european agenda 02 2008

WHAT’S ON IN POLITICAL BRUSSELS?

EventsA comprehensive overview of the highlights on the EU calendar for March/April 2008p. 27

InterviewU.S. political adviser Terry A. Nelson on public affairs, politics and transatlantic strategising p. 14

PeopleWho is new: Recent personnel changes in the EUWho was where: Pictures of Brussels’ recent top events p. 53

I S S U E 0 2 / 2 0 0 8

Spring Feverin European Politics: The EU Agenda for March/April 2008

SustainableDevelopmentA spotlight on the topic that is on everybody‘s agendap. 18

ICT SpecialCurrent events and issues in the IT and Telecommunications sectorp. 43

EDITORIAL

he Europe-wide drive towards a sustainable future is moving from years of constructive talk and debate more and more towards concrete action. It almost feels like we are at the brink of a new, eco-friendly age if you just take a look at all the initiatives that have been taken up by European politics and busi-ness. The paradigm shift towards lessening man-kind’s footprint on our beautiful planet created a huge wave of activism that left virtually no industry untouched.

At last everyone is running in the same direction, one could say. But this is neither true nor just. There are political decisions to be made that are not only decisive for Europe’s future economic viability and competitive-ness. It is also an almost historic chance to convey to European citizens what good pan-European legislation can do to their every day life. Take the proposals on Climate Change or the Energy package published on 23 January this year, which puts forth the main strategic points which need to be met if progress is to be achieved across Europe in grappling with the economic, environmental and social requirements of sustainability – issues that are impossible to resolve on a national level.

Editorial The European Union takes a front seat in the global class of sustainabil-

ity champions – it is safe to assume that what is decided here now will serve as a blueprint for global conduct. Needless to say, however, that is not the only actor in this game. In this issue of European Agenda, we in-terviewed Terry Nelson, a former Political Director for the Bush presiden-tial campaign in 2004 and now Washington consultant. It is always fas-cinating to have an outside perspective on Europe, and Mr. Nelson gives us his view on the room for growth of lobbying in Europe, which pales in comparison with the established industry over in the US. He also offers his thoughts on the promotion of the idea of a European public sphere, and the need for popular discussion and clarification of the status of the EU. This just to remind us that, albeit all the justifiable pride off being a global champion in sustainable development legislation, there is still a lot to be done towards building a sustainable European Union.

Rudolf HetzelPublisher

T

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DEVELOPMENT OFFICEWORKING WITH EUROPE

College of Europe - Telephone: +32 (0)50 477 301 - [email protected]

www.coleurope.eu/development

DEVELOPMENTDEVELOPMENTDEVELOPMENT OFFICEDEVELOPMENT OFFICEDEVELOPMENTWORKING WITH EUROPE

College of Europe - Telephone: +32 (0)50 477 301 - [email protected]: +32 (0)50 477 301 - [email protected]: +32 (0)50 477 301 - [email protected]

www.coleurope.eu/www.coleurope.eu/developmentdevelopmentdevelopmentwww.coleurope.eu/developmentwww.coleurope.eu/www.coleurope.eu/developmentwww.coleurope.eu/

EA-A4ad-010-leftside.indd 1 23/11/2007 13:49:29

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CONTENT

EUROPEAN AGENDA 02/2008

Editor in Chief: Grit Fiedler

Editors: Azra Ahmed, Christine Holthoff, Daniel Le Ray, Elke Nussbaum, Christopher Robotham, Sara Schützeberg, Susi Teichmann, Paul Thomas

Graphical Concept: Steffi Butter, Marcel Franke, Daniel Schnatterer

Layout: Steffi Butter

Illustration: Burkhard Piller

Photo Editors: Albrecht Noack, Olga Bode

Cover: www.marco-urban.de

Managing Editor: Max Obenaus([email protected])

Business Development Director: Cristina Silva([email protected])

Publisher: Rudolf Hetzel

Editorial offi ce: 13-15, Rue de la Charité, B-1210 BrusselsTel.: +32 (0)2 219 22 90Fax: +32 (0)2 219 22 92E-mail: [email protected]

Helios MediaFriedrichstraße 209D-10969 Berlin

Print: Druck Vogt GmbH, Schmidstraße 6, 10179 Berlin

Letters to the Editor

News from EU Brussels

Typically American, typically European

Interview Terry Nelson

Sustainable Developement Facts & Figures

Sustainable Developement 20 20 by 2020

Sustainable Developement Opinion

Sustainable Developement Interview

Agenda March/ April 2008

IT & Telecommunication Events

IT & Telecommunication EU Regulator

IT & Telecommunication E-Health

IT & Telecommunication ITC and Sustainability

People Winner and Loser

People Personnel Changes

People Gala

Brussels Insider Tidbits

Brussels Insider Networking

Brussels Insider Eurocrat’s Babble

7

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27

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46

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50

53

54

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66Gala: Sustainable Energy Award p. 60

Agenda March: EU Summit p. 30

Personnel changes: New CoR President p. 54

DEVELOPMENT OFFICEWORKING WITH EUROPE

College of Europe - Telephone: +32 (0)50 477 301 - [email protected]

www.coleurope.eu/development

EA-A4ad-010-leftside.indd 1 23/11/2007 13:49:29

For more information: www.ferrmed.com

FERRMED a.s.b.l.Secrétariat Général, Rue de Trèves 49 - box 7, B-1040 Bruxelles - BELGIUM

Tél.: +32 2 230 59 50, Fax: +32 2 230 70 35

Meeting Point of EC Representatives, Logistic Operators,Different Industry Actors, Main Shippers, InfrastructureManagers, Rolling-Stock Manufacturers, Rail Operators, etc.

FERRMED Standards promote the development of a rail network

in the whole EU, in the form of reticular and polycentric network

with a great socio-economic and intermodal impact.

The Association suggests that the Great Axes network should

have a double line, one giving priority to freight and the other to

passengers. The line meant for freight should have the capacity

of handling long and heavy trains.

The objectives of the Conference:

Proposal FERRMED standards and their progressiveimplementationDiscuss technical, social, environmental, and economic issuesrelated to rail freight with key experts in Workshopsand Round Table Discussions:

• Reticular and polycentric rail network of high socioeconomic and intermodal impact

• Freight line characteristics: UIC width of the tracks; UIC-C gauge; 25 tons per axle; limited slopes of maximum 0.012; and 25.000 Volts

• Long and heavy trains (up to 1.500m long and 3.600÷5.000 tons)

• Unified and improved management, operational systems, and legislation

• Network of intermodal, polyvalent, and flexible terminals • Free competition and advantageous fees• Reduction of environmental impact

FERRMED CONFERENCEFERRMED Standards,the Keystone of Rail Freight Competitiveness in Europe

Brussels – 29 May 2008

FERRMED Conference advert 11/2/08 2:02 pm Page 1

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LETTERS


“I congratulate you for bringing EU A�airs into a positive, attractive

and informative light, giving CLEPA the opportunity to further our infor-mation sources and to make the best

use of this knowledge”amalia di stefano, director european affairs, clepa

european association of automotive suppliers.

Letters to the Editor“European Agenda...always a re-

freshing take on the Brussels bubble.”caroline wunnerlich, svp and managing director,

fleishman-hillard brussels

“European Agenda is an excellent contribution and great point of refer-ence to keep you up to speed on the whereabouts of the Brussels scene.”

dirk de muynck, volvo group representation, eu director communications & media relations

“European Agenda is always good to read who is moving where in this small town of Brussels,

so please keep all personnel changes (and birthdays) coming! My sincere congratu-lations with this new EA initiative, I predict it

will be another successful ‘hole in one’.”tom antonissen, senior consultant

logos public affairs

“European Agenda keeps me abreast of the movers and shakers in the Brussels community

– a leisurely reading I enjoy every month”.sandrine nelissen-grande, head of eu affairs, belgacom

“Thanks a lot for keeping me informed with your very concise yet important publishing on EU developments and events. Improving your

corporate design to become more dynamic seems to be a nice idea as well...” wilfried stratil, brussels representative,

telekom austria

“European Agenda publications constitute a useful tool for anybody involved in the

European Institutes activities.”vincenzo grassi, minister plenipotentiary deputy

permanent representative permanent representation of italy to the european union

“The new edition of the EA Magazine is excellent!”

dietlind jering, deputy chief of the permanent representation of the european commission to the federal

republic of germany

“We have read the Magazine with great interest and we are sure it will be useful for

our ongoing work.”maria angeles benitez salas, director - relations

institutionnelles, communication et documentation and prosper de winne deputy director general dg agri

Great magazine! Our aim is to touch the Brus-sels policy and decision makers and we feel that European Agenda is the perfect vehicle

for us to achieve this. Niall Doheny, Communications Director, UNIFE

— 8 —

NEWS


Newssepa: official launch of single euro payments areaTo mark the launch of SEPA (the Single Euro Payments Ar-ea) on the 28th of January, the Euro-pean Central Bank and the European Payments Council jointly held “SEPA Goes Live”, with guests from the EU payments mar-ket, at the Charlemagne Building in Brussels. SEPA enables people to make cashless payments throughout the euro area as quickly, safely and easily as national payments. SEPA considers all euro payments domestic and made with one set of payment instruments.

help at hand for maltese-slovak translations!The EU Commission has made its language da-

tabase freely accessible . The over a million sen-tences and their trans-lations in 22 of the 23 EU

languages will surely be a valuable resource for the developers of translation software. The EU possesses many more translated texts than any other organisation. If you do your maths, with all documents in all 22 languages, it adds up to a staggering 253 language combinations. Up until now an englishman had an arsenal of available language tools at his disposal, but the poor soul looking to translate Maltese into Slovak may have been a little disappointed with the palette of services on offer.

lobbying: leaving footprints?The 6th of february saw the release of the Draft Report on the devel-opment of a framework for the activities of lobbyists in European in-stitutions. It suggests that the issue is far from being settled. Stubb – the rapporteur in charge of the report – suggests MEPs include “legislative footprints” of persons consulted in the drafting of their reports, but adds that it should be left to the discretion of the MEPs. The report´s definition of lobbyists is very broad, and the desirability in principle of a common register for Parliament and Commission is underlined, but it suggests that a joint working group be set up to consider its implications. It makes no recommendation on the disputed issue of a mandatory/voluntary registration of lobbyists, simply noting the Commission’s decision to start with a voluntary register, and recalling that Parliament’s register is already de facto mandatory, because registering is a prerequisite for gaining ac-cess to Parliament. In contrast to the Commission’s proposal, the report states that the requirement of financial disclosure must ap-ply equally to all interest representatives, but makes no mention of what information should be disclosed.

expansion: new terminal at south charleroi

The new Terminal at South Charleroi Airport was opened on January 29th 2008. The new terminal building has been designed to be easily expand-able, and new parking facilities with 43,00 spac-es have also been built. According to CEO Marcel Buelens, the terminal should serve 3 million pas-sengers in its first year, a significant expansion as this more than doubles the number of pas-sengers expected to travel through Charleroi in the coming year. Whizz Air has already an-nounced three new flights per week to Bucha-rest departing from the new terminal. Reports also suggest that Ryanair is to announce five additional flights from March.

interel grows with acquisitions

On the 12th of February Interel announced the acquisition of leading London-based Public Af-fairs consultancy Politics Inter-national. With the deal, Interel hopes to consoli-date its position as a leading Cor-

porate Affairs consultancy in Europe. The deal follows the acquisition of the Brussels-based EU affairs consultancy Cabinet Stewart, and Berlin-based PA consultancy Claudia Conrad last year. Interel aims to gain a strong UK public affairs presence, whereas Politics International hopes to benefit from Interels’ pan-European reach and greater depth of resource in related com-munications disciplines.

Charly McCreevy

Frederik Lofthagen, CEO, Interel

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NEWS


Euroregion Alps-Mediterranean Rue du Trone 621050 BrusselsLast October saw the launch of the Euroregion

Alps-Mediterranean, aiming to affirm the role of these regions in the European Union. Their new office was opened on January 31st.

Academy of European Law1040 Rue Belliard 1591000 BrusselsOn January 22nd the Academy of European Law opened their Brussels office with guest speaker

Lovro Sturm, Slovenia’s Minister for Justice. The ERA Academy in Trier will also be expanded.

honoured: adenauer, antall, brandt and politkovskaya

Following a series of highly political discussions taking into account party-political affiliation, relation to the EU and nationality, the Bureau of the European Parliament has announced the naming of several buildings in Brus-sels constructed to house the hundreds of new member state MEPs that have arrived in Brussels since 2004. A new Assembly Building and the bridge connecting it to the existing Parliament complex have been named after Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer

respectively. For the first time, an EU building has been named after a poli-tician from a new member state, with the late Hungarian Prime minister Józseph Antall lending his name to one of the new wings of the European Parliament. Finally, the EU Press Room now bears the name of the mur-dered Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya.

New in Brussels

Latvian Representation to the EUAvenue des Arts 23, 1000 Brussels The Latvian Representation moved into its new

building in Brussels on the 25th of January. The official inauguration ceremony for the buildings will take place in the middle of March.

Representation of North Rhine-WestphaliaRue Montoyer 471000 BrusselsThe new offices of the permanent Representation of the German State of Northa Rhine-Westphalia were officially opened with a reception in February.

Movings

Michelin Public Affairs Department12, Avenue de Tervuren1040 BruxellesAs of the beginning of this year, Michelin has re-

located its EU office in Brussels to this address, which can be contacted through its public affairs department.

ec transparency: online interaction with commissioners

On the 29th of Janu-ary there was an on-line discussion forum held which allowed citizens of the Europe-an Union to take part in discussions with the likes of Margot Wallström (Vice-Presi-dent of the European Commission), Com-missioners Stavros Dimas (Environment)

and Adris Piebalgs (Energy). The forum hopes to encourage EU citizens to voice their opinions on subjects related to the European Union, to give them feedback and to provide follow-up information. It should be seen in context of the new European Transparency Initiative, which aims to recon-nect Europe with its citizens and is similar to the debate forum included in the Commission’s Plan D for Democracy, Dialogue and Debate. The new forum focuses on 3 domains: Energy and Climate Change, the Future of Europe and Intercultural Dialogue. The hope is not only to further stimu-late debate and constructive dialogue on European issues, but also to con-tribute to the creation of a new European public space on the internet.

German Fire Brigade Association19, Avenue de I’Yser1040 BrusselsThe German Fire Brigade association, the largest

in Europe, have opened a representation in Brussels. Their office is situ-ated in the Representation of the German Land Hessen.

Margot Wallström

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OUR HEART BEATSEUROPE

European Consultancy of the Year 2007 – Holmes Report

BEYOND COMMUNICATIONS

Amsterdam

Berlin

Bonn

Brussel-Bruxelles

Bucuresti

Budapest

Dresden

Düsseldorf

Frankfurt

Genéve

Genova

Graz

Hamburg

Innsbruck

Kyiv

Klagenfurt

Leipzig

Linz

London

Milano

Moskwa

München

Paris

Praha

Roma

Salzburg

Stuttgart

Tiel

Warszawa

Wien

Zagreb

Zürich

Public Affairs Contacts Brussels:Cornelius Winter, European Practice Group Leader Public Affairs +32 (0) 2 213 40 40, [email protected]

Peter Lochbihler, Business Director+32 (0) 2 213 40 42, [email protected]

www.pleon.com

RZ_European Agenda _AZ_210x280_200208.indd 1 20.02.2008 11:53:47 Uhr

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NEWS


2010: european year for combating poverty

On 12 December the European Commission of-ficially designated 2010 as the European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion. The 17 million euro campaign aims to reaffirm the EU’s commitment to making a decisive impact on the eradication of poverty. Currently the EU has 78 million people (16 per cent of the population) living under the threat of poverty. 19 per cent of children in the EU are at risk of poverty and one European in ten lives in a household where no one works. The 2010 European Year aims to reach EU citizens and all public, social and eco-nomic stakeholders, and calls for the commit-ment of all actors, beleiving that real progress requires a long-term effort that involves all lev-els of governance.

new second language: english in brussels

As if the linguistic situation in Belgium wasn’t causing enough problems, english speakers in Brussels have seemingly complicated things further by overtaking their Dutch-speak-ing counterparts in numbers to grab second spot. Indeed, The Economist reports on further changes in Brussels brought on by the growing expatriate community. It cites a recent study by the Free University of Brussels, which claims to show that, in the past seven years, the number of English speakers has overtaken the number of Dutch residents, with 35 per cent of the popu-lation to the Dutch-speaking 28 per cent.

enterprise europe: innovation in european smesThe Enterprise Europe Network launched on February 15th this year will serve to support SMEs, providing them with feedback, business and co-operation services. Furthermore, it will encourage businesses to participate in FP7, the 7th Research Framework Program, and provide up-to-date information on technology trans-fer. The network will be hosted by business or-ganisations at national and regional levels. The extent to which the new network will improve the current service remains to be seen, as it will be centralising the services currently offered by IRC (Innovation Relay Centres) and the EIC (Euro Info Centres). Andrej Vizjak, the Slovenian Minister for the Economy, was one of the keynote speak-ers at the Network’s launch, and in his address he emphasised the key role SMEs have to play in the European economy, as well as the chief role the Network will play among the policy instruments in the SME area. He added that more work and cooperation could be achieved in the domain.

eu tax: a dead starter?

