

75
East Asia: visually faster
informed?

76

Living in an ever- changing
world in 2013

54 67

Burhan Jaf,
Ambassador of Iraq to Greece

Pascal Lamy, Former Director General of
the World Trade Organization, and
Chair of the Oxford Martin Commission
for Future Generations

Rehab World

Middle East security in 2014
Ehud Barak, Former Prime Minister
of Israel (1999-2001) and Minister
of Defense (2009-2013)

Greg Austin, Professorial Fellow,
the EastWest Institute (New York)

The perilous retreat from
global trade rules

Re-empowering the global
economy

Europe calling

George Soros, Chairman of Soros Fund
Management and of the Open Society
Foundations

Tipping point for China
and Taiwan

Economic shadows and light

Dan Alexe, Contributing Editor,
New Europe

Jan Krzysztof Bielecki, former Prime
Minister of Poland,
Mark Allen, fellow, CASE Research, Warsaw

72

China’s development makes
for a better World

Islam and the West

Foteini Kalantzi, Economist/International
and European Relations Specialist

71

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel laureate in
economics, is University Professor at
Columbia University

The shifting world economy

49 62
50 63

Dmitry Chernyshenko, President of
the Sochi 2014 Olympic Organizing
Committee.

The great malaise drags on

Shinzo Abe,
Prime Minister of Japan

Spyros A. Pappas, Managing Partner,
Pappas Associates

Francisco Jaime Quesado, General
Manager of the Innovation and Knowledge
Society in Portugal

70

Japan’s coming “Wage surprise”

Europe – after the peak

Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, Chairman of
the King Faisal Center for Research and
Islamic Studies

One month to go – a legacy
already achieved

2014 is our climate moment

EU political changes create
unique opportunity for
stakeholders
Michael Carney, Senior Vice President,
FleishmanHillard

69

What Iran wants

Kaushik Basu, Senior Vice President and
Chief Economist, World Bank

Bernadette Ségol, Secretary General,
European Trade Union
Confederation (ETUC)

68

Isaev Asein, Charge d’Affaires of the
Embassy of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan

Wolfgang Pape, Former official of
the European Commission

The Bewildered Kingdom
Mai Yamani, Author of
‘Cradle of Islam’

77

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

06 JANUARY 2014

INDEX

Energy

HUMAN RIGHTS

The hydrocarbons of Cyprus

80

Nicos A. Rolandis, Former Minister of Foreign
Affairs (1978-1983), Minister of Commerce,
Industry and Tourism (1998-2003) of Cyprus

Jan Malinowski, Head of the Information
Society Department, Council of Europe

94

Konstantin Simonov, Director General of
Russia’s National Energy Security Fund
(NESF)

95

Nicolas Beger, Director,
Amnesty International’s
European Institutions Office

Neil Datta, Secretary of the European Parliamentary Forum on Population
and Development

96

The global impact of US shale

83

Nigel Chapman, CEO,
Plan International, one of the world’s largest
and oldest child rights organisations working in 50 developing countries worldwide

108

97
98

Age of disruption
Dominic Barton,
Global managing director,
McKinsey Company

86

Manfred Neun, President,
European Cyclists’ Federation (ECF)

Bill Gates, Co-Chair,
the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation

87

How mobile can create a truly
connected continent

111

Anne Bouverot, Director General, GSMA,
an association representing
mobile operators worldwide

Yannis Vardakastanis, President,
European Disability Forum (EDF)

100

The Disability Movement Votes
for Inclusion!

88

Building trust – a long way
to go but will be achieved

Still searching – what we
asked Google
Andy Carling, EU Affairs Editor,
New Europe

2013 – The year on social media

101

Sympathy for the migrant

89

Kofi Annan, Former Secretary-General,
United Nations, founding chair of the Kofi
Annan Foundation, chair of The Elders and
the Africa Progress Panel.

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar,
Humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and
an ambassador of peace

Richard Eason, Social activist and
entrepreneur. Founder, Abundant Assets
Alliance UK. CEO LifeThrives CIC

Fellini and The Fondation Fellini
pour le cinema an European
adventure

112

Cav. Stéphane Marti, President, The
Fellini Foundation – Switzerland
International foundation for cinema
and culture

EU austerity hurts more
than the poor

113

Maria Kagkelidou, Journalist,
New Europe

Cyber Cute

102

Four powerful ways to happiness

90
91

110

Christina Vasilaki, Journalist,
New Europe

2014 – it’s time to balance
our social accounts

The emerging world’s
vaccine pioneers

Rick Falkvinge, Founder of the first
Pirate Party and campaigner for nextgeneration civil liberties and sensible
information policy.

Dr. Carol Cosgrove-Sacks, Director,
the Ethics in Finance Robin Cosgrove
Prize, Professor, College of
Europe, Bruges; formerly a
director in the UN, Geneva

Unemployment, the post-crisis
bubble

CULTURE AND SOCIETY

Digital world needs the same
rights as in the analogue world

Leo Sun, Head of Huawei Brussels and
European Public Affairs department

109

2014: The year global cities return
to human values

TECHNOLOGY

Andy Winters,
Teacher, trainer, lecturer
and writer

Health, wealth ethical?

Disasters put girls at double risk

Daniel Yergin,
Vice Chairman of IHS, author,
Pulitzer Prize winner

Theodota Nantsou,
Policy Coordinator,
WWF (Greece)

Restorative justice can save
people and society

A critical year ahead for the human
rights of women and girls

Kostis Geropoulos, Energy Russian Affairs
Editor a New Europe

Sonja Van Tichelen,
Head of the Brussels office of
the International Fund for Animal
Welfare (IFAW)

2013: a year of missed
opportunities for sustainability
in Europe

105

Gazing into the Energy Crystal
Ball for 2014

82

104

2014: a chance for the EU to put
people before politics

European gas market:
Russia is returning?

81

The EU must lead the herd and
save elephants

Threat of a 21st century gulag

103

Louise Kissa, Fashion Editor,
New Europe

114
The optimised new year’s
resolution

115

Alexander Anghelou, Psychologist
specialized in cognitive behavior therapy

OUR WORLD IN 2014

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INDEX

QUOTES OF THE YEAR

JANUARY 2014

65

Pictures of the year

Tim Berners-Lee

13
Pope Francis

17
Ban Ki-moon

69
Hassan Rouhani

70
John Le Carre

21

71

Amit Sood

The White House

25

77

Nelson Mandela

Malala Yousafzai

26

86

Jim Yong Kim

Jose Manuel Barroso

28
James McNeish

87
Arnaud Montebourg

31

95

Henri Malosse

Angela Merkel

34

97

Viviane Reding

Drew Faust

39
Laurie Anderson

100
Barak Obama

40

102

Christine Lagarde

Paul Kagame

41

108

John Kerry

Bill Clinton

48
Matt Damon

109
Mick Jagger

52

110

Prince Charles

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

12 38
Not all migrants reach
Lampedusa alive

Smog is affecting
China‘s catwalks

14 44
Aftermath of a tornado in
Oklahoma

Surfing Santa

15 45
Salvaging the Costa Concordia

Depardieu flees to Russia

16 46
All eyes on Sony

Train accident near Paris

19 47
Even Santa needs a little help

Fighting in Syria

20 50
Siuts waiting for take-off

French legionnaires
arrive in Mali

22 51
Another water shortage

Attack on a Nairobi
shopping mall

33 54
June floods in France

EU flags at half mast

36 57
Silvio Berlusconi
comes under pressure

Portugese storm

37 62
Open air school in Aghan
refugee camp

Baby parrot being fed

07

OUR WORLD IN 2014

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08 JANUARY 2014

NEW EUROPE

Beyond 2014
By Basil A. Coronakis

CEO, New Europe Group

Political understanding,
imagination and the
ability of the Greek
mind to incarnate the
abstract are the tools
for this analysis
Belgium - Brussels

A

s all economic predictions by think
tanks, Nobel Prize Laureates and
wise men have failed so far, a political
perspective together with much guessing may
be useful to attempt a forecast for the years to
come. Political understanding, imagination and
the ability of the Greek mind to incarnate the
abstract are my tools and here we are.
After more than half a century of stability,
societies are again on the move.
The years to come are likely to be turbulent,
as stability will be succeeded by fluidity and
the linearity of social progression will become
exponential. The numbers of neo-poor, will increase geometrically alongside the depletion of
the middle class.
Not always peacefully, the world will be led
to new situations defined by bottom up, emerging large events. Times will be critical for democracy, which only in Europe flourished in the
decades of the seventies and the eighties.
The recent rise of Far Right groups in Europe, a reaction to the prolonged socio-economic crisis and widespread corruption, will favor the phenomena of totalitarian regimes. The
Far Right is unlikely to rule in any European
country, but may open the door to governmentregimes, manipulated by judges and prosecutors acting as a contemporary de Robespierre.
A recent model is the catastrophic Tonino Dipietro “mani pulite” Italian experiment of the early
nineties.
Our future will be defined by our leadership
or by the lack of it. This was one of the main
characteristics of the period between the two
world wars.

