Posted on 10/12/2007 12:24:43 AM PDT by Argentine-Firecracker
The new think tank the European Council on Foreign Relations hopes to steer the European Union back onto the center of the world stage. Its 50 founding members include leading European intellectuals such as Timothy Garton Ash, Joschka Fischer, Brian Eno and Rem Koolhaas.
The European Union is 50 years old this year, and two years into its mid-life crisis; ever since the resounding French and Dutch "no" votes against the European Constitution, the bloc has languished in stagnation, paralyzed by indecision and a lack of confidence.
"The EU continues to underperform on the world stage," wrote former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari in an Oct. 1 editorial in the Financial Times. "(But) a strong European voice in favor of human rights, democracy and international law will not just benefit Europeans; it will be good for the world."
Fischer and Ahtisaari wrote the editorial to announce the founding of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a new think tank intended to steer the EU back onto the center of the world stage. "Our goal is to create a common strategic culture on the continent," says Mark Leonard, the Council's executive director.
Modeled along the lines of the American Council on Foreign Relations, the ECFR, which will be officially launched in Berlin on Nov. 9, is formally independent of the EU government. Nonetheless, it hopes to exert influence in the hallways of Brussels. By drafting and publishing reports on current hot topics, as well as on longer-term strategic issues, Council members and analysts see themselves as filling an otherwise unoccupied niche. "Brussels spends more money on cleaners than it does on people thinking about European foreign policy," British historian and founding ECFR member Timothy Garton Ash told SPIEGEL ONLINE in an interview.
(Excerpt) Read more at spiegel.de ...
Ping
The 50 public members are as follows:
1. Urban Ahlin (Sweden) - Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party
2. Giuliano Amato (Italy) - Minister of Interior; former Prime Minister and vice president of the European Convention
3. Martti Ahtisaari (Finland) - UN Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo; President of the Crisis Management Initiative; former President
4. Hannes Androsch (Austria) - Founder of AIC Androsch International Management Consulting
5. Marek Belka (Poland) - Executive Director of the UN Economic Commission for Europe; former Prime Minister
6. Svetoslav Bojilov (Bulgaria) - Founder of the Communitas Foundation, President of Venture Equity Bulgaria Ltd.
7. Emma Bonino (Italy) - Minister for Europe and International Trade; former European Commissioner
8. Robert Cooper (United Kingdom) - Director-General for External and Politico-Military Affairs, Council of the EU General Secretariat
9. Marta Dassu (Italy) - Diplomatic adviser to Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema; Director of the Aspen Institute Italia
10. Gijs de Vries (The Netherlands) - Senior Fellow at the Clingendael Institute; former EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator
11. Jean-Luc Dehaene (Belgium) - Member of the European Parliament, former Prime Minister and vice president of the European Convention
12. Gianfranco Dell’Alba (Italy) - Chef de Cabinet for Minister Emma Bonino
13. Andrew Duff (United Kingdom) - Member of the European Parliament, ALDE
14. Sarmite Elerte (Latvia) - Editor-in-chief of Latvian daily newspaper Diena
15. Brian Eno (United Kingdom) - musician and producer
16. Joschka Fischer (Germany) - former Foreign Minister and vice-Chancellor
17. Timothy Garton Ash (United Kingdom) - Professor of European Studies at Oxford University
18. Bronislaw Geremek (Poland) - Member of the European Parliament, ALDE; former Foreign Minister
19. Diego Hidalgo (Spain) - Co-founder of Spanish newspaper El Pais and President of FRIDE
20. Mary Kaldor (United Kingdom) - Professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics
21. Gerald Knaus (Germany) - Founding director of the European Stability Initiative
22. Rem Koolhaas (The Netherlands) - architect and urbanist; Professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University
23. Caio Koch-Weser (Germany) - Vice Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group; former State Secretary
24. Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria) - Chair of Board, Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria
25. Mart Laar (Estonia) ¬- Former Prime Minister of Estonia
26. Mark Leonard (United Kingdom) - Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations
27. Adam Lury (United Kingdom) - Director of Menemsha Ltd; former advisor to Lord Browne
28. Alain Minc (France) - Chairman of Le Monde; Head of consulting group AM Conseil
29. Christine Ockrent (France) - Editor-in-chief at France Télévision
30. Leoluca Orlando (Italy) - MP; President of the Sicilian Renaissance Institute
31. Cem Özdemir (Germany) - Member of the European Parliament, Green Party
32. Simon Panek (Czech Republic) - Chairman of the People in Need Foundation
33. Teresa Patricio Gouveia (Portugal) - Trustee to the Board of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; former Foreign Minister
34. Chris Patten (United Kingdom) - Chancellor of Oxford University; Former EU Commissioner and Governor of Hong Kong
35. Diana Pinto (France) - Historian and author
36. Andrew Puddephatt (United Kingdom) - Director of Global Partners & Associated Ltd.
37. Sigrid Rausing (Sweden) - Founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust
38. Albert Rohan (Austria) - Deputy to the UN Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo
39. Pierre Schori (Sweden) - Director General of FRIDE; and SRSG to Cote d´Ívoire
40. Elif Shafak (Turkey) - Author
41. Narcís Serra (Spain) - Chair of CIDOB Foundation; former Vice President
42. Aleksander Smolar (Poland) - Chairman of the Board, Stefan Batory Foundation
43. George Soros (Hungary/US) - Chairman, Open Society Institute
44. Dominique Strauss-Kahn (France) - MP, Professor at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris; Former Finance Minister
45. Helle Thorning Schmidt (Denmark) - Leader of the Social Democratic Party
46. Michiel van Hulten (The Netherlands) - Managing Director of Burson-Marsteller, Brussels; Former MEP and chairman of the Dutch Labour Party
47. Mabel van Oranje (The Netherlands) - International Advocacy Director, Open Society Institute
48. Antonio Vitorino (Portugal) - Lawyer and former European Commissioner
49. Sir Stephen Wall (United Kingdom) - Chairman of Hill and Knowlton (Public Affairs EMEA) and former Europe advisor to PM Tony Blair
50. Andre Wilkens (Germany) - Executive Director of the Open Society Institute in Brussels
Just what the world needs, another CFR.
BTW, is there a way we can impeach a citizen?
Who cares? Can´t be representative: 10 Brits, 5 Italians, 5 Germans, 4 Dutch... and most (if not all) Leftists.
Thanks for the list of members!
Ping for later
Isn’t Joshka Fischer a former leftist terrorist? So we now have an amoral, leftist European Commmission deciding world affairs? Can we bomb this entity to smithereens, as a pre-emptive strike against tyranny and poverty?
LOL, you´re right about Fischer. However, he was also a professor at Princeton or Yale (?) last year. These Leftists have authorized themselves to speak for the world. Screw them! And screw the Nobel Peace Prize Comittee, too!
Thanks for the ping. Any significance to the date of November 9th in their ideology?
November 7th would be the 90th anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.
I wonder how many conservatives understand the dangers of the CFR? It doesn’t seem to be talked about much on talk radio or in Christian conservative circles.
“Any significance to the date of November 9th in their ideology?”
Kristallnacht.
The only mention on talk radio seems to be a denigration of those who wish to point out the dangers of the agenda of the CFR and like-minded groups. For example, Rush and others turn it into a tin-foil-hat attack on anyone who mentions the CFR.
Thank you.
Very interesting.
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