Most academics agree that the development of taxation was a key element in the formation of the modern State. With the process of European integration, the question of EU-level taxation was bound to be raised at some point. But taxa-tion is also a sensitive subject, having histori-cally been the cause of many a revolt. Of course, up to now national governments have retained sole responsibility for levels of direct taxation; when the EU gets involved it is usually in a pure-ly regulatory manner. A recent German study by the Centre for European Economic Research has examined the more technical aspects of the problem. The study conducted for the German finance ministry concluded that an EU-wide tax would lead to unfair differences between EU citizens, and that the resulting correction mech-anisms would make it too complicated to intro-duce. Those who think it will have definitely put the matter to rest should however, think again.

book review: eu: how does it work?

Alexander Stubb MEP, Elizabeth Bomberg (University of Edin-burgh) and John Pe-terson (University of Edinburgh) present an accessible look at the EU with “The EU: How

Does It Work?” Authors include academics, EU gurus as well as professionals in EU politics. The book introduces EU topics and clearly describes the EU for those who wish to learn the basics quickly. The 298-page book includes a number of concrete examples, background stories and definitions that explain how the EU really works. Online resources include multiple choice ques-tions for students, PowerPoint presentations and seminar questions for teachers. The first edition of the book (Bomberg & Stubb, 2003) was a bestseller, with more than 12,000 copies sold. The book is Stubb‘s thirteenth on the EU.

Günther Verheugen

Alexander Stubb

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FACTS & FIGURES


Typically American?

Lucky Americans and Europeans share the same life expectancy of approximately 78 years, giving them over a dec-ade more to enjoy than the world av-erage of 67.

78

Fuel prices continue to be significantly more expensive in Europe com-pared to the US, but because each American drives an average of over 19,000 km per year in typically less fuel-efficent vehicles, they still spend more overall than European drivers, who drive 9,795 km per year.

19,000 4.9%According to the Department of Labor, un-employment rates were at 4.9% in Janu-ary of 2008. Between 4-6% is considered “healthy.”

Is the percentage of Americans who own a Bible, meanwhile 54% believe that intel-ligent life exists on other planets, and 23% believe they have encountered a ghost.

90% Is the percentage of households with a broadband internet connection in the USA. Europeans are currently at 30%

42%

27%

Is the amount that the average Ameri-can household spent for residential energy services and gasoline in 2007.

$5,000

Boasting 17 of the world’s top 20 universi-ties it may come as no surprise that - with 27% of the population hav-ing a degree - American university graduates outnumber Europeans by a full 17%.

Is the percentage of Americans who are overweight, whereas in the EU it is 48%.

66.3%

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FACTS & FIGURES


7.2%In January 2008 Eurozone un-employment rates hit the all-time low of 7.2%.

The population of the EU is approach-ing 500 million. The US has nearly 300 million.

500 million

of Europeans believe that people from

different backgrounds (ethnic, religious or national) enrich the cultural life of their country.

72%

of Europeans are optimis-tic about the future of their country versus 41% in the US.

Is the daily average amount of time Europeans spend watching television. Americans on the other hand may watch an aver-age of up to 4 hours and 35 minutes.

1H58MIN

30%

Is the average amount of credit card debt for a EU citizen. It ap-pears that Europeans are a more frugal bunch since their debt is equivalent to $3,098 USD, which is less than half the typi-cal American credit card debt of $6,600.

€2,097

14.44

European countries dominate two-thirds of the top thirty nations in the Human Development Index, which rates countries in terms of quality of life based on numerous economic and social aspects. The US ranks at number 12 while Iceland,

Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, France and the Netherlands are in the top 10.

2/3

Typically European?

The approximate Gross Domestic

Product (purchasing power parity) for the European Union in 2007 was $14.44 trillion in comparison to the US, which is estimat-ed to be $13.86 trillion.

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TOPICS


olitical Director for George W. Bush’s presidential campaign in 2004, Terry A. Nelson has been a Republican Party strat-egist, as well as working for the Repub-lican National Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee. He currently works in Washington D.C. as principal in his own consultancy, and until July 2007 was actively working on John McCain’s presidential campaign. He spoke to European Agenda about his po-litical and corporate work, how European and American politics differ, and the future of the EU as a nation state.

European Agenda: Looking back on the presidential cam-paigns over the last year, it is somewhat surprising to find John McCain as GOP nominee presumptive. How has he man-aged to outlast Giuliani and Romney, the initial frontrunners, after a serious stumble last summer?

Terry Nelson: A number of factors came together that made it possible for John McCain to become the nominee. First, voters in New Hampshire have always had great af-fection for McCain, and even at the lowest points in his campaign, he was still a factor in the New Hampshire primary. Second, the collapse of Giuliani brought a lot of his voters over to McCain. Both draw from moderate voters, and as Giuliani collapsed, those voters moved over.

This allowed McCain to secure a significant share of the electorate. Third, the conservative vote was fractured between Romney, Huckabee, and Thompson. This allowed McCain to win a number of states, even though his victories were not overwhelming (for example, his winning vote total in South Carolina was less than his losing total in 2000). Fi-nally, McCain had a message, which the Romney, Giuliani and Thomp-son campaign lacked. To many people, his success is surprising. But given the above factors, it is not hard to see why he was successful.

Interview The EU is progressing towards integration

How do you see Obama vs. Clinton developing now that it is a two horse race? Is it down to change vs. experience?

The campaign between Obama and Clinton is still fundamentally about change vs. experience. The Obama campaign has put forward a very ef-fective message and promotes optimism that the US can overcome its challenges. The Clinton campaign is still focused on being ready to lead “on day one”, as Clinton says. This has not been especially effective (con-sidering their hope to wrap up the nomination on February 5th), but they are sticking with it. At this point, the best outcome for Clinton would point to winning the nomination at the convention. Obama, if he contin-ues with victories in early March in Texas and Ohio, may be able to knock her out of the race at that point.

What brings you to Europe, and to Berlin in particular?I made a trip two years ago, just before the German elec-

tions, to Berlin. On that trip I talked about some of the grass-roots techniques we’d used in the 2004 presidential election, and then as Political Director on the Bush-Cheney campaign. That was just really to expose people to it. We thought it would be interesting for people to hear about, because it’s not something that has been done here prevalently. This time, we’re talking about the impact of terrorism and Iraq on the US Presidential Elections, both Democratic and Republi-can primaries, and how it will impact the general election.

Political communications has taken off in Europe in the last 15 years, but some would argue that it’s still light years behind US approaches to grassroots work. What kind of progress have you noticed since the last time you were here?

We haven’t talked a lot about campaign techniques since the last time I was here. In general, European political leaders or consultants sense more hurdles for them in the kind of grassroots organising that we do in the US. I hear most commonly that they don’t think their citizens or country will engage in politics in that way, and a lot of the grassroots activities we do in the US are geared around volunteer activism and activity. From talk-ing to people here, there’s not a strong tradition of that, and developing it would be a very difficult undertaking. Many voters would reject that kind

Terry A. Nelson on public affairs, politics and transatlantic strategising by george p. kyriacou and daniel f. le ray

If you acti-vate regular people who

are not stake-holders, their communica-tion is not as suspicious to

policymakers.

P

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TOPICS


of activism. Many voters reject it in the US as well [laughs]. But there is some small percentage of people who do want to participate that way.

What about your work here in Europe? Can you expand a little bit on that? I haven’t done a lot of work in Europe. I have tried to help the opposition

in Belarus through some consulting, but that’s really been the extent. An organisation called the International Republican Institute supports emerging democratic forces in various places around the world, and they asked me around the end of 2005 to come and go through campaign plans with the opposition team. So I spent 3 or 4 days doing that, then they had their election and I came back in June 2006 to do an after-ac-tion: How did it go? What did you learn? What can be done better? They make periodic trips to Washington, and I usually meet with them, talk about how things are going and give them whatever advice they ask for.

Are you looking to expand your stay here in Europe at some point? Would you like to come back and work here on a sporadic or permanent basis?

I would like to sporadically work from here, to do political work in Eu-rope. I’ve really been focused on US politics and up to last July I worked on the McCain campaign. After that I decided to do more political work in Europe and internationally, and do less work in domestic politics. Most of my US work now is all corporate/public affairs and I don’t focus on US politics. So I’m going try to focus more on public affairs work there and maybe doing international politics abroad.

You’ve got a lot of experience in political communications. How does that help you in your corporate and public affairs work?

One thing we’ve found is that applying the kinds of techniques we use in political campaigns works well for corporations. In corporations or as-

sociations trying to get specific issues accomplished through the govern-ment, a lot of times traditional lobbying techniques don’t work well. So we run a campaign directed at policy-makers that seeks to activate the grassroots, communicate with voters and constituents back home, and elevate the issue through advertising, letters to the editor, direct mail, phone calls, and through that kind of campaign, try to convince the politi-cian that the solution our client is trying for is the solution that works for them. We also use campaign techniques for corporations battling other corporations. For example a sports team trying to get a local cable net-work to carry their programming in a way that’s more accessible to the average cable user, rather than having to pay an extra fee for that chan-nel. We work for product campaigns, where one product is in the market competing with another, and they’re trying to define their market share. We don’t come at it necessarily from a traditional marketer’s perspective, but from a campaign perspective. A lot of clients in both those situations find that approach to be a very effective way of getting things done.

So it’s no longer focusing around the brand itself, but focusing around stakeholders – corporate, governmental, non-governmental?

That’s right. In fact when we talk to people who are trying for some government solution, that’s our point. Say you’re a company president, or a lobbyist, or Corporation X, and you’re talking to a policy-maker about your solution. When a stakeholder comes in there’s automatically suspi-cion about what you’re saying. But if you go out and activate regular peo-ple who don’t have a vested interest and are not stakeholders in the out-come, their communication is not as suspicious to policymakers. They’re much more willing to accept what they have to say as an uninfluenced person not gaining anything by the decision. So we found that that’s a very effective approach. That’s not to say that lobbying doesn’t need to Ph

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— 16 —

TOPICS


about terry nelsonTerry Nelson is founder and principal of Crosslink Strategy. He has played a senior role in the last three national elections in the United States and was National Political Director for Bush-Cheney 2004, where he was responsible for the grassroots effort. He

has also been Deputy Chief of Staff and Executive Director of Political Operations at the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Political Director of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC).

happen or shouldn’t happen – there’s defi nitely a role for it – but for a lot of cases there’s a role for a broader campaign approach that helps make the case.

A lot of people will be interested in what you have to say on Brussels. I was at British American Tobacco in London three days ago talking about the lobbying industry. They’re in a very controversial industry, of course, and trying to reach out to their stakeholders.

More in Europe than the US. Lobbyists are part of the game in Wash-ington.

Lobbyism is growing and gaining tempo, but the thing about Europe is the diverse landscape – different media, different languages and cul-tures, different geographics. It’s very diffi cult to penetrate. Would you be in a position to give advice to colleagues coming over here?

There are a few other companies that do similar work. One has done work around the EU, mostly for US corporations trying to extend their goals by involving the EU regulatory process. But they’ve actually pulled back from European engagement. When it comes to corporate/public affairs, there’s not as much activity here. For those of us who come at it from the US perspective, in some respects it’s incomprehensible that it would be that way. The government regulates so much, even more in Europe than in the States, and those regulations provide for winners and losers in whatever country you’re in, or in the EU at large. When the government makes decisions about winners and losers in the US, people on one side or the other want to make their case and fi ght as much as they can for their viewpoint to prevail, whether over a broad political is-sue – the right to abortion, which doesn’t really have any economic consequences – or over things that do have eco-nomic consequences. When I talk to folks here who make the same point, you have to think that European companies will take a more similar view to US companies, they’ll want to more aggressively fi ght to make sure their viewpoint prevails in the system. It will obviously be different because government and the ways to interact with it are different, but in the US it’s a fairly big industry in comparison to Europe, and I can’t help but that think that people will look more to these kinds of techniques to get their viewpoint.

Communication is now becoming a big issue in Europe. Vice President Margot Wallström wants to conceptualise a European public sphere, to make a broader platform for discussion, but some argue that you have to create at fi rst a public sphere in each country. Looking at the States, and how many years it has taken to actually conceptualise a US national de-bate and public sphere from a private and corporate point of view, what kind of advice would you give her?

There has to be a way to create a national discussion about issues that affect everybody. I think that’s the big challenge for the EU. That really gets to the central question: is the EU going to be a confedera-tion of countries that have come together mostly in an economic zone but with some broader governmental functions that we think of as national/state functions, or is it going to be a nation? Those are two

different things. As an outsider, I would say right now that the EU oper-ates as a confederation of countries with their separate interests that are sometimes the same and often different. Just as in the US different states have different domestic priorities, and although they would share viewpoints on some things they would diverge on many others. The fi rst thing you have to do to is to have a more ‘national’ outlook for the EU. You can do that through communication, but you have to also persuade governments and people that we’re a nation, and that, as a nation, we need to have a broader dialogue on these issues. That strikes me as an immensely diffi cult thing to do if there’s no political buy-in from the people of Europe for the concept of what Europe is going to be.

Because of the lack of public discussion?I wouldn’t even say you have to accept the political rationale. You have

to accept the idea that it’s a nation, and there has to be a debate about that. That would be a change, and that change isn’t going to happen just because we say we’re going to act that way. It happens because citizens now accept that they’re part of something different, and have different obligations, needs and conceptions of their relationship to the EU. That’s very much from an outsider viewpoint and maybe not directly on point, but unless you have that, the political buy-in, it strikes me that you can’t just use words.

As a last note, where do you see all this going? Do you think there will be a political buy-in? Do you think this nation state will eventually be conceived of, or do you think there will be a fragmented landscape, a confederation?

I think European political leaders are moving closer to inte-gration. Historically it has been very diffi cult for these kinds of enemy countries to exist in a state ‘in between’. You’re always progressing towards something – you may not know what but your actions are always leading towards something. The EU is not in stasis – I don’t think anybody accepts that it is in its fi nal form and I believe it is progressing towards closer and closer integration, and maybe 50 or 75 years from now it will be a nation state in the way that we think of other

countries like the US. It seems very hard for it just to be a confederation since the decision has already been taken that we’re going to cooperate in ways that extend beyond the economy. If it was just an economic part-nership, I think the potential is that it could stay how it is, but once you move beyond that I think it makes it very diffi cult.

NEW LEGISLATION:MAXIMUM ENERGY SAVINGS BY ADEQUATE MEASURES

Pumps are used in a wide variety of applications to control the flow of liquids.

In order to achieve the climate change target of 20% energy savings for

the year 2020, the EC is initially targeting water pumps in commercial and

public buildings and circulator pumps up to 2.5 kW, as it is estimated that these

two types account for 50% of the electricity used in pumping systems throughout

Europe. The study on these two product types has been conducted as part of the

Ecodesign of energy Using Products Directive. The analysis performed showed

that it is the in-use phase that dominates, so improving the energy performance of

pumps is key to reducing their lifetime environmental impact. Table 1 summarises

EU energy consumption for water pumps and circulators and their potential

savings. All circulators operate within a ‘closed loop system’ and can subsequently

use variable speed control to ensure maximum efficiency is achieved. Also new

technologies such as permanent magnet motors are being used which account for

the high percentage of savings possible. For water pumps, the improvements to

the hydraulics of the pump alone are of small value. Other measures at product

level involving integrating controls and monitoring devices and at system level

are necessary to achieve significant savings.

The Europump general eco-policy consists of improving the energy

performance of pumps for maximum energy savings by improving the

pump design, by integrating control and monitoring devices when

necessary, and by optimising the system. In order to be effective,

future legislation should take all these requirements into account.

SUCCESSFUL INDUSTRY SELF-COMMITMENT:LABELLING OF CIRCULATORS

In March 2005, an industry self-commitment was signed by European pump

manufacturers accounting for 80% of the EU 27 market to improve the

energy performance of stand-alone circulators through energy labelling.

Over a period of three years, a change in buying patterns on the market has been

observed. The energy label has helped consumers to choose the most energy-

efficient products. Manufacturers are encouraged to develop and produce more

of these energy-efficient products. Current legislative proposals are in line with

this initiative. More stringent energy efficiency levels are expected to be set on

an ongoing basis. New standards for measurement and testing for circulators are

also under development.