CHINA

China will be the epicenter of the settlement of world balances after 2016, defined by
three elements.

Despite the promises of Lisbon, the EU has failed to perform on the world stage.

Pollution is the problem China cannot resolve. The production of one ton of steel, which
gives four dollars of profit, is producing pollution requiring thousands of dollars to cure. This
is out of question. More than 150 big Chinese
cities starting from Shanghai already face serious unsolvable pollution problems and it is
forecasted that in three years time 80% of Chinese people will become sick from respiratory
diseases.
China will then have the one-way course to
war. Conventional war with neighbors, probably Japan, as a confrontation with the US will
be fatal for all and thus it should be ruled out.
The second element to consider is the high
financial exposure of the west to China. Leaving
on the side the astronomic United States debt,
China has become the ATM of Europe. Germany has a debt of €200 billion and is followed by
France, Spain and others.
Third is the silent transformation of Africa
to China’s zone of economic and political influence.
Combining wars, debts and the new colonies, one can easily realize that China will have a
determining role in the world games of the near
future.

RUSSIA

Russia is rapidly becoming a neo-poor
country. Wealthy Russians are leaving the country together with their fortunes and move to
other places in Europe and the Americas. In
Belgium alone, 35,000 Russian families moved
into luxury houses, with properties in Europe
and fat bank accounts.
As Russia becomes poorer and the productive elements of the society abandon the coun-

try, autonomist forces emerge with terrorist acts
while religious extremists thrive.
Under the circumstances, the Kremlin having lost the opportunity to secure for Russia
a fair share in the digital revolution becomes
more and more authoritarian and introverted.
Today, to be a superpower, proper weapons and
nukes are not enough as they are bargaining and
war tools only.
To secure a position among the leading actors in the world theater, the military potential
for global destruction is required to build the
mistrust needed to obtain the balance. This is a
geopolitical axiom.
Yet, this balance must be spoken and explained to the people. In time of peace what
counts is perceptions as perceptions are realities. To generate perceptions the tool is the
same. During the Cold War it was called “propaganda” now it is known as “political communication” and it is digital.
As English is the world’s common language
and America globally controls most communication platforms while Russia has none, it is
likely in the years to come the later will opt for
more limitations of digital freedoms.

INTERNET

Russia and China both are afraid of the Internet because they cannot control it.
What Americans do and others do not, is to
use it to the maximum in governance and business. Indeed, the Internet is a Western invention
and developed into a component of Western
culture. Western societies do not care to control
the Internet because it is something virtual in
the air and people can make use of it, as it is.
The Internet is something like the Star

EPA/SHAWN THEW

Wars, Strategic Defense Initiative, of the eighties, which in essence was a perception that
trapped the Warsaw Pact into an expensive arm
race exercise to achieve something that did not
exist.
Limiting the Internet means limiting its
benefits. Furthermore, the USA developed
technologies and skills to digitally monitor citizens on everything, through social media, banking traces, consumer attitudes, medical records,
travel and all their digital communications. This
security feature neither Russians nor Chinese
can achieve as efficiently as Americans because
they have a different perception for the whole
idea.
In essence, Russia and China spent their efforts limiting the use of the Internet as they cannot control it. Americans have it free without
any control but all users, worldwide are closely
monitored. Including Russians and Chinese.
The Internet and globalization are the two
new factors changing the world dramatically
and rapidly. Those who cannot see it are already
out of the game.

The USA

Equally, certain key elements define the future course of the United States, which under
many aspects assumes a quasi-parallel course to
Russia.
America lost its chance to lead the world
in the nineties. After the end of the Cold War,
the USA remained, for a while, the only superpower in a unipolar system.
At that time, Washington could have easily
taken the world lead in knowledge and science
thus addressing the real issues of the planet,
i.e., environment, energy, nutrition and space,

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NEW EUROPE

but it did not. The key was to shift the industrial output of the world from arms and weapons to the production of cheaper and cleaner
energy, better air and water, better education,
new medicines, etc. Thus making the life of six
billion individuals better and the world more
democratic. This utopic approach would have
secured America the peaceful leadership for a
long time.
Instead of this, in the real world, Bill Clinton
abolished the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933, allowing commercial banks to invest the deposits of
their clients in securities. This was the prize for
his non-impeachment for the Lewinsky scandal.
The result was the unending economic crisis of the Western world, the most serious since
the establishment of our banking system in the
thirteenth century. As the rapidly thriving economic crisis was putting at risk the western ruling politico-financial elite from potential social
explosions with unforeseen prospects, most of
the freedoms of ordinary people in the West
were technically suppressed.
In September 2001, US President George
W. Bush, using the terrorist attack against the
New York World Trade Center as an excuse, declared the “War on Terror.” With the proper media manipulation, in the context of an artificial
national hysteria and with summary procedures
the notorious “Patriot Act” was passed on October 26, same year.
The “Patriot Act” which under utmost political pressure was transposed to all US allies
under various forms of legislation, expanded
in a multifaceted set of control rules and procedures varying from global telephone tapping
and preventive digital monitoring to unrestricted watch of bank accounts and economic
activities of citizens and to long term detention
of citizens without a court order.
This novelty, combined to the scarcity of
political leaders and political thinkers, granted
unprecedented powers to the executive overshadowing the legislative and the judiciary.
This is in brief the history of the rise of Dictatorship of the Administration in the West after
the collapse of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat in the East.
To cut the long story, short. After the NineEleven events, America was self-led to its own
introversion and isolationism, giving up the
privilege to be “the land of the free,” thus depriving individuals the motivation for creating and
producing.

EUROPE

In the past ten years, Europe became a black
hole which first imprisoned all European ideals
and now absorbs its economies.
The ten years of Jose Barroso’s rule proved
fatal for Europe, primarily for two reasons: The
unconditional surrender of European economies to Germany, and the mutation of the European Commission from being Guarantor of
the Treaties and locomotors of European integration, to a ‘system’ of redistribution of cash to
Member States, to use the less grave definition.
Indeed, what the Commission really did
in the last ten years was to collect monies from
the Member States, a percentage of their VAT
income, and redistribute it again to the Member
States after keeping a substantial cut for itself.

JANUARY 2014

09

The vanity of grandeur!
The huge banner is hanging
from the office of the President
of the European Commission,
at Berlaymont, the head offices
of the European Commission
in Rond-point Schuman, in
Brussels. In this way Eurocrats,
who did all the work for Latvia
joining the Euro, are informed
that it happened. This is the way
taxpayers’ money is spent to …
communicate Europe!

The “own cut” is fairly divided among those few
privileged Europeans working for the Institutions. The fair form is the dream tax-free salaries and fringe benefits, while the main part of
the “subject of re-distribution” is returned to the
Member States in the form of subsidies and EU
contributions to co-financed projects.
The beauty of the exercise is that, while the
money paid by State Budgets to the Community follows a transparent formula, the redistribution to the Member States comes in the form
of financing to private companies under conditions of “lose” audits.
This mechanism optionally allows the companies involved (if they want), to do things,
such as financing of politicians and political
parties, with the informal blessings of the governments and the tolerance of Brussels. Under
no circumstances would such ‘techniques’ be
possible if the money were paid for the project
directly from the government of the Member
State, using the national audit rules.
To this effect, the Brussels ‘system’ has set
their own internal rules, all stemming from the
discretionary power of the Commission, which
legitimizes any kind of ‘patent,’ otherwise pun-

ishable by penal law in Member States.
To note that, like in George Orwell’s Animal
Farm, “all animals are equal but some are more
equal than others,” also applies in our case to
some Member States, a few are more equal than
others.
Yet Europe is an idea and ideas do not die
and cannot be killed. Indeed, no matter how
much Europe is moribund, Europeans can and
will open a slot of hope in this gloomy outlook.
We live the last days of the political vacuum
characterized by the ‘vanity of grandeur’ of an
outgoing President who leaves behind ‘burned
earth.’
Jose Barroso, elected to Commission President a decade ago as a “compromise solution”
and despite his ambition to get a third term in
the Commission aiming to become Secretary
General of the UN, leaves Brussels without
honors.
Indeed, on October 12, 2012 Jose Barroso
announced the resignation of his Health Commissioner John Dalli, yet the later had not and
never resigned: A political mistake which cost
his re-election. New Europe is in the position
to know all details of this political thriller as it

Member States that care and worry
for the future of Europe must change
perceptions of Brussels

was its Editor that historic afternoon in October
who stopped John Dalli from signing his resignation, already announced by Jose Barroso.
Burning ashes, however, is the fertilizer and
the catalyst for the re-birth, the renascence of a
new Europe, which will emerge after the catastrophe. Our old continent is the only place in
the West with historical, philosophical and cultural genes capable to secure continuity through
disruption, produce the change we need and
address courageously and effectively the deadlocks of the world.
Ultimately, the question is in the hands
of the governments of Europe and the people
of Europe to elect the right European Parliament in May and soon after appoint the new
European Commission head and the new
Commissioners.
Member States that care and worry for the
future of Europe must change perceptions of
Brussels. The European Institutions, Parliament and Commission, are not “luxury parking
spaces” for decommissioned politicians and political enemies. Governments and Oppositions
in Member States, must work together, put
aside their differences and choose the best their
country has to send to the Parliament and send
for Commissioner their very top politician.
It will be the new government of Europe,
which will, or will not, get Europe out of its own
black hole and place it to the lead for addressing
the world problems of our times.

