Conference „Aktuelle Herausforderungen für die deutsche Europapolitik: Vertiefung, Erweiterung, Nachbarschaft“ („Current Challenges for Germany’s European Policy: Deepening, Widening, Neighbourhood“)
25-26 September 2014, Berlin, Institut für Europäische Politik and Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration
On September 25-26 the Institut für Europäische Politik organised its annual academic conference in cooperation with the Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration. More than 50 academics and practitioners gathered in Berlin in order to discuss the “Current Challenges for Germany’s European Policy: Deepening, Widening, Neighbourhood“.During the first panel potential further strategies for reforming the EU’s political system were discussed. All panelists representing members from the Spinelli Group, the Glienicker Gruppe and the Groupe Eiffel agreed that the Lisbon Treaty provided an appropriate legal framework for current challenges and demanded full exploitation of its text. Ideas were exchanged on the question of how to deal with increasing heterogeneity among the EU Member States and necessary reforms of EU institutions in order to increase their democratic legitimacy. The second panel dealt with the reforms of the Economic and Monetary Union. Given that the crisis management within the Eurozone was perceived successful so far, the panelists focused on questions of how to increase the EU’s competitiveness and of how to guarantee liability of future national economic reforms. The future role of the EU’s enlargement policy as a foreign policy tool was discussed during the conference’s third panel. Enlargement policy was defined to represent an integration rather than a foreign policy tool of the EU. This means that it needed to be complemented by foreign policy initiatives. In light of these considerations the preconditions for a successful enlargement policy were debated. The conference concluded with discussions on the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). This debate was guided by the question of whether the general principles of the ENP needed redefinition. In light of the latest developments the panelists agreed that the ENP needed a differentiated approach and other global actors and their interests needed to be included in the considerations of how to stabilize the neighbourhood that currently represented rather a ring of fire than a ring of friends.
The conference was completed by a dinner speech by Peter Altmaier, Head of the Federal Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Tasks, and a concluding speech by Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank.
Read more here.
IEP Lunch Debate with Dr. Peter Ptassek: “Perspectives of the Economic and Monetary Union”
16 September 2014
The IEP Lunch Debate on the topic “Perspectives of the Economic and Monetary Union” with Dr. Peter Ptassek, Deputy Director of the European Department of the Federal Foreign Office, took place on the 16th of September 2014 at the Representation of the European Commission in Berlin, Germany. The event was moderated by Prof. Dr. Mathias Jopp, director of the Institute for European 
Politics (IEP).
Dr. Ptassek began his introductory speech by illuminating several questions facing Europe, including not only still existing concerns about the Monetary Union, but also Europe’s relations with Russia in light of the Ukraine Crisis, and the impending referendum in the UK. Ptassek pointed out that he believed the height of the economic crisis to be behind us, and the monetary union “dishevelled”, but still alive. Ptassek further specified that the Monetary Union includes a clear external dimension, specifically the connection between economic strength and the weight of foreign policy. The whole report on the lunch debate is published in English here.