FIRST STEP: A COMPLETE SET OF NEW STANDARDS AND GUIDES ARE NEEDED

Without standards for measurement and testing of energy efficiency,

fair competition would be difficult and future legislation ineffective.

Europump has cooperated with the Technical University of Darmstadt,

Germany in a large data collection exercise and analysis of pumps as a basis for

the calculation of energy efficiency levels. The work resulted in the definition of

a so-called ‘house of efficiency’. Energy efficiency levels can be used to specify

the minimum level for pumps to be placed on the market. The draft standard

will provide specifications on the exact scope of the pumps covered and testing

measures. In order to achieve the maximum savings potential, it will address

the circumstances for use of control and monitoring devices and the need to

optimise the system. In general, the standard will be simple and applicable to

all pumps and applications. Europump has prepared a series of three energy

guides. European pump manufacturers are committed to invest further in the

development of pump energy efficiency standards and in the set-up of support

services in the field of system optimisation.

THE EUROPUMP COMMITMENT TO ENERGY SAVING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Europump has launched the ‘ECOPUMP’ initiative which aims not only to achieve eco-

efficiency of pump systems in several market segments but also, and most importantly, to

communicate Europump efforts to:

➜ all customers or end users of our industry in order to increase their awareness of energy

consumption and environmental protection;

➜ government institutions and stakeholders at European and Member States level in order to

express the preference of our industry for voluntary commitments rather than legislative

measures.

ECO-DESIGN OF PUMPS

Europump response to draft legislation

TYPE

Total AnnualEnergyConsumption(TWh pa)

Energy saving after 10 years

Product(TWh pa)

Control Monitoring(TWh pa)

System(TWh pa)

CIRCULATORS 2713

45% -

WATER PUMPS 1445

3%53

37%

Table 1: Energy Consumption and potential Savings - source: Europump

Europump, the European Association of Pump Manufacturers,represents 18 national associations in 14 Member States, Turkey, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. The member associations represent more than 450 companies with a collective annual production worth about € 8.2 billion.

For further information please contact:Guy Van Doorslaer, Secretary General - [email protected]

advertorial_european_agenda_02_21 1 07-02-2008 14:50:35

You have to persuade people that

the EU is a na-tion, and that

we need to have a broad-er dialogue on these issues.

NEW LEGISLATION:MAXIMUM ENERGY SAVINGS BY ADEQUATE MEASURES

Pumps are used in a wide variety of applications to control the flow of liquids.

In order to achieve the climate change target of 20% energy savings for

the year 2020, the EC is initially targeting water pumps in commercial and

public buildings and circulator pumps up to 2.5 kW, as it is estimated that these

two types account for 50% of the electricity used in pumping systems throughout

Europe. The study on these two product types has been conducted as part of the

Ecodesign of energy Using Products Directive. The analysis performed showed

that it is the in-use phase that dominates, so improving the energy performance of

pumps is key to reducing their lifetime environmental impact. Table 1 summarises

EU energy consumption for water pumps and circulators and their potential

savings. All circulators operate within a ‘closed loop system’ and can subsequently

use variable speed control to ensure maximum efficiency is achieved. Also new

technologies such as permanent magnet motors are being used which account for

the high percentage of savings possible. For water pumps, the improvements to

the hydraulics of the pump alone are of small value. Other measures at product

level involving integrating controls and monitoring devices and at system level

are necessary to achieve significant savings.

The Europump general eco-policy consists of improving the energy

performance of pumps for maximum energy savings by improving the

pump design, by integrating control and monitoring devices when

necessary, and by optimising the system. In order to be effective,

future legislation should take all these requirements into account.

SUCCESSFUL INDUSTRY SELF-COMMITMENT:LABELLING OF CIRCULATORS

In March 2005, an industry self-commitment was signed by European pump

manufacturers accounting for 80% of the EU 27 market to improve the

energy performance of stand-alone circulators through energy labelling.

Over a period of three years, a change in buying patterns on the market has been

observed. The energy label has helped consumers to choose the most energy-

efficient products. Manufacturers are encouraged to develop and produce more

of these energy-efficient products. Current legislative proposals are in line with

this initiative. More stringent energy efficiency levels are expected to be set on

an ongoing basis. New standards for measurement and testing for circulators are

also under development.

FIRST STEP: A COMPLETE SET OF NEW STANDARDS AND GUIDES ARE NEEDED

Without standards for measurement and testing of energy efficiency,

fair competition would be difficult and future legislation ineffective.

Europump has cooperated with the Technical University of Darmstadt,

Germany in a large data collection exercise and analysis of pumps as a basis for

the calculation of energy efficiency levels. The work resulted in the definition of

a so-called ‘house of efficiency’. Energy efficiency levels can be used to specify

the minimum level for pumps to be placed on the market. The draft standard

will provide specifications on the exact scope of the pumps covered and testing

measures. In order to achieve the maximum savings potential, it will address

the circumstances for use of control and monitoring devices and the need to

optimise the system. In general, the standard will be simple and applicable to

all pumps and applications. Europump has prepared a series of three energy

guides. European pump manufacturers are committed to invest further in the

development of pump energy efficiency standards and in the set-up of support

services in the field of system optimisation.

THE EUROPUMP COMMITMENT TO ENERGY SAVING AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION

Europump has launched the ‘ECOPUMP’ initiative which aims not only to achieve eco-

efficiency of pump systems in several market segments but also, and most importantly, to

communicate Europump efforts to:

➜ all customers or end users of our industry in order to increase their awareness of energy

consumption and environmental protection;

➜ government institutions and stakeholders at European and Member States level in order to

express the preference of our industry for voluntary commitments rather than legislative

measures.

ECO-DESIGN OF PUMPS

Europump response to draft legislation

TYPE

Total AnnualEnergyConsumption(TWh pa)

Energy saving after 10 years

Product(TWh pa)

Control Monitoring(TWh pa)

System(TWh pa)

CIRCULATORS 2713

45% -

WATER PUMPS 1445

3%53

37%

Table 1: Energy Consumption and potential Savings - source: Europump

Europump, the European Association of Pump Manufacturers,represents 18 national associations in 14 Member States, Turkey, Romania, Russia and Switzerland. The member associations represent more than 450 companies with a collective annual production worth about € 8.2 billion.

For further information please contact:Guy Van Doorslaer, Secretary General - [email protected]

advertorial_european_agenda_02_21 1 07-02-2008 14:50:35

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— 18 —

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPEMENT


Sustainable DevelopmentFacts and Figures

1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

1987Brundtland Commission (World Commission on Environment & Development) defi nes “sustainable development”.

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defining sustainabilityThough it has only recently cemented itself in the public consciousness, the concept of sustainable development dates from as far back as 1987, when the Brundtland Report by the UN’s World Commission on Environ-ment and Development defi ned the term as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future genera-tions to meet their own needs.” This initial defi nition is helpful in ques-tioning the widely-held presumption that sustainable development is all about environmental protection and sustainability – though this is a big part of sustainable development, it is by no means the entire focus.

setting the sustainable agenda The United Nations’ defi nition for the topic includes, for example,

biodiversity, demographics, international law, climate change and transport, but critics of the sustainable development movement point out that such a fl uid defi nition does not lend itself to practicality. Cultural diversity is another important factor in sustainable development, being at the heart of the development of mankind, and is often considered the fourth precept of sustainable development.

The UN’s Agenda 21 proposal in 1992 identifi ed the key factors in helping countries to achieve sustainable development as information, integration and participation. The movement often identifi es grassroots activism as a major contributor to its popularisation, and most advocates favour a different approach to doing business: moving from a sector-based focus to encouraging cross-sectoral dialogue which integrates both environ-

mental and social concerns into the day-to-day running of a business.Sustainable development is, to an extent, free to be interpreted and

implemented in a variety of ways, and varying interpretations are some-what inevitable when one considers the number of groups that accept it as a strategy, from environmental lobbyists to international business conglomerates. Some argue that it follows the path of the traditional model of economic growth, but with added emphasis on the costs of en-vironmental degradation and abuse of natural resources – this is often referred to as the Conventional Economic Growth (CEG) model. But oth-ers believe that a global change of lifestyle is needed in order to become less dependent on fi nite natural resources, and that we all need to follow the Environmentally Sustainable Lifestyles (ESL) model in the future.

Scheme of sustainable development: at the confl uence of three preoccupations

social

economicenvironment

bearable equitable

sustainable

viable

1992Agenda 21 made public at the UN Earth Summit. It defi nes sustainable de-velopment policy struc-ture & implementation.

1997Rio+5 (UN General As-sembly) appraises the progress of Agenda 21.

— 19 —EUROPEAN AGENDA 02/2008


unusual sustainability awards

The Sustainable Building Services Award: Rewards: the very best efforts in sustainable constructionHost: Building Services Journal and Electrical and Me-chanical Contractor magazines

Winner: Rambold Whitbybird

The Concrete Centre’s Sustainability AwardRewards: sustainability in the production or use of con-crete in a building project

Host: The Concrete Centre, the central development organisation for the UK cement and concrete industry Winner: 1 Coleman Street, London

Outstanding Sustainable Style Achievement Awards Rewards: sustainability in the industries which help us “look fabulous, live well and do good”Host: The Sustainable Style FoundationWinner: Danny Kaye

1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010

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rewarding sustainability

major sustainability awards

Sustainable Energy Europe Awards Host: European Commission, DG TRENAnnounced: during the European Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels

Winners (2008): ENEA, Italy; AGIRE Energy Agency – Mantova, Italy; ÖKO-PROFIT - City of Graz, Austria; Innoterm Energetics, Hungary; Province of Milan, Italy; Energie-Cités, France

Global 100: The Most Sustainable Corporations in the World Host: Corporate Knights Inc. and Innovest Strategic Value Ad-visers Inc.Announced: at the World Economic Forum in DavosWinners: List of 100 Companies

The Gothenburg Award on Sustainable Development Host: City of Gothenburg, SwedenWinner (2007): Al Gore

Sustainable Banking Awards Host: The Financial Times and IFC

Winners (2007): ABN Amro Netherlands; Deutsche Bank/Goldman Sachs; Reiffaissen, Zentralbank, Austria

2001Gothenburg European Council formulates ini-tial sustainable devel-opment strategy.

16th feb 200510-year plan for the Glo-bal Earth Observation System of Systems.

10th jan 2007“Limiting Global Climate Change to 2°C: The Way Ahead for 2020 and Beyond”.

15th nov 2007Parliament calls for le-gally binding emissions targets for all countries & a 50% cut in green-house gases by 2050.

23rd jan 2008“20 20 by 2020: Europe’s Climate Change Oppor-tunity” sets targets for renewable energy.

dec 2007UN Climate Change Conference (Bali) gains commitment to an agreement on cutting emissions.

Along with the increase in public awareness of the themes of sustaina-bility and renewable energy sources, there has been a need to recognise the companies, individuals and institutions who have made the best efforts at combating climate change, global warming and fossil fuel

consumption. From some of the largest to some of the more unusual awards, we take a look at the events which are designed to reward those whose portfolios stretched beyond mere CSR to incorporate a sustain-able life for a company beyond the present.

Austria

www.wind-integration.eu

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Belgium

Bulgaria

Denmark

Germany

Estonia

FinlandFrance

Greece

Ireland

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg Malta

Netherlands

Austria

Poland

Portugal

Romenia

Sweden Spain

Czech Republic

Hungary UK

Cypris

Slovakia

Slovenia

Renewable Energy figures, 2005 Target figures for 2020

50

40

30

20

10

0

Setting New Targets 20 20 by 2020

On the 23rd January, the European Council issued a Communication entitled: “20 20 by 2020: Europe’s Climate Change Opportunity”. This represents the next step in the Renewed EU Sustainable Development Strategy. The Com-munication builds on the progress made by the EU at the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in December, where it was agreed that a comprehensive global policy on cutting emissions would be devised by 2009.

The main objectives of the Communication include:• 20 per cent renewable energy usage by 2020• A reduction of at least 20 per cent of greenhouse gases by 2020, rising

to 30% if an international agreement arises which commits other de-veloped countries to a similar emission reduction scheme.

• Updating the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS)• 12 Carbon Capture and Storage plants by 2015.

According to the Communication, the advantages of adopting such a scheme are numerous, including more growth and an increase in the number of jobs, as well as a more stable economy that does not have to deal to as great an extent with the volatile fossil fuel market. In order to

fully commit Member States, the Communication also suggests that tar-gets for emission reduction should be legally-binding, and tailor-made to realistically match the potential of each Member State to save energy and switch to fewer fossil fuels.

“20 20 for 2020” is part of the further goal of halving emissions by 2050. How will its success be ensured by policymakers? The EU plans to bring in mechanisms for monitoring and ensuring Member States’ compliance, though these have not yet been elaborated upon. There are also grand de-signs for the Emissions Trading System, which is to be harmonised across the EU rather than operating on a national basis, with EU-wide rules of auctioning and free allocation.

The plans are ambitious. Whilst the EU wants to take the lead in Climate Change, providing an example for the rest of the world, if it wants to do so successfully it must make a bold move, and make it early. Whether the plans will actually be a success is a question best answered by the people of 2050, but the inevitability of climate change means that the only way forward is to move away from the limited energy resources of the past. With this Communication, the EU is planting its feet firmly on the path leading beyond Bali.

Renewable Energy: Targets for 2020Source: EU Directive on the Promotion of the Use of Energy from Renewable Sources, 23.01.2008

— 22 —



ew Commission proposals have aroused as much controversy as the new Climate Change and Energy package, published on 23 January. The proposals are truly ‘historic’, as President Barroso put it. They herald nothing less than a new industrial revolution – the transition to a low carbon economy.

The unprecedented threats posed by the diminishing reserves of oil and gas in the world and the growing impact of climate change call for unprecedented measures and radical changes in our patterns of production and consumption. Europe has therefore rightly set itself ambitious targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 – or even by 30

per cent if other countries will make comparable efforts.The package of measures and proposals presented by the

Commission now set out to build a robust policy framework to deliver those target reductions. It deserves and needs the strongest support from member states, politicians and civil society throughout Europe. There will no doubt be discus-sion and argument about some of the individual items in the package. But such debates should not distract attention from the overwhelming importance of adopting a complete package that will in total deliver the overall targets for re-ductions of emissions.

a necessary change for the betterThe Commission’s proposals do not imply economic misery. On the con-

trary: the changes that need to be made will improve the competitive-ness of Europe and its ability to maintain thriving economies and create new job opportunities. There will be new opportunities for business and new jobs created throughout the energy-related sector. There will be massive investments needed in renewable energies of all kinds. Some believe there should be new opportunities for a new generation of safer nuclear power plants – and in the longer term the long-awaited pros-pect of commercial application of nuclear fusion technology. A major effort is needed to develop practicable ways of capturing CO2 emissions

Opinion Action this day

from power plants and other major sources and storing them safely un-derground for the long term (a process known as “sequestration”). The hydrogen economy may be around the corner.

At the same time there will be an enormous set of tasks requiring major investment and new jobs in redesigning, replacing, reconstruct-ing and re-equipping our homes and workplaces, our transport and our leisure activities, our equipment and our consumer products in a more energy efficient way. As consumers and citizens we shall all need to play our own part in changing our habits and behaviour, our lifestyles and our consumer choices in a more sustainable and less energy-consuming direction.

In order to live up to the challenges and to make the most of the op-portunities, everyone will have to make a contribution, both individually and collectively through the many different organisations and struc-tures we belong to. Businesses, trade unions, NGOs and other civil soci-ety representatives – all have a role to play in reaching the targets of EU climate policies. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) as

the voice of organised civil society at EU level is putting the Commission proposals at the heart of its work in 2008.

a large step for mankindThe recent work in our Committee has shown that civil

society as a whole is increasingly ready for the great leap forward towards the low-carbon age. It is no longer only conservation groups and environmentalists who are calling for ambitious climate policies. Industries and trade unions alike are asking for a long-term legislative framework al-lowing for investment in new technologies. They ask Europe and national governments for leadership. In a whole series of reports the Committee has pushed for and supported am-bitious EU greenhouse gas reduction goals. I am confident

that on behalf of civil society the Committee will now want to support an ambitious set of policy measures to deliver those goals for emissions reductions.

In the coming months the Committee will be assessing the different Commission proposals in detail. Fierce lobbying battles are already under way on some elements of the package. The future of the Emission Trad-ing Scheme, the burden-sharing agreement between member states, the future level of CO2 emissions from cars and other vehicles, the scope for biofuels are just some of the points on which arguments are raging. The Committee will explore the merits of all these debates.

The EESC and Europe’s Carbon Challenge by derek osborne

As consum-ers and citi-zens we shall

all need to change our habits, life-styles and consumer choices.