Basil A. Coronakis
coronakis@neweurope.eu


CONTENTs
OUR WORLD IN 2014

By Jean-Marc Ayrault
Reforming France

By Enrico Letta
A future made in
Europe

By Edi Rama
Acting and
enacting beyond
borders

By Eamon Gilmore
Ireland on road to
recovery

By Neelie Kroes
A new year’s
message

12

13

The Europe
we want

By George Osborne

For whom the bell
tolls and is there
something rotten
in Brussels?

By Emily O’Reilly

19

14

20

15

16

17

By Artur Mas i Gavarró
Catalonia
moves to a vote

21

By David Usupashvili
Georgia’s dream:
Europeanization as
democratic consolidation

By Giovanni Kessler
Building a
common space of
justice in Europe

By James Cicconi
Roadmap for
investment and
innovation in 2014

EU citizenship
in crisis

By Jimmy Jamar

Britain fights back

By Androulla Vassiliou

Carving a legacy
in education policy

By Alexis Tsipras

By Tsvetan Vassilev

22

The EU in
perspective:
lessons from the
people

24

26

28

By Alexandros Koronakis
Our Affluenzaridden leadership
and the relatable
extremists

29

By Theodoros Benakis
Islamophobia
in Europe!

By Gianni Pittella

23

25

A strong EU
needs a strong
parliament

By Anni Podimata
Three
prerequisites to
sustain the
European project

30

31

32

By Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou
2014:
EU at crossroads

33

By Christian Engstrom
Mass surveillance
is a danger for
democracy

By Davor Ivo Stier
The case for a
new EU approach
in Bosnia and
Herzegovina

34

35

By Jorgo Chatzimarkakis
2014: Building a
strong Greece
and resetting
Europe

By Saïd El Khadraoui
Making Europe
Change Course
to Recapture
Confidence

By Tanja Fajon
Europa
mutanda.
dinosaur or
gazelle?

36

37

Minimum wage
required in
all EU countries

38

39

40

By Ramon Tremosa i Balcells
For a strong
EU competition
policy

41

By Lambert van Nistelrooij
Don’t limit
solidarity,
innovate it!

By Satu Hassi
Fighting tax
avoidance a must
for a social Europe

By David Martin
Blacklisting

By Kaushik Basu

By Marina Yannakoudakis
It’s time to
beat dementia

By Ria Oomen-Ruijten

The fear of “L”

44

45

www.neweurope.eu

JANUARY 2014

By Michael Carney
EU political
changes create
unique opportunity for stakeholders

By Spyros A. Pappas
Europe –
after the peak

By Dan Alexe

49

50

51

Islam and the West

46

47

By Bernadette Ségol
Europe needs
a new path

NEWEUROPE

48

By Francisco Jaime Quesado
Europe calling

By Foteini Kalantzi
Euroscepticism:
Moving beyond the
naysayers

52

53

By Jan Krzysztof Bielecki
Making
sense of
pension reform

54

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

12 JANUARY 2014

By Jean-Marc Ayrault

Prime Minister of France

For the first time,
pension reform
has been carried
out in France
in continuous
consultation
with employers’
associations and
trade unions
France - PARIS
efore this year has ended, the French
parliament will have enacted a comprehensive pension overhaul, which is
essential not only to putting France’s public
finances on a sound and sustainable footing,
but also to shoring up confidence in the eurozone in 2014 and beyond. Moreover, how the
reform was carried out is as important as the
measure itself.
France has more favorable demographics
than most other European countries. Nonetheless, further effort was needed to strengthen the pay-as-you-go pension system by the
equivalent of one percentage point of GDP.
The contribution period will therefore be increased gradually, reaching 43 years in 2035.
This effort has gained broad public acceptance because it was fair: both retirees and
working people will contribute, as will companies and households. Financing and social

B


Reforming France

French President Francois Hollande welcomes German chancellor Angela Merkel as she arrives at the Elysee presidential palace on December 18,
2013 in Paris.
AFP PHOTO / ALAIN

needs alike have been taken into account,
while the drawbacks of the current system will
be addressed, benefiting women, people who
have experienced non-continuous careers,
those with particularly strenuous occupations,
and low-income retirees.
Most important, for the first time, pension
reform has been carried out in France in continuous consultation with employers’ associations and trade unions. Many people were expecting a showdown. Instead, an atmosphere
of constructive negotiation prevailed.
In other words, the key to success has been
justice, balance, and social dialogue. In September, a leading European Union official said
of a proposed measure, “This is a French-style
reform!” Regardless of whether it was intended as a criticism, I considered it a compliment.
Some in Europe think that the only good reform is one that hurts. This is not my vision:
yes, modernization is needed in the context

PICTURES OF THE YEAR

Coffins of victims are seen in an hangar of Lampedusa airport on October 5, 2013 after a boat
with migrants sank killing more than hundred people.
AFP PHOTO / ALBERTO PIZZOLI

of a changing world, but it does not have to be
divisive.
The challenge for Europe is to advance
without falling apart. That means providing
Europe’s citizens with a renewed sense of hope
and opportunity. France has been actively
helping to stabilize the eurozone by encouraging structural progress, such as the establishment of a European banking union. We also
need to strengthen social cohesion on the continent. That is the whole purpose of solidaritybased integration, as called for by President
François Hollande.
The European Council’s revision this
month of the Posting of Workers Directive,
which applies to employees who are sent temporarily to work in another EU member state,
is a good start. But we have to go further. The
establishment of an EU-wide minimum wage
would send a strong signal to citizens that Europe is a social reality.
In France, after ten years of decline in export markets, my government has embarked
on a bold strategy to restore our country’s
competitiveness. This year, we implemented
a reduction of social-welfare taxes that will
amount to around one percentage point of
GDP when phased in fully by 2016. France has
also undertaken ambitious reforms to reduce
job-market dualism and give greater flexibility
to employers as well as greater security to employees.
Moreover, the upcoming pension reform
caps 18 months of significant steps toward fiscal consolidation that have improved the effectiveness of public spending while financing
our priorities: education, the transition to a less
carbon-intensive economy, employment, health
care, and security. Our efforts have been unprecedented, resulting in deficit reduction amounting to 1.5% of GDP in 2012, 1.7% in 2013, and

an estimated 0.9% in 2014. By 2015, deficit reduction will rely entirely on spending cuts.
While we have responded to emergencies
in this period, we have not sacrificed our ability to push through more reforms in the future.
Indeed, the restoration of social dialogue as a
tool with which to forge long-lasting consensus represents a deep cultural shift that augurs
well for such efforts.
Many of these efforts are already underway: comprehensive reform of vocational
training, a framework for adopting new sources of energy, and, last but not least, a complete
overhaul of our tax system in favor of job creation and growth.
Ultimately, we will be judged on the basis
of our reforms’ economic efficiency and social
fairness. Our task is to demonstrate our ability
to reform government, offer high-quality public
services – for example, education and health care
– for all at a reasonable cost, and control public
spending in order to restore our ability to reduce
taxes without impeding debt reduction.
My ambition is the creation of a “new
French model” that places sustainable solidarity at its center, with all citizens aware of what
they owe everyone else. Such a model – in
which government empowers private initiatives and is dedicated to smoothing the major
economic and environmental transitions of
our time – offers opportunity for all, while relying on the power of collective action.
It is thanks to these values, to the acute
consciousness of what individual and collective strengths can achieve in tandem, that
France has always found the necessary resources to rebuild and modernize. By being true to
ourselves, and open to the world, we will make
our voice heard in Europe and beyond.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013.
www.project-syndicate.org

