Topical lunches

It has been a long tradition that the branch has organised a lunch or dinner twice a year, with an expert speaker to review the work taken on by the country holding the current Presidency of the European Council.  With the Lisbon Treaty finally endorsed there is now a permanent President of the European Council, and our attention is now being turned to key topics in European affairs.

European events in neighbouring areas

This panel will show events in Kent, London and Surrey which might be interesting for members from Sussex.  We also list separately events planned by the Eastbourne branch.

Where next for the €urozone? EU summit 30 January – What the experts think
The European Movement UK held on Friday 27 January 2012 a panel discussion to debate the state of the eurozone and what we were to expect from the 30 January EU summit.

	Panellists Sharon Bowles MEP, Chair of the European Parliament’s Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee, Charles Grant, Director of the Centre for European Reform, and Julian Callow, Managing Director and Chief Economist of Barclays Capital, discussed and debated a whole host of issues ranging from what will be on the table at the summit to what the future has for the eurozone and the EU as a whole.
A note of key points made by the panellists.
Sharon Bowles MEP:

	EU missed final opportunity to save Greece last June. Default is now inevitable.
	Eurozone crisis has damaged reputation of EU abroad.
	Latest legislation to resolve the crisis is verging on being unreasonably intrusive into domestic government policy.
	Little confidence in European Parliament that new treaty will work.
	Prospect of two-speed Europe poses real threat to the role of the European Parliament and Commission in setting policy.
	Germany must accept culpability for allowing its banks to lend irresponsibly to southern Europe.
	Political will to save the euro does still exist across the board.
Charles Grant:
	Agrees with George Soros that austerity is driving EU to destruction. Cutting spending and expecting growth to automatically return has no evidence to support it.
	Germany’s stance has made the crisis worse.
	Surveys since the inception of the Union show that popular support for the EU is dependent on continued economic growth.
	The problems of Greece are different from the rest of the eurozone’s and it doesn’t belong in the eurozone.
	Two-speed Europe will weaken EU institutions and further marginalise an already semi-detached Britain.
	The emergence of a ‘Greater Germany’, centred around Berlin and comprising the Low Countries and Scandinavia, has taken control of decision making in the EU and has made France less relevant.
Julian Callow:
	Financial institutions already making contingency plans for collapse of the euro.
	Markets worried about leaders' lack of decisive action.
	Debt crisis so serious that there is no alternative but to drastically cut spending.
	Survival of the euro is dependent on greater fiscal transfers from the rich north to the poorer south. Net contributors to the EU budget currently transfer no more than 1% of their wealth to net beneficiaries, compared with 5% in the United States of America.
	Deep concern that Portugal today is where Greece was a year ago and that it is ultimately headed in the same direction.

   Tuesday 23 February, 5 pm to 7 pm (note revised timing)
Mary Sumner House, 24 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3RB

Austerity or stimulus: which is right for Europe?

Throughout this year, the Federal Trust will be jointly organising a series of conferences on European economic themes with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Global Policy Institute.
In the first of these conferences we will be considering the appropriate macro-economic policies for the Eurozone and the European Union in general. Some critics of the proposed Fiscal Pact have claimed that its focus is exclusively on the reduction of public debt at the cost of economic growth. The Pact's supporters argue that sound public finances are a pre-condition for the economic confidence and stability that are necessary to generate long term growth based on economic reform. These differing views will form the substance of the discussion.

Speakers:

To attend this event, please reply to Alison Sutherland
or ring the Federal Trust on 020 7320 3045.

Thursday 23 February, 7 pm for 7.30 pm

West Kent branch annual dinner at the Langley Hotel, 18 London Road, Tonbridge  TN10 3DA click here for a map - you can zoom in for a closer view

The guest speaker will be
Catherine Bearder, MEP
She is likely to speak on human trafficking in Europe, and the common fisheries policy reform, inter alia, and there will be a question & answer session.

Tickets are £21.50 a head for the meal, which also includes coffee and mints.
Wine and all other drinks are extra and available from the hotel bar.
If you are interested, please contact John Bassendine,
26 Beechy Lees Road, Otford, Sevenoaks, TN14 5QJ
01959 524906, or by e-mail,  before 15th February.

Click here to download an order form for printing, which includes menu choices

Tuesday 28 February, 6 pm to 7.30 pm Doubletree Hilton, 30 John Islip Street, London SW1P 4DD

EU Summit Briefing
The European Movement and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung are organising a Briefing
ahead of the 1-2 March EU Summit.

The purpose of the event is to inform journalists, policy experts and EU public affairs practitioners about what is on the Summit’s agenda and debate the possible outcomes and policy initiatives to come out of another very crucial gathering of EU leaders.

The panel discussion will feature:
Charles Grant, Director, Centre for European Reform
Olaf Cramme, Director, Policy Network
Julian Callow, Managing Director and Chief European Economist, Barclays Capital

If you would like to attend please send an e-mail with your full name and organisation.

   Thursday 1 March, 11 am to 4 pm
Mary Sumner House, 24 Tufton Street, London SW1P 3RB

European Citizenship: the concept and the reality

The Federal Trust is part of the LISBOAN network, an association of academic organisations and think-tanks, co-sponsored by the European Commission.

Three sessions will be held during this event, one on the political and intellectual underpinning of the concept 'European Citizenship'; a second on the economic aspects of the concept; and a third on the relationship between European citizenship and parliamentary representation.
Lunch will be provided.

Among our speakers will be
Professor Mathias Jopp of the Institute für europäische Politik in Berlin
Professor Edward Best of the European Institute for Public Administration
Professor Thomas Christiansen of Maastricht University
Dr Nina Miller of Edinburgh University

To attend this event, please reply to Alison Sutherland
or ring the Federal Trust on 020 7320 3045.