F


AuthorDerek Osborn, President of the EESC’s Sustainable Development ObservatoryEESC Rapporteur on the International Climate Change Negotiations

At the same time however we shall want to ensure that we – and Eu-rope – do not lose sight of the overall reduction targets which Europe has offered to the rest of the world.

At the first round of the international negotiations in Bali last Decem-ber, Europe showed real leadership that was much admired and influen-tial. But all will now depend on our capability to demonstrate to the rest of the world that we are ready to practice what we preach. If Europe can put in place this year a set of policies that can deliver its greenhouse gas reduction targets it is much more likely that other countries and blocs will be persuaded to follow. The Committee will examine the Commis-sion’s package of measures in the broader perspective of the interna-tional negotiations, and whether they are able to deliver the emissions reductions we have offered.

The transition to the low carbon economy of the future will be dif-ficult, and may in some cases be painful, especially given the scale and pace at which we shall have to manage the necessary changes. But we should not indulge in doom and gloom scenarios. The changes needed

will generate new opportunities as well as problems. If the world can act promptly and decisively now there is still time to manage the necessary changes in a way that will enhance employment opportunities, protect quality of life and improve the prospects of achieving sustainable devel-opment. But there is no time to waste. The transition will be harder and more painful if we delay by even a few more years. We need – in Church-ill’s famous words – “ACTION THIS DAY.” The Commission’s proposals are a good start.

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— 24 —



ndrew Fisk works throughout Eu-rope with Procter & Gamble’s Fabric Care business unit, covering their range of detergents and household products and services. He talks to Eu-ropean Agenda about the increasing need for companies to act socially responsibly, as well as sustainably: how Ariel has been marketed as an energy-saving product throughout Europe; and how P&G supports sus-tainable development through its non-corporate services, such as its water-cleaning projects designed to provide children all around the world with clean drinking water.

European Agenda: How would you define sustainable devel-opment?

Andrew Fisk: P&G defines sustainable development broad-ly as “providing branded products and services of superior quality and value that improve the lives of the world’s con-sumers, now and for generations to come”. Procter & Gam-ble has been active in sustainable development for many years, but what we’re seeing now is an increasing trend of companies making public declarations to become more transparent about sustainability. You have the three pillars of sustainable development: environmental, social and eco-nomic. Where we believe we can make a real difference is by proactively changing things on the environmental and social side. And if as a result we are able to grow and create employment, then it is in part contributing to economic sus-tainability. We have re-examined our sustainability efforts and have declared specific goals which we are working on.

The first of these is to reduce the resources used and hence the impact of our products. This is what we call sustainable innovation. Our target is that, by 2012, P&G will have put 20 billion dollars of sustainable innova-tion products onto the market. Our annual sales are over 70 billion dol-

Interview Creating a common agenda

lars, yet 20 billion dollars by 2012 is a sizeable target. The second is that we will continue to reduce the environmental impact of our operations. This goes beyond the actual products themselves, and covers the facili-ties in which we manufacture them. Our whole infrastructure is within this scope and again the target by 2012 is to reduce the environmental impact by an additional 10 per cent, which will reduce CO2 emissions, energy and water consumption, and waste per unit of production, with 40 per cent reduction for the decade.

The third strategy is on the social side of sustainability, which is im-proving people’s lives. Some years ago we realised that we needed to focus our efforts where we could make the biggest difference. This led to the creation of our Live, Learn and Thrive campaign. Our focus is on chil-dren. We can help them live: we can do this by reducing disease. We can help them learn: we can educate them through our brands. And we can help them thrive, which is to help them to become stronger individuals. Our signature program within this is our Children’s Safe Drinking Water

program, where we aim to eliminate 80 million days of dis-ease, and save 10,000 lives by delivering up to 2 billion litres of clean drinking water by 2012.

In what ways have concepts of sustainable development in-fluenced corporate behaviour in recent years?

The fundamental change in the last couple of years is that sustainability is no longer seen as something that is nice to do, but something which you should do. For a company like P&G, this is a real change. Susan Arnold, who is Presi-dent of all of our global business units, is our sustainability champion. Having a champion that high up in the company has helped us greatly to become very clear on our compa-ny’s goals and has helped the different business units get much clearer on what sustainability means for them from a strategic point of view. Actually we see sustainability as an opportunity, not only a responsibility.

How has that affected your laundry business?I would say on our laundry business we can make the greatest dif-

ference on the environmental sustainability side. It seems like a small thing, but when you realise that every household washes 150-200 loads

Andrew Fisk discusses how Procter & Gamble are aiming for a sustainable future by elke nussbaum and max obenaus

What we’re seeing now is an increasing trend of com-panies making

public dec-larations to

become more transparent

about sustain-ability.

A



of laundry per year, the amount of energy being used to heat the water is substantial. And with the high public concern about climate change we have put a lot of effort into communicating the benefits of low tem-perature washing. This is the single greatest thing you as a consumer can do to reduce the impact of doing the laundry on the environment. And it does work. Our “Turn to 30” campaign has resulted in one out of every four Ariel users in the UK now claiming to use the 30 degree wash as their normal programme. This compares to only one in twenty-five in 2002. The other thing we do in our laundry business is to reduce the resources you need to make the product. It really comes down to three things: we compact our products, consumers can reduce the energy con-sumption in the washing process and then we educate people to use products correctly.

We are sure you know there is this general criticism that self-interested actors – such as companies – are not willing to take into account the interest of society as a whole, that their aim is always to maximise their profit. So is CSR nothing but a marketing strategy?

I think that people often wonder whether there is a hidden agenda be-hind ‘big business’. Consumers fear that they will lose something – and they don’t want to compromise. The simple truth is that we ensure that our products, like Ariel, are very effective at low temperatures – so con-

sumers get great performance, they use less energy, so we lower emis-sions and their energy bills. Early on we realised that it was important to engage with trusted third parties who could independently verify that what we were saying was true. We have partners in many countries, for example we work with organisations like ADEME in France, the Ener-gy Saving Trust in the UK, and the Öko-Institut in Germany. These are credible environmental organisations, and we have a shared interest in encouraging consumers to wash at low temperatures. We help amplify their messages through our advertising and communications.

You said that the second person in the structure of P&G is a sustainable development champion. Do you think that is a new trend for a new cor-porate culture for big global corporations?

Yes, I think it certainly is. P&G bases its commitment to social respon-sibility on ‘always doing what is right’.

Most companies – certainly those in the consumer goods area – are so resource intensive in their production that there has been a realisa-tion over the last few years: we need to take a leadership role. Many of the very large companies – General Electric springs to mind, or Philips, Nokia, and IKEA – take up increasingly active roles in sustainable devel-opment.

The other sector which has really embraced sustainability and is driv-ing the agenda are the retailers. Walmart made a powerful declaration of intent a couple of years ago, and this has had a knock-on effect glo-bally. Many retailers are increasingly vocal in driving more sustainable behaviour. It is a clear growing trend and there is an enormous amount of willingness from the supplier side to collaborate, because we know we can’t do this alone.

I’ll give you a classic example which is about 17 years ago now. All the major detergent manufacturers launched super-compact powders in small boxes. What we have seen over the last fifteen years is a gradu-al move back to the big boxes of less compacted powders. Consumers make their own minds up, and very often they don’t know or they don’t care what is best for the environment. What they see is a big box and a little box pretty much the same price and they may buy the big box. We are committed to reverse this at the industry level and this requires close collaboration between manufacturers and retailers.

That brings us back to education. Are you encouraging your employees to behave in a sustainable way? Is business now taking up a state-like function with regards to a traditionally political realm like that of edu-cation?

We believe that we all have a role to play in educating people to be conscious of the way they live. However, no company can claim to be committed to sustainability if it does not ensure its employees are aware of their two roles. Firstly their place in the business of sustainability, and secondly an awareness of simple steps they can take to reduce environ-mental impact at work or participate in local community activities.

When public awareness of an issue increases it often leads to increased regulation. Is Corporate Social Responsibility also used to avoid stricter regulation?

First of all I think that detergents have their fair share of regulation in Phot

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the EU! Indeed there is the detergents regulation, which came into force in October 2005, as well as many others which help to ensure that all marketed detergent products are safe for consumers and for the envi-ronment. In the past, stakeholders accused us of not being transparent – that our chemicals were unsafe and had never been tested. We realised we had to change this misperception. So in 2001 we launched our website “Science-in-the-Box” (www.scien-ceinthebox.com). We shared all of our safety information and scientific studies on human and environmental safety. We list every ingredient sold in every product on the market in the EU. We even decided that this was not enough, so we went beyond our minimum requirement. When you go to the site you can click on any ingredient and you can find out what it is, what it does and its environmental and human safety profile. Now, the sustainability experts who advise us have said “look, we know your products are safe, we know that the legislation is strong enough, we don’t need to talk about that. What we need to talk about is what else are you doing, how are you going to drive the agenda beyond your responsibility”, and this is exactly what we are really inter-ested in – the opportunities. We know that we can further reduce the impact of laundry detergents.

Do you feel that P&G is appreciated by European politics for these ini-tiatives?

Our brands tend to be well-known, but not always the company. I am sure that, in certain policy areas, we are known to officials and politi-cians, such as in DG SANCO and DG Environment among others. We believe in engaging where we think we have something to bring. The whole sustainability area is so important that we must work together. It’s not about creating competitive advantage out of sustainability – it is about creating a common agenda.

What happens when politics and big business disagree? When a piece of legislation hampers the business development of a company?

I think the Commission is very good in involving stakeholders. We know our business but we don’t know how to make legislation. Legisla-tors may not appreciate the effect some decisions can have on today’s very complex business environment. It takes time to work out the im-pact of legislation on the process of manufacture, sourcing, on how we change our advertising etc – everything can change. So when you have a piece of legislation like REACH, for example, it is useful that the industry is involved. And then it is about finding the right middle ground.

We are not against regulation. What we want to avoid is legislation that makes the wrong thing to happen for the right reasons. This is criti-cal in the area of sustainability – we need to work together to ensure business is not restricted in its ability to innovate and become more sus-tainable.

“Businesses are doing too little to tackle a looming water crisis” says UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. You chose “water” as one key theme for your sustainable development engagement. Do you feel you were being addressed with this criticism?

Water is involved in everything we do – it is used with virtually all our products. Yes, water is something we are concerned about. We can’t fix the drinking-water problem, but we have made it a priority to help in ex-treme situations. We have that technology, which we have developed for

cleansing water instantly and making it safe for children to consume. It is a little packet of powder, which you can pour into dirty water and make it clean.

With our laundry detergents in Spain we didn’t do any energy saving campaign because nearly 80 per cent of con-sumers wash at 30 degrees or less already. However water is scarce. So, over the last two years we have run an education campaign with Ariel in Spain to encourage consumers to be more efficient with water in their homes and when they do the laundry. We will be expanding this program to other Eu-ropean countries.

Finally, at a corporate level we have raised this as a main theme. We have goals for water saving on the manufactur-ing side. We have to achieve that.

What about water pollution? Surely there are products you actually don’t need, like fabric softener?

Your point of view is very interesting. First of all I should say that our products are and have always been safe for the environment, and the detergents regulation has been a great help in raising the standard of the industry as a whole.

But we consider it the consumer’s choice whether they use a product or not. People used fabric softeners and other products because they need and like them. It is our role to educate consumers to use the prod-ucts correctly and our responsibility to ensure they are safe.

In closing, how do you think companies can contribute to sustainability in the future?

One big skill of companies like P&G is innovation. Innovation in tech-nology and innovation in communication. We are always looking for how can we do things better, how can we do things more efficiently. Without innovation we never will solve environmental problems. Most importantly however is partnership. I am highly encouraged by the will-ingness of government and NGOs to listen and work with business to drive the sustainability agenda. In my humble opinion there can never be too much collaboration.

about andrew FIskAndrew Fisk has been at P&G for 20 years and is currently European Director of External Relations for their Fabric Care business unit. After graduating from Birmingham University with a degree in Chemical Engineering, he started his career in P&G’s Newcastle

Technical Center, and has held positions in Research and Development, Finance and Corporate Communications. Mr Fisk is based in Brussels, where he has lived for the last 19 years. He is married and has three young children.

Without inno-vation we nev-

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opinion, there can ever be

too much col-laboration.

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AGENDA


AGENDA 03.03.-13.04.2008

28.03.08 – 29.03.08

Informal Meeting of Foreign Ministers

European Wind Energy Conference

31.03. – 03.04.08

04.03.08

CSR Alliance High Level Meeting

European Council Spring Summit

13.03.08 – 14.03.08

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AGENDA


On 4 March 2008, European Com-missioners Günter Verheugen and Vladimir Spidla will be meeting with the CEOs of companies that have expressed their support for the European Alliance for CSR. This second High Level Meeting of the Alliance builds upon the first meet-ing held in February 2007. The goal of these Meetings between compa-nies and the European Union is to review the progress of the Alliance and to discuss the challenges that

businesses and the EU are facing on demographic change, competi-tiveness and sustainable develop-ment. The aim of the 2008 meet-ing is to review the progress of the Alliance’s activities and to discuss strategic priorities that will impact businesses’ futures, sustainable growth and competitiveness. Alli-ance partner organisations CSR Eu-rope, Business Europe and UEAPME are actively involved in the prepara-tion of the March meeting.

location:brussels, belgium

host: European alliance for csr

WEEK 03.03. – 09.03.2008

04.03.08 CSR Alliance High Level MeetingMaking Europe a scion of excellence in corporate social responsibility

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AGENDA


The Slovenian Presidency of the European Union and the Committee of the Regions are intro-ducing the Territorial Dialogue under the title “European Regions and Cities – Partners for the Jobs and Growth Strat-

egy.“ This event is timely in the run-up to the Eu-ropean Spring Council 2008, and the start of the new Lisbon Governance Cycle 2008-2010. Local

03.03.2008 2nd Joint UCESA – EESC meeting with the participation of Mr Dimitriadis, President of the EESC, Brussels +++ 04.03.08 BCCB – EU Committee Business Lunch with Mr. Bill Newton Dunn MEP, Brussels +++ 04.03.08 – 05.03.08 Senior Officials and EuroMed Committee meetings, Brussels +++ 06.03.08 ALDE public meeting on the evaluation of the implementation of the 1998 UN Plan: Towards a drug-free world by 2008, Brussels +++ 05.03.2008 Entrepreneurial diversity in a unified Europe, Brussels +++ 05.03.08 MINEM Reception on migrant workers, Brussels +++ 05.03.08 – 06.03.08 COGEN Europe Annual Conference 2008, Brussels +++ 06.03.2008 Governing Council meeting of the ECB, Frankfurt +++ 06.03.08 Seminar on migrant workers, EP, Brussels +++ 06.03.08 – 07.03.08 Healthcare 2008, European Voice, Brussels +++ 09.03.08 – 10.03.08 Conference on Higher Education, Slovenian Presidency of the European Union, Brdo Slovenia +++ 09.03.08 Infor-mal Dinner of Trade Ministers, Brussels +++

04.03.08The 2008 Growth and Jobs Summit

On the eve of the Europe-an Council Spring Sum-mit devoted to the Lis-bon Agenda, the Lisbon

Council convenes its annual, one-of-a-kind rally of progressive leaders. At a time of improved economic performance but rising global uncer-tainties, Europe must manoeuvre with great care and foresight if the economic recovery is to be sustained and developed. Yet, the challenges also present a unique opportunity to demonstrate leadership, particularly in the battle against cli-mate change. Guests include, among others: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Com-mission; Joachim Fels, Morgan Stanley; Holger Schmieding, Bank of America and Bart van Ark, Economics, University of Groningen.

location: brdo, slovenia

host: slovenian presidency of the european union & committee of the regions

04.03.08 Territorial Dialogue 2008

location: résidence palace, brussels

further events

08.03.08 Brussels Press Revue “Sarkozy fan tutti”

The Brussels Press Re-vue, on the evening of March 8th 2008 at the Albert Hall, is a leading annual entertainment event for the interna-tional press in Brus-

sels. Attended by 450-500 people, it is popular among the Brussels press corps, EU employees, public affairs/communications consultants and a range of opinion formers. The evening begins with traditional theatrical entertainment drawn from a series of Brussels and EU ‘themes,’ after which comes a tombola prize draw that benefits selected charities. The event finishes with danc-ing to a live band.

location: bibliothèque solvay, brussels, belgium

host : friends of europe

This year’s motto: “Sarkozy fan tutti”José Manuel Barroso

and regional politicians will have the opportuni-ty to voice the challenges and expectations they are facing in implementing the revised Lisbon Strategy to Commissioners and EU Presidency representatives and engage in a constructive dialogue. Keynote speakers include: Janez Jansa, Prime Minister of the Republic of Slovenia; Danu-ta Hübner, European Commissioner for Regional Policy; Janez Potocnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research; Dr Ivan Zagar, Minister for Local Government and Regional Policy of the Republic of Slovenia.

birthday of the week

04.03.1951Glenis Willmott MEP, PSECommittee on En-vironment, Public Health and Food SafetyNationality: UK

Janez Jansa Prime Minister of Slovenia

Parliament: Session Committees Groups External Parliamentary Activities

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday SundayEnviron. Council

ECOFIN / PSC

COREPER I + II / PSC

COREPER II

COREPER I

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AGENDA


At the Spring Summit 2008, EU heads of states and heads of gov-ernment will discuss the future of the Lisbon strategy and adopt the conclusions for the new three-year cycle (2008–2010). Ac-cording to the priorities of the Slovenian Presidency, the Council will adopt integrated guidelines (macroeconomic, microeconomic and employment guidelines) as well as specific recommendations for Member States with regard

to their progress in implement-ing national reform programmes, and invite all actors involved – the Council, EC, EP – to implement the Community Lisbon Programme. It will also support some key ac-tivities and goals in four priority fields: Europe’s concern for the environment; Europe’s concern for its citizens and their social sta-tus; efforts towards a more active Europe; efforts towards a more in-novative and creative Europe.