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu


JANUARY 2014

13

A future made in Europe
By Enrico Letta

Prime minister of Italy

Reindustrialization –
together with the
fight against youth
unemployment –
should top Europe’s
agenda in 2014,
with the goal of
establishing an
industrial sector that
accounts for 20% of
GDP by 2020
ITALY - ROME
ver the last three years, the European
Union, faced with the imperative of
calming roiled markets and laying the
foundations for a sound recovery, has concentrated largely on financial stability and reducing
fiscal deficits and debt. Now, with financial tensions easing and confidence returning, Europe’s
leaders should shift their focus in 2014 back to
the real economy and the industrial base. February’s meeting of the European Council of Ministers will be a good place to start.
To decide the best way forward, Europe’s
leaders should look to the past. Investment in
manufacturing – historically one of the main
drivers of growth in Europe – holds the key to
revitalizing the European economy.
Over the last decade, industrial policy has
been sidelined in favor of the financial and
service sectors. Manufacturing was deemed a
pursuit of the past, and Europe was no longer
considered a suitable location for competitive
industry. Many European countries have since
undergone deindustrialization. Industrial production in Italy, for example, has declined by
about 20% since 2007.
Nonetheless, the industrial sector continues to play a key role in the EU economy,
employing more than 34 million people and
accounting for 80% of exports, while providing a substantial share of private investment in

O

research and development. Industrial manufacturing thus affects every other sector of Europe’s economy, including the service sector.
In fact, despite policymakers’ shift in focus
and emerging-economy competition, European countries remain among the world’s top
performers in manufacturing, owing to the
many firms that have managed to adapt and innovate. Such firms have enabled Italy to move
beyond the “three Fs” – food, fashion, and
furniture – to cutting-edge sectors like biopharma, mechatronics, and aerospace.
A similar shift toward higher-value-added
manufacturing activities is occurring across
the EU. These developments suggest that Europe’s future success will depend on its ability
to combine its traditional economic strengths
with strong innovation.
EU countries should be working to create
the conditions that a thriving industrial sector
needs. For example, Italy’s recently launched
Destinazione Italia program will help Italian

AFP PHOTO / ANDREAS SOLARO

companies succeed by establishing a more
predictable tax system, reducing bureaucratic
red tape, and ensuring more effective contract
enforcement by strengthening the civil-justice
system. Such an environment would enable
firms to grow, while attracting foreign and domestic private investment.
But national efforts alone are not enough.
European firms are integrated into regional
and global value chains. A component produced by a company in Brescia might go into
equipment produced in Stuttgart, which might
then be assembled as a final product in Malaga.
In this context, no single country can reach its
full potential unless all are successful.
The most effective approach to restoring European competitiveness would be to
combine EU member countries’ individual
strengths, thereby forming increasingly productive European supply chains – or capturing the top positions in global supply chains.
This would require deepening the connec-

QUOTE OF THE YEAR

We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage
and the use of contraceptive methods. It is not necessary to talk
about these issues all the time.

Pope Francis

tions among national economies and fostering
a genuine, unbounded single market that integrates different countries’ relative strengths.
To this end, more targeted policies at
the EU level are essential. Remaining globally competitive will require investment in the
key determinants of future industrial production: energy efficiency and technological innovation. Given this, the EU should pursue
measures that support the competitiveness
of energy-intensive industry, with a particular
focus on reducing the energy-price gap with
Europe’s industrial competitors, such as the
United States and the emerging economies.
An efficient internal energy market is vital to
the delivery of affordable energy.
Another important initiative – a European Research Area – is already underway, and
should be implemented by 2014. By creating a
shared agenda for national research programs
and facilitating the circulation of skills and scientific knowledge – allowing, say, a top-notch
center for mechanical sciences in Italy to attract researchers from Finland or Portugal –
the research area promises to create an optimal
environment for innovation.
Beyond research and development, an innovation-driven industrial economy demands
workers with specific, high-level skills. Meeting this demand requires EU policies that promote secondary, upper secondary, and higher
education.
In order to create deeper, more integrated,
and more multi-dimensional markets, the
EU should place a high priority on free-trade
agreements, especially the Transatlantic Trade
and Investment Partnership currently being
negotiated with the US. Such trade integration
– and, eventually, a Transatlantic Common
Market – could prove to be one of Europe’s
most effective growth mechanisms, especially
for small and medium-size manufacturing
firms, in the coming decades.
European manufacturing companies also
need much better access to finance. One of the
most damaging legacies of the financial crisis
has been persistent credit rationing. In some
countries, half of all loan applications are rejected and financing costs have reached prohibitively high levels.
There is no reason why loans in Bozen
(Bolzano) should cost twice as much as those
in nearby Innsbruck; in fact, such arbitrary divergences merely undermine competition and
cause economic stagnation. If EU leaders do
not resolve this issue, including by pursuing a
full-fledged banking union, the positive effects
of reform efforts will quickly be nullified by
the lack of new investment.
Reindustrialization – together with the
fight against youth unemployment – should
top Europe’s agenda in 2014, with the goal of
establishing an industrial sector that accounts
for 20% of GDP by 2020. This will be possible
only through deeper EU integration. Indeed,
ever-closer union represents Europe’s only
hope of building a modern, innovative, and
prosperous economy.

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

14 JANUARY 2014


Acting and enacting beyond borders
By Edi Rama
Prime Minister of Albania

I

Albania - Tirana

regard citizenship beyond borders as one
of the most the most fascinating concepts
of our era; the era of globalization and
interconnectedness; the era of related fates
more than ever before. The idea is intriguing
as it does not refer only to classical nation-state
borders, but other borders that have appeared
more distinctively in the global era: the borders
made of biases toward nations, religions, cultures and ethnic groups; the borders between
politics and everyday life; the borders between
the reality of politicians and that of everyday
people; the borders between rich and poor as
fortified differences in income and quality of
life; the borders of democracy related to representation and participation.
As politicians and experts search new solutions to financial crises, detriment of natural
resources, administrative stalemates and various types of corruption, what I think remains
a main challenge before each national society and the international society is citizenship
beyond borders. This means revising all our
knowledge on and practice of citizenship by
questioning the concepts of the other, the foreign, the alien and regarding each border as a
totality of subjects to revisit.
This is totality of subjects that relates governments, national societies, activist groups
and individuals in the effort to engender globalization as a chance to confront the constructed and imagined differences and enhance
comprehension as well as larger, deeper and
diversified collaboration. Thus my country’s
determination to integration to the EU and attachment to the United Europe project is related to the will to contribute to the success of
a brilliant international project, the European
Union that would contribute to the prosperity

On the edge of a European future, an Albanian man walks along the beach at Durres, west of Tirana.

I regard United
Europe as a
destination
within us, not
beyond us
of millions and to a more equal world.
I am the head of a young government representative of a people that has experienced
imposed as well as self-imposed borders and
as such aware that democratic prosperity is an
effort beyond borders. And, this is not about


Lightning strikes during a thunder storm as tornado survivors search for salvagable stuffs at
their devastated home on May 23, 2013, in Moore, Oklahoma.
AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad

nourishing a national imaginary or political
populism. It is about the values on which this
project is based and the experience on which it
was built in order to avoid it forever. It is also
about the socio-cultural and political sensitivities it endorses and the democratic institutional framework it propagates. It is also because it
defies the nation, obviously not as an entity of
hope and liberation, but as an entity of prejudice and discrimination toward an exterior or
inner other.
Duly I regard United Europe as a destination within us, not beyond us. It is a destination beyond the borders in each of our nation’s
democracy, culture, politics and development.
Such borders should represent a past we learn
from to build a future beyond borders. Because all those who propagate invigoration of
borders, obviously as enforcement of biases,
prejudice and discrimination, are those who
live in the past of conflicts and clashes, fearing
a future where prosperity is not the monopoly
of some, but the common effort of thousands
and the reality of all.
Europe as destination within us not besides us, beyond us, external to us, is related
to the quality of daily democracy in our country; the awareness that our day to day actions
as decision makers affect the lives and opportunities of people today and generations of
tomorrow, the next generations of Europe; to
modernizing state reforms that target the administrative machine and the functioning of
the state in overall.
The more you read about modernization
the more you understand that it is hard to get
its definition. Though it is undeniable that it
is related to acting and enacting beyond borders that when modernization was firstly mentioned were different from those we mention
today, but obviously were still and, have since

EPA/ARMANDO BABANI

then been borders to the equality of opportunities (égalité des chances). We, in Albania,
have some way to go in order to ensure the
equality of opportunities. In this way reforming of state administration, reform in justice
and reformation of governments’ approach
to responsibility toward citizens is imminent.
Though none of these can be succeed without
the active participation of citizens and without
having as aim enacting citizens, as habitants of
the country and members of the society, beyond any distinctions.
Yet such acting and enacting would be a
mere imaginary or a continuously deficient
reality if it is not a common effort to find our
intercrossing beyond borders; a transnational
collaboration in micro-levels; a mutual work
to find regional convergences; an international
action to manage at the same time change and
stability; a pan-European cooperation for a
result oriented integration strategy. The relation of my country with EU institutions have
strengthened our government’s will to work
for membership to the EU that we regard one
of the projects for a world without constructed
differences and beyond the borders imposed
to the equality of opportunities.
Our world in 2014 could be a global
space haunted by ghosts of the past. Such
ghosts appearing mainly in the form of nationalist screams whose logic rests isolated in
buttressed castles of biases, may even cast a
shadow to the vision of future the EU constitutes. Yet our world in 2014 could also signal
the longest lasting triumph of the courage to
dream, to hope, to understand, to collaborate.
From my point of view it is this courage that
lies at the genesis of EU. It is the courage of acting and enacting jointly as people, as societies,
as groups, as individuals, as humans beyond
borders.

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu


JANUARY 2014

The exit of the bailout programme is ‘a significant moment not just for Ireland, but for Europe’ says Gilmore.

15

AFP PHOTO / PETER MUHLY

Ireland on road to recovery
By Eamon Gilmore
Tanaiste (Deputy Prime
Minister), and Minister
for Foreign Affairs and
Trade of Ireland

15 December,
2013 was an
important date
for Ireland
IRELAND - Dublin

O

n that day Ireland emerged from a
three-year EU/IMF programme of
assistance. Our economy is growing,
our finances are stabilised and unemployment
is coming down. Our strategy is working and
our people are getting back to work.
We are the first country in the euro area to
exit such a programme and it is a significant
moment not just for Ireland, but for Europe.
This crisis has been a test of national governments, of European solidarity and of the
European project itself.
The experience shows that while Europe
needs to find answers to its critics, the critics
must in turn recognize the real and substantial
signs of progress, hard-won by our people.
The decision Ireland has taken to exit the
programme without any further precautionary credit line is possible because of what we
have achieved. Competitiveness has been
regained as costs and prices have risen more
slowly than our trading partners. We have
made a budgetary adjustment equivalent to

18% of our GDP and introduced significant
structural reforms.
We have regained the confidence of international investors. We have funds immediately available to us equivalent to our entire
funding needs in 2014. From 2014 we will
have a primary budget surplus which means
we are raising more in revenue than we spend
on everything excluding debt interest.
But the measure of success I use before all
of those is jobs. From a situation where we
were losing 1600 jobs a week during the crisis,
we are now creating 1200.
Although unemployment remains unacceptably high at 12 ½ per cent, it has declined
consistently from over 15 per cent two years
ago. There is no better boost for national morale and no better measure of the recovering
health of our real economy, and the sustainability of our future.
Job creation is fundamental to our plan
of action in Ireland as it must be in Europe.
During our EU Presidency in 2013, together
with our EU partners, we adopted important
measures in this area. The establishment of a
Youth Guarantee is perhaps the one that most
directly addressed the concerns of a rising generation who risk feeling that the future has less
to offer them than it did for their parents. It
states that we will not let our young people fall
into unemployment without making every effort we can to equip them to succeed through
hard work.
Of course, the primary task of political
leaders is to set the right conditions for job
creation, and that includes stable public finances as well as targeted investment.
The example of Ireland shows that there
is a difficult but achievable balancing act to be
done. Through over 270 individual actions
required by the EU/IMF programme, and

enormous sacrifices from Irish households,
we have brought our debt under control and
made Ireland a safe bet for international lenders again.
This has had to be balanced however, with
significant measures to ensure that the difficult solutions to our legacy of banking debt
are achievable and respond to the most basic
demands of justice. It has to be balanced with
recognition that the sacrifices asked of people
in the name of fiscal responsibility must not
themselves fatally undermine the real economic growth necessary for any of this to work.
You cannot cut your way to jobs and
growth, and you cannot spend your way to
solvency. Where there is an undeniable commitment to reform of national public finances,
this must be matched with collective European action to ease the burden, especially in
terms of breaking the vicious circle of banking
and sovereign debt.

I am glad to say that in Ireland’s case that
European response has been forthcoming in
some important areas. Key terms of the programme were renegotiated, the interest rate reduced and a resolution found to the issue of the
Anglo Irish Bank promissory note. However,
work remains to be done at a European level.
We must complete and implement the project
of banking union, involving not just common
supervision, but a common resolution framework with an appropriate fiscal backstop and
effective deposit insurance arrangements.
If a bank anywhere in Europe can pose a
threat to the financial system of all its members, the necessary framework must be in
place to respond to that risk. We have set
out deliberately to integrate the European
economy for the prosperity – and security - of
all our people. We seek to realise the benefits
together, and we must guard against the risks
together.


Salvage operators in Italy lifted the Costa Concordia cruise ship upright from its watery grave off the
island of Giglio
AFP PHOTO / VINCENZO PINTO

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

16 JANUARY 2014


Euirope is coming out of the digital shadows to become a leading innovator in the new economy.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/AFP

A new year’s message
By Neelie Kroes

Vice-President of the
European Commission

Belgium- Brussels

E

urope is in troubled times and it’s easy
to lose hope. But I see a lot of opportunity out there – if we know how to capture it. Let me set out my vision for Europe: a
continent that is connected, open, and secure.
First, Europe needs to be connected.
Where Europeans can enjoy fast broadband at

home, at work, and wherever they roam. With
fast, pervasive networks: fixed, mobile, WiFi.
With a strong sector, able to invest and innovate, able to serve a dynamic and demanding
population, not facing borders and barriers.
Telcos will ultimately prosper not by
charging sky-high prices for roaming or calling
across borders: but offering fair deals, quality
seamless services, and the innovative offers
people will crave and value.
Second, Europe needs to be open. Because
it is only then that we unleash the Internet’s full
potential.
New EU rules will unlock the benefits of
public open data – ensuring transparency and
innovation, for a market worth tens of billions
of euros a year.


Sony CEO and President Kazuo Hirai gives his keynote address at the Consumer Electronics
Show.
AFP PHOTO / ROBYN BECK

Under its next funding programme, all EU
funded scientific publications will be open access – helping scientists, citizens and society.
And I want every European, for the first
time ever, to enjoy the guarantee of access to
the open internet, without operators unfairly
blocking competing apps or services.
And, third, Europe needs to be secure.
This year we have been rocked by revelations
of online spying: they are shocking and unacceptable. But outrage isn’t enough: we need to
act. I reckon spying is probably the world’s second oldest profession - and we’re not going to
stop it just by complaining, nor by legislation
to make it illegal.
So let’s not be naïve: let’s protect ourselves,
and rebuild trust.
When you buy cloud services you should
know exactly what will happen to your data:
who can access it, why, and whether it could
ever leave the EU.
When you trust your data to others – governments, or those who run critical infrastructure – you should know they are legally obliged
to manage cyber risks and protect system resilience. And new proposed EU laws would
ensure that.
And when you want to protect yourself,
you should benefit from the innovations of a
vibrant European market to do so. That is just
one thing the EU’s research and innovation
programme can deliver.
There are many things that are uncertain
about the future. But it is clear to me that the
future lies online. For so many areas of life.
If we want European leadership, European
competitiveness, or a bright European future

Europe’s
leaders have
recognised
the large and
growing role
digital plays in
our economy
- in ANY area - we need a continent prepared
for the digital age. And that is my vision for
Europe.
Europe’s leaders have recognised the large
and growing role digital plays in our economy.
And they have supported our plans to bring
down the barriers that stand in the way.
2014 could be the year when MEPs and
national ministers agree to make that happen.
To create a connected continent. To ensure
resilient and secure networks and systems. To
adapt to the benefits of a new open era. To prevent unfair blocking of online services. And to
make roaming surcharges in Europe a thing of
the past.
I hope they commit to do so: that would be
a great New Year’s Resolution.

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu


JANUARY 2014

17

Carving a legacy in education policy

Eyes down.

SLU Madrid Campus

By Androulla Vassiliou
European Commissioner
for Education, Culture,
Multilingualism and
Youth

Belgium - Brussels

T

he past four years have seen education
and training gain a new status within
EU policy-making. Amidst the panic
of the economic crisis and the shock of rising
unemployment, policy-makers have realised
that education must necessarily form a central
element of any future strategy for growth and
jobs, including Europe 2020. At the same time,
we have tried not to lose sight of the core objectives of education: personal betterment and
societal cohesion.
After all, the scope of education reform
reaches well beyond the relatively short-term
goal of economic growth. Investing in education means investing in the character of our
future societies. In 2014, this holistic vision
will be put into action as our new programmes
become a reality.
The astounding truth is that despite widespread unemployment, there are as many as 2
million unfilled job vacancies across Europe.
Since my portfolio also includes youth policy,
I have collaborated closely with the Employment services on various measures – exemplified in the Youth Employment Package – to
provide youth with quality apprenticeships
and traineeships. But what these vacancies
really indicate is a systemic mismatch in the
demand and supply of skills, which in the long
run can only be addressed through fundamental changes in our formal education systems.
The results of the 2012 PISA survey indicate