Host : Council of the European Union

Location: Brussels, Belgium

WEEK 10.03. – 16.03.2008

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13.03.08 – 14.03.08 European Council Spring Summit Relaunching the Lisbon strategy under a new treaty

— 31 —

AGENDA


10.03.08 – 11.03.08 European Nuclear Forum, Marketforce Communications Ltd, Brussels +++ 10.03.08 – 14.03.08 Student Forum Maastricht 2008, Concordantia – European Studies’ Association, Maastricht +++ 10.03.08 Debate: The citizens of Saarland and Brussels, Representation of Saarland to the EU, Brussels +++ 11.03.08 European Business Awards, Paris +++ 11.03.08 – 13.03.08 Transmission & Distribution Europe 2008, Amsterdam +++ 12.03.08 Women Talk: Rachel Goldman, EJCC, Brussels +++ 12.03.08 – 13.03.08 CEI-Bois Spring meeting, Brussels +++ 12.03.08 – 14.03.08 Conference on Customs Cooperation in South-East Europe, Slovenian Presidency of the European Union, Brdo, Slov-enia +++ 13.03.08 “Getting along in Europe”, Brussels +++ 14.03.08 10th European Consumer Day, ECSC, Brussels +++

10.03.08 – 12.03.08World Health Care Congress Europe

Organised under the high patronage of the European Commission and the German Federal Ministry of Health, for the 4th consecutive year, the World Health Care

Congress Europe presents the only major inter-national forum where over 600 health leaders share best practices and successful initiatives for improved delivery and outcomes in Europe. Partic-ipating opinion leaders include health ministers, leading government officials, hospital directors, IT innovators, decision makers from public and pri-vate insurance funds, pharmaceutical and medi-cal device companies, and heath care industry suppliers. Keynote speakers include: Ulla Schmidt, Federal Minister of Health, Germany; Dr Ab Klink, Welfare and Sport, The Netherlands; Dr Ágnes Horváth, Minister of Health, Hungary; Dr Jimmy Devins, Department of Health and Children, Ire-land; Professor Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton Univer-sity, USA; and Patrick O’Connell PhD, Managing Director BT Health, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Hosts: European Commission, Bun-desministerium für Gesundheit und Frauen

Location: Berlin

12.03.08 – 13.03.08 World Biofuels Markets Congress

With 1300 participants from 58 countries at-tending in 2007, the World Biofuels Markets Congress is Europe’s largest gathering of bio-

fuels professionals. Since its inception in 2006, the congress has grown exponentially to become the must-attend conference for industry experts looking to share best practices and attract new clients. The congress is structured to maximise

business opportunities as well as provide the latest update in industry innovations and chal-lenges. This year’s agenda includes over 200 top speakers and is organised into three streams with five workshops. Several networking events are also built into the program, offering partici-pants plenty of time to meet new contacts and visit the 100 exhibitors.

Host: Green Power Conferences

Location: Brussels Expo

further events

11.03.08 – 12.03.08 External Border Conference

Since managing exter-nal borders is one of its Presidency priorities, Slovenia is organising a ministerial conference which will discuss the

European Commission’s vision of the develop-ment of the EU’s external border management system, comprising a Communication on the evaluation and future development of the Fron-tex Agency, a Communication on new tools for an Integrated Border Management Strategy and a Communication on the creation of a European Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR). Slov-enia’s aim is that the discussion between Mem-ber States at the conference will form the basis for conclusions the Council will consequently adopt, which will provide political guidelines for future work in this area.

Host: Slovenian Presidency

Location: Brdo, Slovenia

Hot discussion topic lately

Ulla Schmidt, German Federal Minister of Health

Europe’s largest Biofuels Conference & Exhibition

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12.03.1965Javier Moreno Sánchez MEP, PSE Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home AffairsNationality: ES



Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday SundayGAERC / PSC

GAERC / PSC

COREPER I + II

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AGENDA


EASTER SPECIAL

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“Beyond its traditional religious significance, Easter represents for me a turning point in the calendar. As the Easter weekend often co-incides with the spring equinox, the feeling is starting to sink in that the often cold and mis-erable winter is behind us and that we can look forward to warmer weather. Over Easter, I like spending time in my garden to admire the first seasonal flowers which are starting to blossom. The landscape changes and becomes more col-ourful. Easter eggs are of course a tradition we cherish in Luxembourg. Families get together to colour eggs before they are hidden for the kids to find them. Egg-shaped chocolates and Easter bunnies are also very popular with chil-dren and grown-ups alike.”

Astrid Lulling EPPLux

“I’ll spend Easter in the countryside with my grandchildren. As in many countries, children paint the eggs in different colours and then adults hide them. We usually say that they’re brought by rabbits, a custom which probably comes from Germany. People also offer branch-es of willow katkin to each other. Regarding the Christian tradition, people also go outside ask-ing the children if “the sun is dancing”. Finally, on that day, we eat a very special and delicious type of cream made from cottage cheese ac-companied with raisins and nuts. For me Easter is a tradition which is linked to my childhood and associated with home and family. It is the most beautiful season of the year.”

Andres Tarand PSEEstonia

The European Parliament will not be in ses-sion this week, as the hard-working people of Brussels take a well-earned rest from their responsibilities to celebrate Easter. The most important religious feast in the Christian li-turgical year, Easter has become a holiday for religious and non-religious communities alike. We asked some MEPs about how they spend Easter, and found out about Easter traditions all over the EU.

Swedish children often dress as witches and collect candy door-to-

door, in exchange for decorated pussy willow branches. This tradition has evolved from a mixture of the Scandinavian Easter witch tra-dition, and the Orthodox tradition of blessing houses with willow branches.

Swedish children in witch costume

In the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, Easter Monday is the

day for males to throw buckets of water over the girl who has caught their eye, before whip-ping her about the legs with a whip made of willow branches decorated with coloured rib-bons. Though it sounds rather startling, the whipping is painless and all in good humour. Legend has it that females should be whipped in order to retain their health and beauty for the coming year. The female in question often gives a coloured egg to her whipping suitor, as a token of thanks.

Handmade Easter Whip

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AGENDA


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“I think the most common Easter traditions in Finland relate to big family meals. Many pre-fer to eat lamb, and there are certain Finnish Easter desserts like mämmi, which is dark malt porridge which is baked in an oven. For children a must is of course the chocolate Easter eggs, that have a surprise toy or gift inside. Finland has a minority of Eastern Orthodox Church. Celebrating Easter in the Eastern Orthodox traditions is more significant than for us Lu-therans. Some of the traditional Finnish Easter foods are of Eastern Orthodox tradition, like pasha, a traditional Easter dessert made from curd. I’m spending the Easter break with my family. We are going to rest, be outside and eat well. Easter for me person-ally is a time for a retreat and relaxation. In Fin-land Easter time is also the best time to have sunny winter days. In this sense for the Nordics Easter is the start of the spring. My favourite aspect of Easter is the quiet but joyful atmosphere and the possibility to be with my loved ones.”

Ville Itällä AldeFI

In the United Kingdom, Easter is a time for mass consumption, par-

ticularly of chocolate eggs. Another favourite sweet treat is Simnel cake, a fruit cake covered with eleven marzipan balls, representing each of Jesus’ true apostles (Judas is excluded). In the North of England, some still follow the tra-dition of rolling decorated eggs down a steep hill in a race to the finish.

Simnel Cake A unique Danish Easter tradition is that of sending ‘Gaekkebreve’,

or ‘teaser letters’. These letters are written in poem or rhyme, and are sent anonymously, but signed with a number of dots corresponding to the number of letters in the sender’s name, so that the recipient can make a calculated guess as to who the sender is. If the receiver cannot guess the sender’s identity within a certain pe-riod of time, the receiver will have to give an Easter egg to the sender.

Gaekkebreve

“I’m going to spend Easter with my family in Hall, a little town in the heart of the Tyrol. This year Easter is on the 23rd of March, that’s quite early. Therefore the main question will be: Is there still snow? As a tradition for kids, colourful Easter eggs, sweets and small presents are hidden in the house or in the garden by the ‘mythological’ Easter Bunny. On Easter Sunday religious fast-ing comes officially to an end. Time for a huge Easter brunch with sweet bread and coloured eggs. There are two kinds of Easter eggs: deco-rative and boiled ones. Decorative Easter eggs, which we have carefully blown out before, are hung into the window on plants or foliating twigs of sallow. And last but not least we play the Egg-Knocking Game: We pair up and eve-ryone then chooses an egg. The two partners take turns tapping their partner’s egg with theirs. The first egg to crack loses and the win-ner goes on to challenge other winners. All the cracked up eggs go to the final winner!”

Eva Lichtenberger Greens/EFAAustria

In Spain, Seville is where hooded processioners sing love songs to

the Virgin Mary. Seville has a total of 52 reli-gious brotherhoods, whose members take part in parades that start at first light and continue until early the next morning. The ori-gins of some of these brotherhoods date back to the 13th century, when they were bands of men organised to rescue the wounded from battlefields during the re-conquest of Spain by the Moors.

A procession in Northern Spain

“I am going to spend Easter in Slovenia with my family. From Maundy Thursday to Easter Monday I shall attend church services. During the morning service on Easter Sunday there is a tradition in Slovenia that we sing a song called ‘happy alleluia’ and after the service, we wish all our friends and family a happy Easter. Then, for Easter breakfast, we prepare blessed Easter eggs, ham, white-radish and ‘potica’. Potica is a traditional Slovenian pastry. We light a candle and offer each other a special flat bread called ‘oblat’. On Easter Monday my family and I climb to the top of a local mountain to attend a serv-ice in a little church there.”

Ljudmila Novak MEPSlovenia

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AGENDA


The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the 27 Member States of the European Union will convene at the traditional semi-annual meet-ing – the “Gymnich”. This informal meeting of foreign affairs minis-ters will allow the most pressing, significant and important issues of relevance to European foreign policy to be discussed on a pan-European stage. Under the 2008 Slovenian EU Council Presidency, the “Gymnich“ meeting will take

place at the Brdo Mansion around 20 km northwest of Ljubljana. As was the case at the original meet-ing in Gymnich in 1974, the foreign ministers will be able to discuss very frankly the urgent challenges Europe faces in its relations with its neighbours and partners. In keeping with the Gymnich tradi-tion, the topics on the agenda will be limited so as to allow plenty of time to examine issues in depth and in a relaxed atmosphere.

location: brdo, slovenia

host: slovenian presidency of the european union

WEEK 24.03. – 30.03.2008

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28.03.08 – 29.03.08 Informal Meeting of Foreign Ministers“Gymnich”: Meeting of EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs

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AGENDA


27.03.08 Young Professionals Kick-off Reception, Brussels +++ 26.03.08 – 27.03.08 Temporary Commit-tee on Climate Change, Brussels +++ 26.03.08 ALDE Seminar: Enlargement of NATO – Opportunities for European Security and Defence Policy, Brussels +++ 25.03.08 CoR: Committe for Administrative and Financial Affairs (CAFA), Brussels +++ 27.03.08 Meeting of the Specialised Section for “Agriculture, Rural development, environment” (NAT), Brussels +++ 27.03.08 – 28.03.08 Third Western Balkans Conference on HIV and AIDS, Sarajevo +++ 28.03.08 – 29.03.08 Perspectives in Central Nervous System Malignan-cies IV, Berlin +++ 25.03.08 – 26.03.08 Training: Cognitive behavioural therapy: principles and practice, London +++

27.03.08 – 28.03.08The WCO - Inventing our future

The purpose of this ma-jor conference is to map out the future role and operations of the Wolrd Customs Organisation, so that it can continue to support its Mem-bers as they face the challenges that the 21st Century will pose for Customs services. The Forum will bring together a variety of international experts representing the pri-vate sector, the WCO’s partner institutions

and members of the academic world. They will conduct a strategic exploration of various key aspects of the WCO, such as the decision-mak-ing process and the nature of its instruments, supply chain security and trade facilitation, how the responsibilities of Customs are changing and the importance of an appropriate capacity building strategy, as well as issues surrounding the regionalisation of activities. All of the speak-ers will be non-members of the WCO, this being a means of visualising the future of the Organi-sation as perceived by its main partners. WCO Members will have an important role to play in the ensuing discussions.

location: brussels, belgium

host: wco

27.03.2008 Forum for the Future of Agriculture

Syngenta and the European Landown-ers Organisation (ELO) have come together to create a forum on the future of agriculture in

which the main challenges facing the sector can be addressed and the necessary responses under-stood and discussed. The inaugural meeting of

location: bibliothèque solvay, brussels

host: european land-owner‘s organisation, syngenta

further events

27.03.2008 – 28.03.2008 The revival of nuclear energy

The objective of the con-ference “The revival of nuclear energy: a chal-lenge for the European Union” is to stimulate a debate in the European

Council in order to lay the groundwork for a com-mon understanding and a balanced debate. It is out of the question to oblige countries to pro-duce nuclear energy when they are against it. But their national choices have major repercussions on their neighbours. Due to these “externalities”, cooperation among States becomes an obliga-tion. The 2008 conference will bring together key figures, and guests include Claude Fischer, Direc-tor of Les Entretiens européens; Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Energy; Alain Bugat, CEA, France; Fulvio Conti, ENEL, Italy; Gérard Mes-trallet, Suez, France.

location: paris

host : confronta-tions europe

Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Energy

Tapani Erling, Chairman of the WCO Council

Franz Fischler, former EU Agriculture Commissioner

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the forum will be focused on the need to agree on the objectives for European agriculture in the 21st Century. Themes to be addressed: Tackling global poverty; Use of natural resources; Role of agricultural technologies; Role of food in health and well being; Role of agro-fuels in climate change; Impact of climate change on produc-tion; Link between sustainable agriculture and rural development. Franz Fischler, former EU Ag-riculture Commissioner, Chairman of the RISE Foundation; John Bensted-Smith, Director for Economic Analysis, Perspectives & Evaluations, DG Agriculture, EC; Stefan Tangermann, Direc-tor, Food, Agriculture & Fisheries, OECD.

28.03.1944Gisela KallenbachCommittee on Re-gional Development

MEP, GreensNationality: DE



Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday SundayCOREPER II

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AGENDA


The European Wind Energy Confer-ence & Exhibition is an Annual Gen-eral Meeting for the international wind energy community. Visitors represent all relevant parts of the decision-making chain – from en-gineers, purchasers and analysts to political representatives and board members. It is the only event that covers every key aspect of the wind market, giving access to business contacts and networking opportu-nities. In forty sessions spread over four days, presenters from leading

companies and institutions will speak on topics which relate to business, policy, science and tech-nology. The sessions will be com-plemented by over three hundred poster presentations and a number of side events, which focus on spe-cialist subjects and projects. Con-firmed speakers: Georg Wilhelm Adamowitsch, European Coordi-nator for connections to offshore wind power in Northern Europe and Andrej Vizjak, Slovenian Minis-ter of the Economy.

location: brussels exhibition centrebrussels, belgium

host: european wind en-ergy association

WEEK 31.03. – 06.04.2008

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31.03.08 – 03.04.08 European Wind Energy Conference Annual General Meeting for the international wind energy community

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AGENDA


03.04.08 – 04.04.08 The Future of the Franco-German Engine in the European Union, Brussels +++ 05.04.08 16th Meeting of the Western Balkans Contact Group, Brussels +++ 02.04.08 – 04.04.08 European Climate Conference, Rovigo +++ 03.04.08 – 04.04.08 Conference “Public Finance in the EU,” Brussels +++ 01.04.08 BCCB – EU & ICT Committee Breakfast Briefing with Mr. Fabio Colasanti, Director General, DG Information Society & Media, Brussels +++ 02.04.08 Conference: Giving stronger voice to civil society in the EU neighbourhood – Development of civil dialogue and partnership rela-tions between civil society, national governments and EU institutions, Brdo +++ 02.04.08 – 03.04.08 Meeting of the High-Level Committee on Public Health, Brdo +++ 04.04.08 European Policy Seminar: International rankings and indicators – what they tell us and what they don’t, Brussels +++ Affairs Conference, European Generic Medicines Association, Brussels +++

02.04.08 – 04.04.08NATO Summit 2008

The capital of Romania, Bucharest, will host the 2008 Summit meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government on 2, 3

and 4 April 2008. There will also be an expanded meeting on Afghanistan. Meetings of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council and of the NATO-Ukraine Commission will also be held at Summit level in Bucharest. High-level meetings, includ-ing at the level of Heads of State and Govern-ment, may also be held in other configurations – these will be announced if they are confirmed. The Summit will be chaired by the Secretary General of NATO, Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. The Romanian President, Mr. Traian Băsescu will host the meetings.