Investing in
education
means investing
in the character
of our future
societies
this very clearly: several of our Member States’
education systems fall short of providing
young people with even the most basic competencies. In one way or another then, all the
initiatives that have been put forward in the
field of education during my mandate reflect a
growing emphasis on quality, and on the role
that education can play in helping tackle current and future skills shortages and gaps, with
the ultimate goal of making Europe a knowledge based economy.
A little over a year ago, I launched the “Rethinking Education” strategy, which encourages Member States to make efficient investments in their education and training systems
with a view to improving quality and accessibility and helping youth acquire the skills that
they need. Within this framework, the “Opening up Education” initiative, which I recently
unveiled with Commissioner Kroes, aims to
stimulate the use of digital content as a teaching and learning tool. This not only implies a
greater use of technology in classrooms, but
its exploitation as an instrument for lifelong
learning. In fact, perhaps one of the greatest
education breakthroughs of the past years has
been the concept of Massive Open Online

Courses (the so-called MOOCs), which allow
free access to courses on anything from storytelling to DNA and from design to artificial
intelligence and which enable people to access
education whenever and wherever they are.
I must inevitably also welcome the completion and adoption of Erasmus+ as the tool
that will facilitate learning mobility, cooperation and the enforcement of policies. The
programme will give as many as four million
persons, the majority of them young people,
the chance to study, work, train, and volunteer across border. Importantly, it will also
provide support for sport, which has an inherent educational value of its own. Erasmus+
will have a budget 40% higher than previous
programmes, totalling almost 15 billion euro
for the period 2014 - 2020. This constitutes
a massive expansion of existing mobility programmes and a major triumph for education
policy. The rationale for the programme is simple: the experience of studying, training, working or volunteering abroad equips people with
all sorts of new aptitudes, including language
skills and a range of personality-building transversal skills such as cultural awareness or social
competence and adaptability. If there is a way
of teaching Europeans to live united in diversity, this is it. At the same time Erasmus + will
support cross border partnerships between institutions and policy reform in Member States.
I will spend much of 2014 on a busy campaign tour, raising awareness of the opportunities provided under Erasmus+.
I hope to see the programme become
a symbol of some of the European Union’s
greatest aspirations and values, not least cooperation and solidarity. Ultimately, I also hope it
will generate new ideals and priorities in areas
where the EU can do better, such as innovation
and entrepreneurship.

QUOTE OF THE YEAR
Ban Ki-moon

As a boy, I studied
in the dirt. There
was no classroom.
Education made
me what I am, it
made my dream
come true… I
shared my message with refugee
children: Don’t lose
hope, study hard. I
did it, you can do it
too.
- Ban Ki-moon, UN
Secretary General

ADVERTISEMENT

The United Nations in Brussels
looks forward to working
with you in 2014

Season’s
Greetings

Cover art by Plantu, featured at the UN 60th anniversary exhibit “Traits libres”

check us out on

www.unbrussels.org

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

By Alexis Tsipras
Candidate for the
European Commission
Presidency, President of
SYRIZA and leader of the
Greek opposition

JANUARY 2014

19

The Europe we want

GREECE - ATHENS

T

he continuing economic crisis has
revealed both the inadequacies and
the limits of the process of neoliberal European integration. It is an integration centered on financial liberalization and
a monetary union, which is itself enveloped
by a mere replica of the German Bundesbank
under the title “European Central Bank”. It is
a recession-bias process that accentuates intra- and inter-member-state inequalities and
asymmetries, adds to unemployment, and
spreads the web of poverty to the lower social
classes. It has been more an avalanche of capital against labour than an honest endeavor to
promptly resolve the crisis.
What has been actually happening is that
the European political establishment saw into
the crisis the opportunity to rewrite Europe’s
postwar political economy. The political management of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis is itself inscribed in the process of institutional transformation of the Eurozone South
along the lines of Anglo-Saxon neoliberal
capitalism. Diversity of national institutions
is not tolerated. Policy-rule enforcement is
the cornerstone of the European Commission’s recent legislation to enhance economic
governance in the Eurozone. Chancellor Merkel in Germany, in alliance with a neoliberal
bureaucratic elite in Brussels, treat social solidarity and human dignity as economic distortions and national sovereignty as a nuisance.
Europe is forced to wear the straightjacket of
austerity, discipline and deregulation. Even
worse, a generation of young people expects
to be worse off than their parents.
This is not our Europe. This is only the
Europe we want to change. In place of a Europe of fear of unemployment, disability, oldage and poverty. In place of a Europe in the
service of bankers’ needs. We want a Europe
in the service of human needs.
We want the democratic and progressive
reorientation of the European Union. Ending neoliberalism, austerity and the so-called
European societies of two-thirds, where 1/3
of society behaves as if there were no economic crisis and 2/3 suffer every day, more
and more. The European Left has the political vision and courage to build a wider social
consensus on the programmatic goal to reconstruct Europe on a democratic, social and
ecological basis.
This is the political context of my candidacy for the Presidency of the European
Commission on behalf of the Party of the European Left. It explains why it is not just another candidacy. It is, instead, a mandate for
hope and change in Europe. It is a roll call to
end austerity, safeguard Democracy and work
for growth. It is a roll call to all the democratic
and sensitive citizens in Europe, regardless of
their ideology and political-party affiliation.
Because, as recession, economic stagnation

Remember social Europe? A union member holds a sign in front of the Berlaymont building.

In place of a Europe in the
service of bankers’ needs, we
want a Europe in the service of
human needs
or anemic and jobless growth engulf the entire Eurozone, austerity also engulfs people
both in the South and North. Hence, reaction
to austerity transcends the nation-state and
aligns social forces at the European level. Austerity harms the working people regardless
of their address. For that reason, we need to
integrate the indispensable anti-Memoranda
alliance of the South into a broad, European
anti-austerity movement. A movement for
the democratic reconstruction of the monetary union.
The European Left is the main political
force of change in Europe.
• We support the immediate repeal of the
Memoranda and the coordinated reflation of
all European economies.
• We want a genuine European Central
Bank, acting as lender of last resort not only
for banks but also for states.
• We believe that Europe needs its own
Glass-Steagall Act in order to separate commercial and investment banking activities and
prevent such a dangerous merge of risks into
one uncontrolled entity.
• We want effective European legislation
which taxes offshore economic and entrepre-

neurial activities.
• We are in the forefront of the fight
against corruption of all forms. Our priority
is to combat corporate corruption and enhance the ability of people and organisations
to resist it. Corruption on the part of large

BELGA PHOTO OLIVIER VIN

companies, with their headquarters in large
European countries, entails an economic and
social cost for the people of those countries
as well.
• We support the collective, credible and
definite resolution of the Eurozone debt crisis through a European Debt Conference,
predicated on the 1953 London Conference
for Germany’s debt.
• We are working to dwindle fascism and
Nazism in Europe, instead of dwindling democracy, as austerity does.
In place of a Europe that redistributes
income to the rich and fear to the poor, we
propose our own Europe of solidarity, economic and social security, employment and
prosperity.


A man wearing a Santa Claus hat checks his collection tin as he begs for money in Hong Kong.

AFP PHOTO / ALEX OGLE

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

20 JANUARY 2014

By George Osborne
George Osborne,
Chancellor of the
Exchequer of the United
Kingdom


Britain fights back

UK - LONDON

A

s the world recovers from the Great
Recession, the question facing advanced economies is this: How do
we deliver sustainable growth and rising prosperity for our citizens?
In Britain, we have an economic plan that
delivers economic stability, deals decisively
with our record budget deficit, opens the
country to trade and investment, and addresses the structural weaknesses that are holding us
back as a place to do business and create jobs.
Of course, every country is different – and the
policy prescriptions for each need to recognize
that. But the lesson from the British experience is that the only way to deliver prosperity
– to win the so-called “global race” – is by tackling problems head-on.
When the coalition government came to
office three years ago, the United Kingdom’s
deficit was forecast to be higher than that of
any other country in the G-20, at more than
11% of GDP. Unlike the United States, we did
not have the benefit of issuing the world’s major reserve currency. And our proximity to the
eurozone, engulfed in a sovereign-debt crisis,
meant that restoring fiscal credibility and preventing a spike in market interest rates was our
most urgent priority.
So, over the last three years, we have been
working through a steady deficit-reduction
plan. As a result, we have achieved a larger reduction in the structural deficit than any other
major advanced economy.
The eurozone crisis on our doorstep, and
the lingering damage inflicted by the crash of
our financial system, dragged down economic
growth in 2011 and 2012. Even so, our labor
market performed far better than in previous
recessions, with record numbers of people
remaining in work. And our economic plan
created the foundation for the strengthening
of the recovery that we have seen throughout
2013, with our Funding for Lending Scheme
leading to significant improvements in credit

A woman waiting at a bus stop uses a push chair to carry all her shopping bags on Oxford Street in central London on December 21, 2013.

AFP PHOTO/JUSTIN TALLIS

conditions. As a result, the International Monetary Fund’s latest forecast has revised upward
UK growth – and more so than for any other
G-7 economy.
But that does not mean that we can relax.
The Office for Budget Responsibility, the
body that provides an independent assessment
of UK public finances, has shown that while
the deficit has been coming down more quickly, stronger economic growth alone cannot be
relied upon to address the deficit’s structural
component.
Dealing with the deficit has required difficult decisions – from reforming the welfare
system and increasing the state pension age
to controlling public-sector pay. But I have always believed that a country cannot make itself
richer by writing checks to itself. We need to
make responsible choices to ensure that we can
live within our means – and that is what I am
determined to deliver.
A government that lives within its means


The spacesuits of European Space Agency Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti (R), US
astronaut Terry Virts (L) and Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (C) are prepared for their
preflight training session.
AFP

is a necessary condition to secure the economy for the long term – but it is not sufficient.
Success also requires taking bold steps to tear
down trade barriers and open the economy to
investment from fast-growing countries like
China and India. That is precisely what we
have done. I would go so far as to say that no
country in the West is more open to investment than the UK.
How many Western countries would allow, let alone encourage, Chinese investment
in their new nuclear power stations? Indeed,
how many Western countries have an ambitious civil nuclear program at all? We do,
which is why I was in China in October agreeing a deal between Chinese investors and
EDF Energy to build the first reactor in the
UK for a generation.
Indeed, in international forums, the UK
is the first to argue for free trade. The deal
reached at the World Trade Organization’s
ministerial conference in Bali this month was
a historic step forward – with an estimated
benefit to the UK of $1 billion. But the UK
will continue to argue that it must be the beginning, not the end, of a wider determination
to liberalize trade, in order to benefit from the
growth and jobs that doing so brings.
We have also had to address the structural
weaknesses that have been holding the UK
back. Perhaps the most visible sign of this has
been our decision to cut the corporate tax rate
to the lowest level in the G-20. My reason is simple: I want competitive taxes that say Britain is
open for business to global companies. At a time
when other countries are considering financial
transaction taxes, we are abolishing some of
these taxes. And, with our banking reforms, we
are strengthening our reputation as the home of
global finance – from insurance to asset management, and from the new offshore renminbi
markets to issuance of the first sovereign sukuk,

or Islamic bond, in a non-Islamic country.
This is not about a race to the bottom; so,
at the same time, Britain has been leading the
way in fighting tax avoidance and evasion. Yes,
I want competitive taxes, but they must be
paid. Tax avoidance and evasion was a central
theme of the UK’s presidency of the G-8 this
year, resulting in commitments to unprecedented new levels of automatic exchange of tax
information between countries. Some 39 jurisdictions – from France and Germany to South
Africa and Mexico – have already signed up to
become early adopters of the new standard on
automatic exchange.
In a global race, one cannot stand still. So,
while our education reforms are driving up
standards, we need to do more. Britain’s universities are one of our biggest assets, attracting many thousands of international students
from around the world every year. That is why,
in my financial statement in the first week of
December, I announced that we would lift
the cap on the number of university students
in the UK. Access to higher education is a basic prerequisite for economic success, and we
need to ensure that Britain can compete with
the likes of the US and South Korea, which
send a much higher proportion of their young
people to university.
Here is the uncomfortable truth. In a
global race, there are winners and losers. Some
countries will do what it takes to remain competitive. Some will not. I am determined that
Britain will not be left behind. More than almost any other major economy, Britain paid a
heavy price in the Great Recession, which followed a decade of misguided economic policy.
Now we are fighting back, and the message to
the world is clear: the UK is open for business.

Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2013.
www.project-syndicate.org

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu


JANUARY 2014

Is european politics bewcoming more regional? Independence movements are increasing.

Catalonia moves to a vote
By Artur Mas i Gavarró
President of Catalonia

SPAIN- Catalonia

C

atalonia’s Government and opposition
parties, as mandated by our voters,
have together decided to hold a popular vote on self-determination on 9 November
2014. Catalans will be asked a two-part question: “Do you want Catalonia to be a state? If
so, do you want Catalonia to be an independent state?” But why does Catalonia need to
take such a step at this time?
Catalonia is an ancient European nation,
bordering the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea. Our origins can be found in the Carolingian Empire a thousand years ago and, ever
since, the small country of Catalonia has been
at the junction of two great regional powers, a
meeting place for different peoples, a bridge
between Europe and the Mediterranean. Our
language, Catalan, stretches beyond the administrative borders of Catalonia and is spoken by 9 million Europeans. As a people, we
Catalans have always rooted our identity in
culture and international openness. Barcelona,
our capital, is a vibrant Mediterranean metropolis, a major destination for foreign direct
investment, a cradle of Gothic and Modernist
architecture and a magnet for many of Europe’s
artistic movements of the 19th, 20th and 21st
centuries.
Our small nation lost its freedom in 1714
but has kept its identity alive despite dicta-

We Catalans
have always
rooted our
identity in
culture and
international
openness
torships and large-scale cultural repression.
Spain’s return to democracy in 1978 allowed
for recovering some of our autonomy. However, the Spanish state and governments of all
parties constantly try to centralise and to build
a homogenous, Hispanic country. This has
convinced many Catalans that only the right of
self-determination can guarantee their political, economic and cultural survival.
From a legal perspective, in 2010 the Spanish Constitutional Court suppressed several
fundamental aspects of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia, the basic law which guarantees our self-government and which was
revised in 2006 after an agreement between
the Parliament of Catalonia and the Parliament of Spain, as well as a referendum held in
Catalonia. Economically, the Government of
Catalonia has been the most efficient in implementing severe austerity policies that have
helped reduce the Spanish budget deficit more

than any other region. In spite of the severe
economic crisis across Europe, Catalonia has
continued to innovate in technology, and attract new foreign investment. Culturally speaking, a recent quote from the Spanish Minister
of Culture and Education clearly illustrates the
agenda of the central state: “it is in our interest
to hispanicise Catalan children”.
Our self-determination process has been
led by our vibrant civil society with massive
grassroots support across Catalonia as evidence by the 1.5 million citizens who marched
through Barcelona on 11 September 2012, our
national day. Again on 11 September 2013,
following the example of the Baltic Way of
1989, which opened the door to recovering
the independence of the three Baltic Republics, a 400 km-long human chain was organised
on 11 September - the Catalan national day across Catalonia from the French border in the
north to our southern limits. Inspired by the
civic example of the Baltic peoples, the Catalans called for their right to freely decide the
future of their people, showing Madrid – and
the world - that Catalonia will not settle for
anything short of a self-determination referendum, just like the one negotiated by the UK
and Scottish governments.
That is why we, Catalonia’s political leaders, have decided to move to the next stage
– for our people to freely choose their own
future in November. In twenty-first century
Europe, we solve these disputes peacefully and
democratically, with ballot boxes and votes.
Madrid should abide by its professed democratic principles and allow the referendum our
people desire.
Let us vote, we say. Let us vote, we ask. Let
us vote, we demand.

21

AFP PHOTO / REMY GABALDA

QUOTE OF THE YEAR
Amit Sood

I’ve said it a
hundred times,
but you can
never replicate
the experience
of seeing a
work of art
online. I still
prefer seeing
Van Gogh’s The
Starry Night in
person.
- Amit Sood, founder of
the Google Art Project

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

22 JANUARY 2014

By David Usupashvili
Chairman of the
Parliament of Georgia


Georgia’s dream: Europeanization
as democratic consolidation

Georgia- Tbilisi

F

or years the Georgian Parliament was an
uneventful political battlefield. Policy
consensus and “bipartisan approaches”
prevailed. It was in court and in prison that real
political contestation took place. In this sense,
fortunately, 2013 was an exceptional year.
For a year, the Georgian political system
experienced a period of cohabitation, with two
parties sharing power. This situation gave rise
to heated debates, gravitating mostly over the
theme of continuity and change. This was to
be expected from a political system that was
unaccustomed to peaceful transfers of power,
a milestone that Georgia reached only fifteen
months ago. While these major landmarks
were recognized and validated by our international allies, what made political contest distasteful and fundamentally un-European was
the interpersonal character of these political
encounters. Given a political tradition where
political competition gravitates around personalities, where parties do not survive electoral defeat, where the most fearsome debates
concern personal legacies rather than value
agendas, politics often becomes too personal
to be substantive.
In March 2013, a 14 points Parliamentary
Resolution committed the uneasily cohabiting parties, that is, the United National Movement and the Coalition of Georgian Dream to
a sustained pro-Western trajectory. And in this
scheme, the fundamental choice of committing to an Association Agreement in the Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius in November 2013 was expectable. In Georgia, there is a
per mare, per terra consensus over the fact that
we must remain an islet of Europeanization in
the South Caucasus. Of course, there are two
concerns in this respect.
First, many in Georgia would agree that
being in Europe is not an anti-Russian statement: competitiveness, rule of law, respect for
cultural diversity, solid multilateralism, consensus driven policy, a reliable social safety net,