31.03.08 – 02.04.08 Conference: The Future of Internet

The Internet has un-dergone far-reaching changes and is today a

critical infrastructure for the economy and so-ciety. Today’s 1 billion users will soon be joined by 3 billion more when mobile devices begin to make use of an all-pervasive wireless Internet infrastructure anywhere, anytime. This open

location: bled, slovenia

further events

03.04.08 – 04.04.08 European Water Management Law

The purpose of the “Per-spectives on European Water Management Law” conference is to make overriding current structures and future trends in the dichotomy

between economic and ecological interests tan-gible, and to examine them in greater depth by analysing exemplary issues. At the same time, the conference seeks to provide a forum to dis-cuss and exchange views on competing visions and concepts within the Community and in the Member States, and to contribute towards the further development of law in this field. The target audiences include legal practitioners in water management, competition and environ-mental law, as well as lawyers and economists employed by ministries and water management authorities and business enterprises.

European Water Management Chaired by the Secretary General of NATO, Mr. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer

EU Commissioner Janez Potonik

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conference identifies the long term societal and economic trends of future online societies, how they will impact the underlying network and service technologies, and how they subsequent-ly drive research and technology requirements towards a “Future Internet,” hence defining fu-ture actions at European level in a domain that has now become a global issue with bold initia-tives started in the US and Asia. The conference will assemble European and international key speakers and bring together more than 40 EU research projects instrumental in defining the future of the Internet. This event is organised under the Slovenian Presidency of the EU.

31.03.1962Dr Olli RehnCommissioner for EnlargementEuropean Commis-sionNationality: FI


host : academy of european law (era)

location: bucharest, romania

host : nato



Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday SundayPSC COREPER

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The Brussels Tax Forum is an annu-al conference that brings together policy makers, experts, stakehold-ers and the general public from all over the world to discuss tax issues of political and general in-terest. The Brussels Tax Forum is hosted by László Kovács, the EU Commissioner responsible for Taxation and Customs Union. The topic chosen for 2008 is “Taxation policy: Enhancing competitiveness and growth in a European way.” The conference will focus on the contri-

bution that taxation can make to promote growth and competitive-ness in the European Union, while bearing in mind social aspects. Speakers include: Pervenche Berès, Chairwoman of the European Par-liament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs; Christine Lagarde (TBC), French Minister of Finance; Günther Verheugen, Vice-President of the European Commis-sion; Andrej Bajuk, President of EU ECOFIN and Slovenian Minister of Finance.

Host: European Commis-sion, Taxation and Customs Union

Location: Brussels, Charle-magne building

WEEK 07.04. – 13.04.2008

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07.04.08 – 08.04.08 The Brussels Tax Forum Taxation policy: enhancing competitiveness and growth in a European way

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AGENDA


06.04.08 – 07.04.08 Informal Meeting of Experts on Article 133 Committee (Services), Brdo, Slovenia +++ 07.04.08 – 08.04.08 Transport, Telecommunications and Energy Council (TTE), Luxembourg +++ 08.04.08 CoR: EPP Bureau, Brussels +++ 07.04.08 – 08.04.08 Seminar: Understanding Decision-Mak-ing in the European Union: Principles, Procedures and Practice, Maastricht +++ 08.04.08 – 10.04.08 Euromaintenance 2008, EasyFairs, Brussels +++ 08.04.08 Temporary Committee on Climate Change, Brussels +++ 09.04.08 ALDE Seminar Energy ‘islands’ in the EU – implementation of the 3rd energy package, Brussels +++ 09.04.08 PES Presidency, Brussels +++ 09.04.08 – 10.04.08 Conference: 2nd Biomarkers in Drug Development, London +++ 10.04.08 PES Diversity & Integration Network Meet-ing, Brussels +++ 10.04.08 Governing Council meeting of the ECB, Frankfurt +++ 11.04.08 BDG De-mystifying Series, “The Limosa Law, how it can affect your business?”, Mr. Philippe de Wulf, partner TaylorWessing, Brussels +++

10.04.08 – 11.04.08Combating Corrup-tion in the EU

This forum follows on from “Combating Cor-ruption in the EU – First Annual Forum”, in 2007. Topics will include incen-tives such as amnesty, immunity, mitigation or

voluntary disclosure regulations for those direct-ly involved, protection of witnesses and whistle-blowers, guidelines for public officials as well as deterrents such as debarment, blacklisting etc. Examples of best practices and experiences from Member States with specialised authorities for corruption will be given. Particular problems of prosecution with regard to the financial inter-ests of the EC will be analysed; Possibilities for administrative, police and judicial cooperation between the EU Member States and candidate countries will be scrutinised. The target audience for this conference is Experts of the Association of European Lawyers for the Protection of the

Financial Interests of the European Community, EU institutions, pub-lic prosecutors, defence lawyers and judges.

location: trier, germany

host: academy of euro-pean law (era)

08.04.08 – 10.04.08Euromaintenance 2008

Euromaintenance 2008 is an ambitious three -day conference on

maintenance, production reliability and asset management. Euromaintenance is an initiative of the EFNMS, the European Federation of Na-tional Maintenance Societies. The 19th edition of this conference will be organised by BEMAS and

location: iorsBrussels, Belgium

further events

10.04.08 – 12.04.08 Europe in Action 2008

Each year, Inclusion Eu-rope organises an annual congress called “Europe in Action”. In 2008, the topic will be “Education for all”. It will focus on

the policies and practices that support inclusive education and will look at what governments and teachers should be doing to make sure that schools can be open to all children across the Eu-ropean Union. The main topics of the conference will be: Education objectives for young people and their families; Structure and organisation of inclusive schools and the policies; structures and systems of inclusive education.

location: Vienna, Austria

host : Inclusion Europe

Education for all

Maintenance 2007

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easyFairs. Euromaintenance 2008 will feature several distinct themes and topics: Integrating Operations & Maintenance: Lean Manufactur-ing, Lean Maintenance & TPM; Maintenance & Asset Performance; Contracting & Outsourcing; Boosting Performance of Maintenance People; Reliability Engineering & Process Excellence; Best Practices in Maintenance Execution, Plan-ning & Scheduling; E-maintenance; Energy Management & Environmental Improvements Through Maintenance; Budgetting, Finance & Legal Issues in Maintenance; Purchasing and Managing Spare Parts and MRO.

08.04.1948Danuta Hübner PhD Commissioner for Regional PolicyEuropean CommissionNationality: PL



Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday SundayTTE TTE/ PSC COREPER

I + IICOREPER I / PSC

Common weed?Think again...

The dandelion.A garden delicacy.Seen by many as an unsightly gardening nuisance, the dandelion is also enjoyed by a discerning few as a delicious natural jam or tea.

Common perceptions are not always well founded - instinct often replaces considered thought.

Think again.Convergence is not only a dream. Convergence is happening now. We take it further.

www.etno.eu/thinkagain

Etno Annonce 210x280:Etno Annonce 210x280 4/02/08 15:49 Page 1


IT & TELECOMMUNICATIONS


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Events The ICT Agenda for 2008

Opinion MEP Angelika Niebler on a new EU regulator

E-Health Changes ahead for Europe’s Citizens

Best Practice ICT and Sustainability

31.03.08 – 02.04.08 The Future of the Internet


host: slovenian government with support of the ec

25.11.08 – 27.11.08 ICT Event 2008

location: lyon, france

host: french presidency of the eu, european com-mission

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After the first i2010 con-ference, hosted under the UK Presidency in 2005, and the event on the “Ubiquitous Europe-an Information Society”

in Helsinki in 2008, the EU policy framework for the information society and media will be dis-cussed this time in Slovenia. i2010 is currently undergoing a mid-term review to make sure that it remains up-to-date with the rapidly-changing ICT environment. The updated strategy will be presented in Spring 2008.

This Conference aims to offer an opportunity to understand what is be-ing researched in the EU and worldwide in the area of the future life of

the Internet, to identify common problems and propose solutions which overcome barriers and present the key elements of a roadmap of ac-tion. Through the exchange of ideas and emerg-ing solutions, the Conference and the associated technical workshop plan to offer a coherent ap-proach to the Future of the Internet as a vehicle for excellence and innovation, enabling Europe-an actors within the Internet world an opportu-nity to master and shape the future. Keynotes by Commissioners Potočnik and Reding.www.fi-bled.eu

ICT EVENTS 2008

04.03.08 – 09.03. 08CeBIT 2008

CeBIT is not only the world’s largest trade fair showcasing digital IT and telecommunica-tions solutions for home and work environment;

with more than 1,200 lectures and presentations on the agenda, it also ranks as the world’s larg-est and most important ICT congress.www.cebit.de/events

location: hanover, germany

host: deutsche messe ag

06.03.08 Women & ICT: Move out of the Shadows

Encouraging young women to take up a ca-reer in ICT is essential to combat the shortage of staff in this crucial sec-tor. Viviane Reding, Com-

missioner for Information, Society and Media, is following up last year’s “Shadowing exercise” with a one-day conference aimed at motivating young women to start a career in ICT.http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/in-dex_en.htm


host: european commision, dg infso

26.03.08 – 28.03.08Internet of Things

The term “Internet of Things“ has come to de-scribe a number of tech-nologies and research disciplines that enable the Internet to reach out into the real, physi-cal world of objects. The conference will bring leading researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry together to facilitate the sharing of applica-tions, research results and knowledge. Keynote speakers include Dr. Pe-ter Zencke, Executive

Board Member, SAP AG, and Dr. Bob Iannucci, CTO of Nokia.www.iot2008.org

location: Zurich, Switzerland

host: eth zurich,university of st. gallen, mit24.04.08 – 25.04.08

The EU Framework for Electronic Comms


host: slovenian government with support of the ec

31.03.08 – 02.04.08 The Future of the Internet

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location: bonn, germany

host: wik

The conference will pro-vide insights into the experiences, expecta-tions and perspectives of National Regulatory Authorities, members of the European parlia-ment, other government officials, market players and independent regula-tory experts. Their multi-ple, varied viewpoints will be communicated through presentations and panel discussions. Moreover, the confer-

ence will provide opportunities to network with high-ranking industry experts and to discuss the most challenging issues. With Fabio Colasanti, EC DG INFSO, and MEP Malcolm Harbour.www.wik.org/content/rec/rec_main.htm

13.05.08 – 14.05.08 i2010 High Level Conferencelocation: brdo, slovenia

host: slovenian presidency



The Telindus Symposium has grown in previous years to become the lead-ing ICT event in Belgium and beyond. Hosted by the leading telecom &

ICT players in Belgium, it gives ICT professionals a chance to discover the newest and most original converged ICT solutions and receive a strategic and technical update.www.ictsymposium.eu/

03.06.08 Deutsche Telekom: “Talk in Brussels”

Deutsche Telekom AG hosts its annual “Talk in Brussels” Reception at the Representation of the State North Rhine-Westphalia to the EU.


host: deutsche telekom ag

15.06.08 – 19.06.08 International Con-ference on Telecoms

The 15th ICT will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia —the meeting point of East and West. Keynote

presenters include: David G. Belanger, AT&T Labs Chief Scientist; Monique J. Morrow, Cisco USA; G.S. Kuo, Professor, Beijing University.http://ict08.org/index.html

location: st. petersburg, russia

29.09.08 – 02.10.08 ICT Symposiumlocation: brussels expo, belgiumhost: belgacom-proximus-telindus

22.10.08 – 24.10.08 eChallenges 2008

This is the eighteenth in a series of Annual Con-ferences supported by the European Commis-sion, which regularly at-tracts over 650 delegates

from leading commercial, government and re-search organisations around the world to share knowledge and experience in the areas of ICT for Networked Enterprise & RFID, eGovernment & eDemocracy, eHealth, Collaborative Working Environments, Technology Enhanced Learning and ICT Skills, Security and Identity Manage-ment, and GRID and Mobility. eChallenges pro-vides participants from these industries with a forum to discuss lessons learned from applied Information and Communications Technology (ICT)-related research at European level (FP6 & FP7) as well as Regional, National and Commer-cial initiatives. International cooperation and discussion of commercialisation, exploitation & interoperability issues are key aspects of the programme.www.echallenges.org/e2008/

location: stockholm, sweden

host: vinnova

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13.05.08 – 15.05.08 A New Reality

This year’s “Next Generation Telecommunica-tions” conference will discuss the fundamental changes that are shaping both the telecoms and media landscapes. It aims to review new service concepts, assess the changing economics that govern this new world, consider the benefits those changes will bring to society, and assess the likely futures of both existing players and new entrants.http://guest.cvent.com/EVENTS/Info/Summary.aspx?e=61410032-54e8-497e-81a3-04c337f61fb5

25.11.08 – 27.11.08 ICT Event 2008

The biennial ICT Event (formerly called the “IST Event”) is a forum for discussing research and public policy in informa-tion and communication technologies at Europe-

an level. The “Inventing the Future” theme will comprehensively cover major research trends in information and communication technologies (ICT) such as new computing paradigms, ICT-bio and nano, photonics, cognition robotics and the use of ICT for science. The 2009-2010 Work Programme for ICT research in the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) will be presented in detail.http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict/2008/index_en.htm

location: lyon, france

host: french presidency of the eu, european com-mission

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n November 2007, the European Commission presented its long-awaited proposals for the reform of the Elec-tronic Communications Regulatory Framework.

The review of the Telecom package constitutes, in the Commission’s own words, a significant reform of the cur-rent framework. The remarkable core of the proposal is clearly the creation of a European Electronic Communi-cations Market Authority (EECMA). This new body would merge and finally replace the European Regulators Group (ERG), the assembly of national regulators and the Euro-pean Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA).

This new authority is expected to improve the consist-ency in the application of EU law by acting as a cen-tre of expertise and advisory body to the Commission, upon request or in certain cases on its own initiative, on

Opinion Do we need a new EU telecoms regulator?

all issues related to electronic communications.The objectives the European Commission would like to achieve with

its proposals are correct. Irrespective of the last Telecom Review Package adopted by Parliament and Council in 2002 and its successful implemen-tation in the Member States, there are still some markets in electronic communications where there is still no fair competition and, thus, strong regulation required.

However, it has to be carefully examined as to whether such regulation really needs a new regulatory authority. First reactions in the European Parliament and the Council clearly show that there are reservations.

As a starting point, it has to be recalled that the basic goal of liberalis-ing the communications markets is to finally apply common European competition law to the telecommunications sector. Creating a new au-thority does not exactly point in this direction. Although there are still problems in several sectors of the telecommunications market, as well as the European telecommunications legal framework, it has experi-

MEP Dr Angelika Niebler comments on the Commission’s recent proposal

I



enced significant changes and developments. There is an overall under-standing among stakeholders that the current framework has stood the test of time.

Though the terminology refers to the EECMA as an “authority”, it is, in fact another European agency which the Commission would like to establish. As Europe already has a considerable number of agencies, any proposal to create a new one needs detailed and thorough scrutiny. A new agency often means new bureaucracy and more centralisation. Re-garding the principle of subsidiarity, building up new centralistic struc-tures where it is not absolutely inevitable is always questionable. In this special case, the definite need for centralized regulation seems at least contestable.

What would the EECMA implicate? It would mainly take over respon-sibility for network information and security issues from ENISA, and advise and inform the Commission about the NRA’s measures. The im-provement of the current situation with ERG and ENISA seems rather marginal and would not justify the creation of a central authority with over 130 staff and a budget of more than € 20 million.

Furthermore, once a central administrative body exists, experience shows that in the course of time it will attract more power. It is possible that, in a 3rd or 4th telecommunications package, the EECMA will quite probably play a more important role and centralize even more compe-

tence. In the long run, it could become a real central regulatory body. If we really decide to establish the EECMA, three basic questions re-

main: How should it be designed? How can we guarantee its independ-ence with regard to the European Commission? How will conflicts be-tween national regulators and the EECMA be handled?

In my opinion, an alternative to the establishment of a new agency could be that the powers vested in the national regulators are strength-ened as well as those of the existing ERG. Parliament will carefully work on the most efficient way for a further opening of the markets in the interest of consumers.

Background

The full opening of national telecoms markets was achieved in 1998, with the current regulatory framework governing the telecoms sec-tor dating from 2003 and designed to meet the objectives of promot-ing competition and consolidating the internal market for electronic communications. The Commission’s latest proposed review was adopted in November 2007. It contains one controversial proposal: the creation of the European Telecom Market Authority. During a first exchange of views on the package in the Industry Committee, several MEPs asked whether a new Electronic Communications Mar-ket Authority was necessary and raised concerns about the increase in powers for the European Commission. Some MEPs also queried the costs and benefits of functional separation, that is, separating the transmission infrastructure from content. The proposals will now be debated in the European Parliament and in the Council. The Commis-sion is hopeful that it could be in force by 2010.

AuthorDr Angelika Niebler has been an MEP since 1999 and is currently Chairwoman of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and a member of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. Born in Munich, she has been a Doctor of Law since 1992.

She is a member of the CDU/CSU Group and EPP-ED Group Executive in the European Parliament, and of numerous professional boards and foundations.

The European Commis-sion’s position & proposala summary by Christopher Robotham

In its proposal the Commission makes clear that it feels there are still considerable inconsistencies in the implementation of the European regulatory framework and that the current system risks jeopardising the competitiveness of the telecom sector in terms of the exploitation of the economies of scale of the single market and its 500 million consumers. The proposed reform package suggests as a remedy the establishment of a European regulator, in the form of the European Electronic Commu-nications Market Authority (EECMA), ultimately replacing the European Regulators Group (ERG). The proposal to create this new body was taken following the Commission’s assessment that it couldn’t take over the regulation itself, and secondly the impossibility of enhancing the ERG satisfactorily. The model of the EECMA is mainly based on the perceived shortfalls of the ERG, which, according to the Commission, has had dif-ficulties in ensuring consistent implementation of the telecom rules within the 27 Member States due to its “lowest common denominator approach”. Differences among regulators have often prevented it from identifying solutions. The new Authority would gather the 27 national regulators in its Board of Regulators and be managed by an Executive Director, appointed for five years. It would use majority voting to take decisions and would employ about 120 people tasked with complement-ing at European level the regulatory tasks performed by the national regulatory authorities. It should combine the expertise of national reg-ulators with the single market powers of the European Commission,

assisting national regulators and the Commission in coordinating and harmonising telecom regulating and ensuring that it is applied more consistently and more swiftly across all EU Member States. This would both strengthen weaker national regulators and allow the Commission to benefit from the expertise of national regulators. For those worried about the cost, the cost-benefit analysis shows that under a conserva-tive scenario it could be estimated that it has the potential of bringing total economic benefits far exceeding its budgetary costs by a factor of around 10-30 times (i.e. the order of magnitude of the benefits would be around € 250 – 800 million).

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uring the next couple of years European citizens will certainly have to adjust to major changes in the health care sec-tor. Prescriptions for medication will be given by e-mail, electronic health cards containing not only insurance data but the patient’s whole medical history will be established and electronic health records accessible for doctors all over Europe will provide transparent clinical documentation.

Under the umbrella of the Commis-sion’s new policy framework i2010, which aims to promote convergence in information and communication tech-nologies (ICT) by 2010, an Action Plan

was established to support the implementation of e-Health in Europe. E-Health can be understood as the application of ICT across the whole range of functions that affect the health sector, from the doctor to the hospital manager, via nurses, data processing specialists, social security administra-tors and the patients. In a broader sense, the term characterizes not only a technical development, but also an attitude to improve health care locally, regionally, and worldwide.

By making use of ICT for health care services, it is not only the advance-ment of medical knowledge which can be accelerated, e-Health is meant to facilitate independent living and to provide safer health care, seeing to it that all medical steps are documented in a transparent way.

E-Health can empower patients and improve healthcare. Most impor-tantly, by reducing the scope for medical errors, it can save lives. We need a partnership between health ministers, technology providers, patient groups and health NGOs to release the full potential of e-Health in Europe, says Health Commissioner Markos Kyprianou. In this sense, implementing e-Health services does not only mean improving the efficiency of health systems in terms of saving money, but enabling access to best quality care for all European citizens. By following the objects of the EU Action

E-Health Changes ahead for Europe’s Citizens

Plan, countries have furthermore contributed to the emergence of an “e-Health industry”, which, according to the Commission, has the potential to become the third largest industry in the health sector. This was also con-firmed by Agneta Granström, County Councilor of Norrbotten, speaking at an Assembly of European Regions conference: “Developing such innovative technologies also contributes to a region’s overall economic development, by attracting companies specialized in this field and creating new employ-ment opportunities.”

E-Health is however not welcomed with open arms by everyone. The Standing Committee for European Doctors, for instance, reminds us that the face-to-face contact between physicians and patients is crucial for a trustful relationship. The designers of e-Health applications should thus keep in mind that these applications need to support and enhance this contact, and that security and confidentiality of systems are of paramount importance. Although there is still a long way to go and stages of imple-mentation differ from country to country, electronic information services and cross-border cooperation in the health care sector will soon become reality.

On the Verge of a new Digital Ageby christine holthoff

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- Electronic Health records: Ongoing process until 2010; interactive pa-tient record service, accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

- E-Prescription: To be established until 2010- Health cards: No plans for individual cards, although all patients have

their own unique identification number- Health portals: National health portal existent

spain

- Electronic Health records: Established in all Spanish regions- E-Prescription: Pilot projects in the majority of regions- Health cards: Established in all regions- Health portals: Public health service institutions give general informa-

tion on prevention and health promotion, especially via the internet

romania

- Electronic Health records: Currently under preparation by collecting data on all citizens

- E-Prescription: No project has been started yet- Health cards: Two types in preparation – a national and European

health insurance card- Health portals: No national health portal any more; information is pro-

vided, for instance, by the Ministry of Public Health

germany

- Electronic Health records: Currently under preparation; patient admin-istration systems are already used in private practice, but often not on clinical documentation

- E-Prescription: Application in preparation- Health cards: Electronic insurance cards existent for more than 10

years, but have never been used for medical purposes; cards for health professionals are also being introduced

- Health portals: Large number available, with a trend towards regional health portals

belgium

- Electronic Health records: On the market since 1986; ongoing labeling process of EHR systems

- E-Prescription: Ongoing process; activities were supposed to end this month

- Health cards: Still in preparation- Health portals: Ongoing process; most universities and larger hospi-

tals are offering similar services, providing on request data about their in-patient

most important health events

world health care congress10-12 March 2008Berlin, Germany

med-e-tel 200816-18 April 2008Luxembourg

health conference 20086-8 May 2008Portorož, Slovenia

world of health it 20083-6 November 2008Copenhagen, Denmark

E-Health Implementation in the Member States

sweden

- Electronic Health records: Ongoing process; pilot projects in 2004 and 2006- E-Prescription: Ongoing process; differing technical solutions at differ-

ent stages of implementation; plans to implement personal signature and national database

- Health cards: Personal electronic ID card with an electronic certificate for health and social service employees existent

- Health portals: Ongoing process; plan of a national health portal for citizens and telephone support; service also via Internet and informa-tion leaflets

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limate change is firmly on the agenda of the business community. British Telecom’s chief executive, Ben Verwaayen, recently headed a task force within the Confed-eration of British Industries on Climate Change. The task force was composed of and involved some of the UK’s main busi-ness leaders, who analysed the country’s response to the climate change challenge. Its final report “Climate change: Every-one’s business” points to the great sense of urgency in the UK regarding the issue.

Information and Communications Tech-nologies are key enablers and play a major role in finding solutions for the reduction of carbon emissions. BT has a track record

in reducing not only its own carbon emission footprint, but also in offer-ing solutions for others to do so. By the end of the 2006 BT had reduced the company’s CO2 emissions by 60% compared to 1996. This is equiva-lent to an annual saving of almost 1 million tonnes of CO2. BT’s emissions savings already exceed the EU’s and UK Government’s target of 20% by 2010 (from a 1990 baseline) as well as those of the Kyoto Protocol.

bt’s strategy to tackle climate change is four-pronged:• reducing its own emissions • influencing its supply chain to produce lower carbon-emitting prod-

ucts • influencing customers by proposing lower carbon solutions • engaging its more than 106,000 strong workforce to reduce their per-

sonal carbon footprints and empowering them to influence their local communities

As a consumer of 0.7 per cent of the UK’s entire electricity consumption, BT is well-placed to make a significant contribution. In 2007, the company extended its Green Energy contract – one of the biggest in the world– un-til 2010 with npower and British Gas Business. The two suppliers provide BT with 1 terawatt hour (TWh) of renewable energy and 1.2 TWh of ac-credited combined heat and power (CHP) per year. The arrangement will

Best practice ICT and Sustainability

see BT saving the equivalent amount of carbon as that resulting from the electricity consumption of over 300,000 households - roughly the popu-lation of Liverpool and Cardiff combined – for every year of the contract.

bt and wind powerBT’s plan is to reduce its CO2 emissions by 80% by 2016 (based on 1996

level). This year we decided to go even further and to build our own wind farms. With the aim of starting to generate power from 2012 onwards they shall provide up to 25 per cent of its existing UK electricity require-ments. The wind farm scheme represents the UK’s biggest corporate wind power project outside the energy sector. The project, costing about 330 million Euro, will bring together third party funding and renewable energy partners to safeguard future supplies of clean, green energy. This would prevent the release of 500,000 tonnes of CO2 each year – equiva-lent to a quarter of a million return air trips from London to New York. We are currently identifying high wind yield sites on or adjacent to BT-owned land and are committed to working closely with local communi-ties throughout the development process.

good for businessTo make real progress in tackling climate change companies must move

the issue from a cost-based risk to an integrated part of their revenue stream. BT aims to run its business on a sustainable basis and to keep a balance in a way that is good for its customers, shareholders, employees, the environment and the world in which we live. An important part of this experience is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). BT has been top in its sector on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for seven years in a row now.

BT is uniquely placed to harness the potential of networked IT services and the positive effect that they will continue to have on reducing car-bon emissions through, for example, cutting down on unnecessary travel. More than 80 per cent of BT staff already work flexibly some or all of the time thanks to our broadband technology, while BT’s teleconferenc-ing business is the fastest growing in the world. BT will also commit to incorporating energy consumption and environmental impact into its procurement processes, ensuring that all suppliers are compliant with BT’s environmental targets.

Climate change is not just a moral issue. Through the use of conference calls and home working BT saved around 315 million miles of business

How BT is busting Carbon by stephen crisp

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travel, which lowered the companies CO2 emissions by 20,000 tonnes – apparently the environmental cost of the Strasbourg Plenary sessions. Our teleconferencing systems alone saved BT 60 million Euro in 2006. Congestions and delays cost business money – according to the UK in-dustry federation CBI about 27 billion Euro per year - and almost any mode of transport creates pollution. ICT has the potential to reduce the amount we travel. Think not only about teleworking and teleconferenc-ing but also about on-line shopping, egovernment, ebanking or more ef-ficient traffic management and logistics. Maybe, we should even consider the integration of transport and ICT policy.

One of the biggest consumers of energy are BT’s datacentres. BT has made them a particular focus. In 2006, BT consolidated 3,000 servers through a mixture of virtualization, the move to blade servers, and al-ternative operating systems such as Linux. This resulted in electricity savings of 23GWh (gigawatt hours) and a reduction in CO2 emissions of 3,300 tonnes. We also decided to implement fresh-air-cooling instead of air-conditioning in the 107 datacenters required for its 21st Century net-work, resulting in an 85% reduction in datacenter energy use. BT found that most were running at a temperature of between 20C–24C. The com-panyBT challenged the conventional wisdom and took a that the opti-mum running temperature for IT and network equipment is around 22C.a different approach to refrigeration with much higher temperatures than originally envisaged. Furthermore, BT’s 21st Century Network in which we are investing 15 billion Euro over five years, will save energy in its own right by consuming a third less power than the one it replaces.

the big switch offBut BT is also actively engaged in an ongoing campaign aimed at em-

ployees called “The Big Switch Off” that encourages them to turn off monitors, printers, computers, lights, and other electrical equipment when they are not in use. BT estimates that this will save enough energy to power 40,000 homes over four years. It also encourages home-work-ing and the use of teleconferencing and videoconferencing facilities to replace business travel wherever possible. Other measures include en-suring that all new equipment uses less energy than that which it re-places. Related to this is the fact that BT is focusing on managing the large desktop/laptop estate of its over 106000 employees worldwide. This includes shutting down laptops that are not in use, as well as printer consolidation.

But, there is another important element which we are becoming in-creasingly aware of in our recruitment of young graduates. Corporate Social Responsibility issues are very high on their agenda when they are considering which companies they would like to join. At BT we recruit 300 graduates per year and almost all of them ask about BT’s CSR policy.

long-term problems require long-term solutionsBT has a huge investment in the UK telecommunications infrastruc-

ture and that will be increasingly at risk. The severe gales in the winter of 2004/5, following one of Scotland’s wettest summers on record, meant that BT experienced a vast increase in the numbers of cable faults, over-head cables down and a whole car park full of vehicles ruined and immo-bilised by floods. This resulted in a huge rise in customer complaints and the backlog of necessary work.

BT scientists have done a great deal of computer modelling to predict expected fault rates from high rainfall levels. BT is thinking carefully about where to place the new nodes for our 21st Century Network. The company also works on more resilient, water tight cable joints.

The risks presented by climate change are too big to ignore and we aim to play a positive part in meeting the many challenges that will arise, whilst helping Europe remain competitive. This is why BT joined forces in June 2005 with more than 20 other multinational businesses including BP, HP, Ford, HSBC, Toyota and Cisco to call on G8 governments to take ac-tion on climate change. It is a long term problem needing a well planned, long term solution. The problem should not be left to politicians alone as we all have a role to play.

AuthorStephen Crisp was appointed as Director European Affairs for BT in January 2005. Based in Brussels, he heads the EU Affairs team who represent BT’s interests to the EU institutions. Between 2003 and 2005 he was the key policy adviser to the UK’s Environment

Minister. Crisp first joined BT in 1995, working as BT’s Labour Party specialist before establishing and leading BT’s first commercial lobbying team. Prior to joining BT, he worked in the House of Commons and House of Lords. He is an Executive Board member of the European Telecommunications Network Organisation (ETNO).

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People: Winner and LoserWho came out on top and who was a flop in recent months

Andris PiebalgsWith the ambitious Climate Change and Energy package presented on 23 January, Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs is definitely more than fit to be considered a winner in this round of steps towards a more responsi-ble and sustainable future for the EU. Combating climate change will, of course, have to be a worldwide effort to produce the desired outcomes, but by forging the way with these most recent proposals the Energy Commission is certainly setting standards which can be held up as solid examples of the kinds of actions and dedication needed in the 21st cen-tury if the world is to make progress on the issue. The European council of leaders from all 27 nations had initially announced their intention to commit to drastic carbon cutting measures in March of 2007. This Cli-mate Change and Energy package embodies those commitments by not only tackling emissions concerns head-on vith viable economic options, but also by loosening restraints which will allow the EU to work more as a whole in their efforts to meet these 2020 goals.

Daniel BoutonWith the loss of an estimated 4.9 billion euros on reputedly unauthorised deals, we didn’t have to rack our brains too much to find this month’s los-er. Société Générale’s board of directors spared Chairman and CEO Daniel Bouton, who will stay on in his position, but nevertheless the damage has already been done. The losses which Société Générale incurred by trader Jerome Kerviel’s massive unauthorised bets on European futures mar-kets have seriously dented the bank’s public image and reputation, and also left the bank open to rumours of the prospect of a hostile takeover, with Credit Agricole and BNP Paribas reputed to have been interested. This talk went so far as to prompt the French Prime Minister Francois Fil-lon to state the government would defend the bank against hostile bids, and the French government was subsequently warned against adopt-ing a protectionist stance by the European Union. Since then the bank launched a bid to raise nearly 8 billion dollars in fresh capital through a heavily discounted rights issue, designed to fill a gap in funds blamed on the massive trading scandal. It said it would offer new shares to existing shareholders at 47.50 euros (68.94 dollars) - nearly a 40 per cent discount to SocGen’s previous closing share price of 77.72 euros (112.80 dollars).