People celebrate by the New Year tree in front of the parliament building in Tbilisi.

a social partnership culture, respectable institutions, and a commitment to human rights.
This makes sense for us, in terms of what we
want to be. The point of what we don’t want to
be comes by defect, not in principle. However,
given the wounds of the country since the War
of 2008, noting the rising wave of xenophobia in Moscow, the scaling up of provocations
with the so called “borderization policy,” not
to mention heightened tension in the streets
of Kiev, there is a fear that Georgia may once
again be victimized. This is an enduring fear.
Second, across the 28 capitals of EU member states, the Eastern Neighborhood does not
occupy the same significance. With Ukraine
not signing onto the Association Agreement,
there is a mixture of disappointment and disengagement from the wider region. Moreover,
the unfolding economic crisis triggers a rise of


People trying to cool off at a water park in Suining, southwest China’s Sichuan province on July
27, 2013, as a heatwave hit several provinces in China.
AFP

Being in
Europe is not
an anti-Russian
statement
support for xenophobic and Eurosceptic political forces, imposing upon Brussels a timid
approach to neighborhood policy. This is an
emerging fear.
Ultimately, without real certainties and
plenty of fears, Georgia has no option but to
be daring. Georgians broadly agree that commitment to the West has been crucial for the
process of democratization. Human rights
standards, free and fair elections, freedom of
expression, are only some of the dimensions of
democracy that have benefitted from Georgia’s
commitment to a Euro-Atlantic trajectory, despite all odds. However, for this choice to be
meaningful, we must now make a qualitative
leap from transition to consolidation of democracy. And in this sense, “Europeanization”
is becoming as important as democratization.
At this point in time, Europeanization in
Tbilisi must come to signify two things. Bottom line: we must go from fierce interpersonal
rivalry and consensus politics to substantive
political rivalry based on fundamental interpersonal respect. Reforms on public broadcasting constitute a tangible step toward this
direction. However, substantive progress will
entail building solid processes of interest aggregation, a social partner’s culture, strong parties,
and stronger still institutions. The ultimate

AFP PHOTO /VANO SHLAMOV

political question is “who do we represent,”
not who is more patriotic. In this respect, the
laws on Consumer Protection and Labor Law
reforms were far more significant landmarks.
Overall, we must go beyond reforms aiming
at the creation of a business-friendly environment to create an inclusive and citizen-friendly
society: motivate the young and talented to
stay on if not repatriate, promote small and
medium businesses, and create a basic social
safety net.
For this kind of Europeanization, which
goes well beyond façade reforms, the focus
must be on bottom up policies, that is, hundreds of minor interventions rather than grand
projects promising total transformation by
a single stroke. In this sense, the Association
Agreement and Visa liberalization will make
this process of substantive Europeanization
irrevocable, concluding the process of “transition.” However, once these grand commitments have been made, we should seize to
think in terms of major “milestones.” Indeed,
we should seize to reform our Constitution
and begin to disagree politically rather than
merely “in principle.”
The Parliament rather than the Constitutional Court or the Prosecutor’s Office must
become the epicenter of this Europeanizationas-consolidation process. We have perhaps
obliterated the homo Sovieticus, but we must
now create authentic and meaningful Georgian citizenship; the only role model we have
for this project is European citizenship. Despite the crisis in Europe, there is no substitute
to the vision of “returning to Europe.” For us,
this is of course no “return;” this is uncharted
waters. But, Georgians have no option but to
be daring.

OUR WORLD IN 2014

NEWEUROPE

www.neweurope.eu

By Giovanni Kessler
Director-General,
European Anti-Fraud
Office (OLAF)

Belgium - Brussels

JANUARY 2014

23

Building a common space
of justice in Europe

T

he crisis that hit Europe in recent years
went beyond the financial sphere. It
became a crisis of ailing trust in the
European idea and the institutions that represent it. To overcome it, Europe has no choice
but to emerge from this difficult period stronger, leaner and more efficient. To do so, Europe
cannot rest on the laurels of past achievements
such as the customs union or the free movement of goods and persons. We have a duty
towards future generations to continue the
European construction, to equip Europe with
better tools to make it more integrated.
One area where more work is needed is
building a true single market for justice. This
will be an important project for 2014 and the
following years, and one of great importance
for our citizens, our businesses and for consolidating Europe’s institutional architecture.
As things stand today, there is still a huge
amount of money that slips through the net
and does not reach the public coffers or the
projects that deserve financing. Criminal organisations are increasingly international and
criminals can still afford the luxury of forum
shopping when it comes to choosing where
to operate. This is because EU Member States
have been rather slow in creating a true common space for justice. There are still too many
divergent rules, a lack of resources and an inability to gather evidence in cross-border cases.
At a time when many citizens and lawabiding businesses feel the squeeze of the crisis
but still pay their taxes, how can we explain to
them that there are others who are deliberately
evading their duties? At a time when the EU
budget needs to focus on growth, jobs and innovation, how can we tolerate that EU funds
are diverted into fraud, or used for corruption?
We cannot. With public finances under
pressure throughout the EU, every euro
matters.
Currently, Member States report an average of about €500 million of suspected fraud
each year, but the real amount is likely to be
much higher. This means that the EU budget
is depleted of significant resources, and that
the real victim down the road is the European
taxpayer.
Since 1999, the European Anti-Fraud
Office (OLAF) has succeeded in recovering over €1.1 billion as a result of over 3500
administrative investigations. It is certainly a
good result, but OLAF is acting with limited
means since it has no power to conduct criminal investigations.
Moreover, the conviction rate for fraud offences against EU resources still varies greatly
at Member States’ level, with an EU average of
just 42.3%. Less than half of cases result in convictions and many criminals who steal taxpayers’ money are getting away.
This is why Europe needs to give itself
real, tangible and modern means to protect

Joint press conference by Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the EC, and Algirdas Šemeta, Member of the EC, on the EC proposal for establishing a
European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

A European Public Prosecutor
is much needed to tackle fraud
and corruption across Europe
its budget. We need to do so through an integrated European perspective and not through
a complicated puzzle of disparate national
measures.
A major step in this direction has already
been taken. Last July, the Commission put
forward its proposal for setting up a European
Public Prosecutor’s Office, and the work towards turning this project into reality should
continue at full speed in 2014.
A core feature of the proposed European
Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) is its decentralised structure. It will consist of a European Public Prosecutor, supported by four
Deputies located in a head office, and of European Delegated Prosecutors, based in each
Member State.
The Delegated Prosecutors will be in
charge of directing investigations and prosecutions on the ground, and bringing cases before
the national courts. They will remain part of
their own national justice systems which is a
major advantage because they will work within
a system which is most familiar to them. Law
enforcers, courts and defence counsels will
also continue to work in a legal system they

understand well.
Meanwhile, the European Public Prosecutor will be responsible for initiating, directing and coordinating the EU anti-fraud cases
around Europe. Understandably, this new institution will need to build on confidence and
trust, which is why the Commission has proposed to embed it in strong procedural rights.
At central level, the European Public Prosecutor would draw on the already existing
resources of OLAF and Eurojust, with their
wealth of experience. This decentralised integrated structure means that it can be set up at
virtually no cost for the taxpayer.
It is worth emphasising that these plans
do not relate to some far-fetched ideals. If the
European Parliament and the Member States
rally behind these proposals, the European
Public Prosecutor can assume its functions in
2015. Every case of suspected fraud against the
EU budget would be followed up, and criminals would know they will be prosecuted and
brought to justice. This will thus have a strong
deterrent effect and significantly consolidate
the EU space for justice.
In parallel, the fight against fraud should

continue to gain momentum in other related
areas. For instance, the Commission proposed
in 2012 a Directive on the protection of the
financial interests of the EU by criminal law
which aims to clarify, harmonise and strengthen Member States’ criminal laws as regards offences related to the EU budget. Upon adoption, this would put an end to the considerable
differences in the level of protection of the EU
budget across Member States. It would also
reduce the patchiness of the existing national
legal framework in this respect.
Another area where the Commission recently launched a comprehensive strategy is
the fight against illicit tobacco trade, especially
cigarette smuggling. According to OLAF estimates, the illicit trade in cigarettes causes
annual financial losses of over €10 billion in
the budgets of the EU and its Member States
in terms of unpaid taxes and duties. This hits
national revenues hard, and illicit trade also
fuels the shadow economy since it is almost
exclusively the domain of organised criminal
groups operating across borders. To effectively
tackle this problem, the Commission’s strategy
sets out a number of coordinated measures at
national, EU and international level and work
will continue well into 2014.
All the above mentioned initiatives aim at
ensuring that there are no distortions in the
“single market” for justice in the EU and that
the EU budget is protected with common and
modern tools. These efforts also aim to reassure taxpayers that their contributions are put
to good use and reach those projects that contribute to the common good across Europe.

Our World in 2014

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