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EU Institutions and National Representations

TICKERBrigitte Fourré, MEP, European Parliament +++ Herbert Ungerer, European Commission, Dep-uty Director-General for state aid policy +++ Koen Vervaeke, EU Special Representative to the African Union and Head of the Commission Delegation +++ Magor Imre Csibi, MEP, Euro-pean Parliament +++ Andrea Dahmen, Head of Communications, Commission’s DG Trans-lation +++ Geert Dancet, Executive Director, European Chemicals Agency +++ Lluis Maria de Puig, President, Parlimentary Assembly of the Council for Europe (PACE) +++ Ramona Nicole Mãnescu, MEP, European Parliament +++ Calvo Basaran, Deputy Head of Unit, European Com-mission-DG for Enterprise and Industry +++ Claire-Françoise Durand, Acting Director-Gen-eral, European Commission Legal Service +++ Emmanouil Angelakas, MEP, European Parlia-ment +++

Personnel Changes

New President of the Committee of the Regions elected

Luc Van den BrandePresidentCommittee of the RegionsNationality: BE Start: 01/02/2008

Van den Brande, former First Vice-President, has been appointed President of the Committee of the Regions. He is currently a Belgian Senator and has held a series of high profile posts including President of the Group EPP/CD in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Vice-Presi-dent of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,Belgian Minister of Employment and Labour. He holds a doctorate in Law and a Licence of Notary.

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The European Commission has appointed Jos Delbeke as Deputy Director-General for the En-vironment (DG ENV). The 52-year-old Belgian has held various positions in the DG ENV, where until recently he was responsible for climate change and air. Under the guidance of the Director Gen-eral he will now be responsible for the overall strategy and policy orientation. In the past , he has worked at Social Affairs DG, spending a year at the IMF in Washington DC, and he was a pro-fessor at the Flemish Business School (Brussels).

Jos DelbekeDeputy Director GeneralEC DG ENV Nationality: BE Start: 15/01/2008

Delbeke moves up at DG ENV

Vítor Manuel da Silva Caldeira has been elected the European Court of Auditors 11th President. He became a Member in 2000 and has been the Dean of the group responsible for coordination, evaluation, assurance, development and com-munication since 2005, and the Member directly responsible for audit development and reports during the last two years. Previously, Caldeira was responsible for the coordination of the Eu-ropean Community audit and internal audit sys-tem of the Portuguese Financial Administration.

Vítor Manuel da Silva CaldeiraPresidentECANationality: PT Start: 01/2008

New President at the ECA

Milena Vicenová has taken up the post of Czech Permanent Representative to the EU. The first woman in the post, she will lead the Represen-tation during the upcoming Czech Presidency. A graduate of the University of Veterinary Medi-cine at Brno, she was named Czech minister of Agriculture in 2006. She gained experience with the EU and Czech foreign policy as director for the pre-accession SAPARD programme, and ne-gotiating team for European structural funds.

Milena Vicenová AmbassadorCzech Permanent Rep-resentation to the EUNationality: CZ Start: 07/01/2008

New head at Czech RP

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Associations

The European Committee for Cooperation of the Machine Tool Industries has welcomed Filip Geerts as its new Secretary General. Geerts pre-viously worked for Fabrimetal as manager and as secretary-general of different national and EU trade associations. Since 2001 he has worked for Agoria, the federation of the technology in-dustry in Belgium. He is the President of the In-ternational Electronics Recycling Congress.

Filip GeertsSecretary General CECIMONationality: BE Start: 01/02/2008

CECIMO appoints Geerts

TICKER+++ Inês Alves, Policy Officer, European Youth Forum +++ Philip Aminoff, Chairman, European Group of Owner-Managed and Family Enterprises +++ Tobias Berger, Communication & Data Manager, Union for the Co-ordination of Transmission of Electricity +++ Janina Clark, Head of Communications and PR, European Insurance and Reinsurance Federation +++ Adel El Gammal, Secretary General, European Photovoltaic Industry Association +++ Piero Fratini, Coordinator for Public Affairs & Media Relations in Europe, IFPD +++ Hervé Guider, General Manager, European Association of Cooperative Banks (EACB) +++ Joachim Jobi, Head of EU-Liaison Office, BAK, BIngK, BAIK and ECEC +++ Frédéric Melchior, Researcher, Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) +++ Martin Ohneberg, President, Yes for Europe +++ Jamie Page, Executive Diretor, Health Care Without Harm Europe +++ Andreas Renscher, Chairman of Commercial Vehicle Board, European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (ACEA) +++ Alfonso Ruiz de Assín, President, Association of European Radios (AER) +++ Magda Stoczkiewicz, Director, Friends of the Earth Europe +++ Mika Vidgren, President, Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union +++Ph

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CEPI announce new Chairman Magnus Hall

Magnus HallPresidentCEPINationality: SE Start: 01/01/2008

The Confederation of European Paper Industries has announced the appointment of Magnus Hall as the new CEPI chairman. Mr Hall has been the president and CEO of Holmen since April 2004. He holds an MSc degree in Industrial Management and Engineering from Linköping Institute of Technology in Sweden, was a Fulbright scholar at Georgetown University in the US in 1985 and has been with Holmen since then. He is also chairman of the Forest-Based Sector Technology Platform (FTP) and vice chairman of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation.

CPME’s new President Michael Wilks has been a member of the UK delega-tion to the Standing Comittee of European Doctors (CPME) since 2002, and chaired its ethics committee until December 2007. He has been a member of the British Medical Association’s Medical Ethics Committee since 1994, and chaired the committee until September 2006. He also chaired the BMA’s policy-making forum.

Michael WilksPresidentCPMENationality: UK Start: 01/01/2008

Wilks elected at CPME

Niko Schlamberger has been appointed President of the Council of Euro-pean Professional Informatics Societies. He is also currently President of the Slovenian Society Informatika, VP of the International Federation of Information Processing, and the Government Secretary for special projects at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia. Previous positions in-clude Head of the Slovenian Government IT office.

Niko Schlamberger PresidentCEPISNationality: SL Start: 24/11/2007

New President at CEPIS

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Media and Think Tanks

Ben Butters has been appointed new Director of the European Affairs De-partment at Eurochambres, the Association of European Chambers of Com-merce and Industry. Mr. Butters has been working in Brussels since 1996, including stints in both the European Commission and Parliament. Between 2001 and 2007, he was Managing Director of Smallbusinesseurope.

Ben Butters Director of European AffairsEurochambresNationality: UK Start: 07/01/2008

Ben Butters at EUROCHAMBRES

Dr Christopher Pleister, Chairman of the German Cooperative Bank As-sociation, has been appointed President of the European Association of Cooperative Banks. Since 1999 Dr Pleister has been a Member of the Super-visory Board of Management of DZ BANK. He is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the European Banking Industry Committee.

Dr Christopher PleisterPresidentEACBNationality: DE Start: 01/12/2007

Pleister new President for EACB

Change at the European Movement Belgium

Anne van LanckerPresident European Movement BelgiumNationality: BE Start: 24/11/2007

Anne Van Lancker follows M. Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb as President of the European Movement Belgium. She has been a Member of the European Parliament since July 1994, focusing on social topics such as equal opportunity policy, development cooperation, sexual and repro-ductive health, poverty, social consultation, and sexual education.

Lorenzo Robustelli has been appointed Brussels Bureau Chief of Apcom, the second Italian national news agency, for whom he has been an Edi-tor for political, internal and Vatican affairs since 2003. He has previously worked as the Head of the press office of Agenzia per il giubileo, political correspondent for Reuters, economical and political affairs journalist for Italian media, and ministerial spokesperson for Italian government.

Lorenzo RobustelliBrussels Bureau Chief APCOMNationality: IT Start: 15/11/2007

Robustelli at Apcom

Stefani Weiss has taken office as Director of the Brussels office of the Ger-man Bertelsmann Foundation. She had been working as Project Manager at the foundation’s headquarters since 1999. Prior to that, Ms. Weiss was Direc-tor of Studies, European Law & Politics at the Gustav-Stresemann Institute.

Stefani WeissDirectorBertelsmann FoundationNationality: DE Start: 01/11/2007

Weiss for Bertelsmann Foundation in Brussels

Jana Mittermaier is the new head of Transparency International’s Brussels office. She joined TI in June 2006, coordinating the anti-corruption pro-gramme for South Eastern Europe and Turkey. Prior to that, Jana worked as a political desk officer in the European Correspondent’s Office of the Ger-man Foreign Office, and as Senior Public Administration Reform Advisor in the OSCE Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Jana MittermaierHead of Brussels officeTransparency InternationalNationality: DE Start: 01/01/2008

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PEOPLE


Consultancies

Companies

Robert Bosch GmbH strengthens its Brussels of-fice in the representation of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg with the appointment of Kai Lücke as Director of Public Affairs. Born in Hamburg, Germany, and educated at the Lon-don School of Economics, the Institut d´Études Politiques de Paris and the College of Europe in Brussels, Mr Lücke has previously worked for ACEA (the European association of car, truck and bus manufacturers) and the company formerly known as DaimlerChrysler.

Kai LückeDirector Public AffairsRobert Bosch GmbHNationality: DE Start: 01/02/2008

Lücke joins Robert Bosch

United Technologies Corp has selected Thomas Reynaert to take up a directorial role with re-gards to its government relations activities in the European Union. Prior to joining UTC, Rey-naart led Nortel’s government relations and regulatory affairs in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He has almost fifteen years of expe-rience in the Union in government affairs, cor-porate marketing and business development in the European high-tech, ICT and venture capital arenas.

Thomas ReynaertHead of Brussels officeUTCNationality: BE Start: 22/01/2008

Reynaart starts at UTC

Malte Nyenhuis has joined the corporate repre-sentation of Deutsche Post World Net in Brus-sels as policy officer. Mr Nyenhuis, who gradu-ated in social sciences at the University of Göt-tingen with a thesis on CO2-emission regulation in the automotive sector, will deal with financial services issues as well as questions concern-ing transportation and environment. In 2007 Nyenhuis gained EU Affairs experience in the Volkswagen Liaison Office to the EU.

Malte Nyenhuis Policy Officer Deutsche Post World Net Nationality: DE Start: 01/12/2007

Nyenhuis now with DPWN

Michel Petite, who recently joined Clifford Chance as Strategic Advisor, has worked for over 28 years in a number of senior positions within the Commission, most recently as Director-Gen-eral of the Legal Service. As Director-General, Pe-tite headed a staff of 200 and represented the Commission at the ECJ and at the WTO. At Clif-ford Chance, Petite will provide strategic advice to the firm’s global client base on a wide range of EU policies.

Michel PetiteStrategic AdvisorClifford ChanceNationality: FR Start: 10/01/2008

Petite advises Clifford Chance

Paul Baeyaert was previously Vice President for Client Services and Director of Consumer Prac-tice at Weber Shandwick Brussels. In this role he headed numerous high-profile pan-European campaigns, several of which have won SABRE Awards: best pan-European campaign 2006 (Goodyear RunOnFlat); best campaign in the automotive sector 2006 (Goodyear RunOnFlat); and best campaign in the automotive sector 2007 (Opel CMONS).

Paul BaeyaertSenior Vice-PresidentWeber ShandwickNationality: BE Start: 06/02/2008

Baeyaert new SVP at WSW

TICKER+++ Tom Antonissen has joined LOGOS Public Affairs as a Sen-ior Consultant +++ Florian Eisele head of the new Brus-sels office at Amgott Mitchell +++ Valerie von Eberhardt and David Martín join Burson-Marsteller Europe as Associ-ate and Senior Associate +++ Irene Janssen opens up new EU Public Affairs consultancy +++ Nickolas Reinhardt joins Fleishman-Hillard in Brussels as Senior Policy Adviser +++ Christoph P.M. de Preter pro-moted to the position of sen-

ior counsel Crowell & Moring’s Brussels office.

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PEOPLE


GalaBrussels’ Event Highlights

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kBefore its official start, the Slovenian Presidency of the EU prepared for its kick-off with a “Concert of Neisha” and “An evening of revelations” in Brussels. Hundreds of people joined the lively party at the Ancienne Begique last November.

Slovenian Presidency of the EU

Concert & PartyNovember 30, 2007 – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels

Celebrating the Start of the Slovenian Presidency in Brussels Singer Neisha

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EUROPEAN AGENDA 02/2008 — 59 —

Slovenia kicked off its EU Presidency by hosting the opening ceremony of the Eu-ropean Year of Intercultural Dialogue in Ljubljana, with the traditional meeting between the European Commission and the ministers of the country holding the Presidency of the EU Council in Brdo the next day. Vice-President Margot Wall-ström and other Commission members visited Slovenia in order to get acquainted with the priority tasks of Slovenia’s EU Presidency and exchange opinions with the Slovenian Government. Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša also met with the President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering.

Slovenian Presidency of the EU

Opening Events of the Slovenian PresidencyJanuary 7-8, 2008 – Ljubljana/Brdo

Ján Figel at the Opening Ceremony of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

Reception hosted by the President of the Republic of Slovenia Danilo Türk (right)

Opening Ceremony of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue

Plenary discussions between the Government of theRepublic of Slovenia and the European Commission

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, Margot Wallström and Janez Janša

Janez Janša andHans-Gert Pöttering

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On 29 January six winning projects from four EU member states – Italy, Austria, Hungary and France – were awarded trophies at the Sustainable Energy Europe Awards ceremony taking place under the umbrella of the second European Sus-tainable Energy Week. The winners were selected by an independent selection committee from more than 240 project nominees. The award ceremony was one of the highlights of European Union Sustainable Energy Week and brought together energy experts from all over Europe to celebrate the efforts of the projects that promoted the use of sustainable energy.

Family Picture of the Energy Award Winners

Maurizio Fontanili, Provincia di Mantova (right)

EU Sustainable Energy Week

Awards CeremonyJanuary 29, 2008 – Concert Noble

On the 12th of February Ev-onik Industries held their annual reception at the Bibliothèque Solvay. It was extremely well attended, featuring among the guests MEP’s Lutz Goepel and Paul Rübig. This was the first time the Evonik group celebrated it’s yearly reception under it’s new name, until its strategic realignment in September it had operated under the name RAG Beteiligungs-AG.

Evonik Industries

Reception February 12, 2008 – Bibliothèque Solvay

Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs (left)

Jo Leinen, MEP; and Klaus Engel, Chairman of theBoard of Management of Evonik Degussa

Karlheinz Maldane, Head of the EvonikDegussa Representative Office

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Economic Council LaunchJanuary 15, 2008 - Bibliothèque Solvay

Following the Oxera Eco-nomic Council’s inaugural meeting, over 120 indi-viduals representing a wide range of private and public sectors attended a reception to celebrate the launch. They included members of the European Commission, senior man-agement and policy advis-ers from multi-national companies and law firms.

Celebrating the launch of the Oxera with a bit of fun...

...and some serious discussion

The German Times, a monthly newspaper for decision makers reporting on politics and business in English, celebrated its first anniversary with a well attended reception party, reflecting on the past year and chal-lenges ahead.

MEP Jorgo Chatzimarkakis; Dr Jürgen Wickert,Friedrich Naumann Foundation

Ingo Friedrich, Detlef Prinz, Theo Sommer; Virginie Morel;Günther Oettinger, Minister President of Baden-Württemberg

Petra Erler, European Commission;Gudrun Heinze, Prinz Media

Theo Sommer, Publisher German Times;Stefani Weiss, Bertelsmann Foundation

Theo Sommer; Markus Russ, HSS; Petra Erler

Ingo Friedrich, MEP ;Theo Sommer;Rolf Baron von Hohenhau; Detlef Prinz, Prinz Media

The German Times

Anniversary CelebrationJanuary 23, 2008 – Résidence Palace

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Blueprint Partners

5th AnniversaryJanuary 5, 2008 – “Cityscape” wooden sculpture

More than 200 guests joined Brussels consul-tancy Blueprint Partners to celebrate the compa-ny’s 5th anniversary. In keeping with the theme of the evening, wood, the celebration was held in Brussels “Cityscape” wooden sculpture. The surprise of the evening was a barn dance, led by British band “The Hot Rats”.

Partners at Blueprint (from left to right): Debbie Parriss,Julia Harrison, Sue Couldery, Louise Harvey.

Guests enjoying themselves at the party

Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Karneval goes EuropeJanuary 31, 2008 – Representation of the State of NRW, Avenue Michel-Ange 8

The important tradition of “Karneval” in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia was followed in style by their Representation in Brussels. Cologne and Düsseldorf have par-ticularly strong Karneval traditions, and with the dress code strictly adhered to, the party in Brussels will have banished all thoughts of the party going on back home.

Traditional “Funkenmariechen”Guests and Staff of the Representation of NRW

Louise Harvey, Anastasia Alvizou and Mathew Hocken (from left to right) enjoy the barn dance

PEOPLE



BRUSSELS INSIDER BRUSSELS INSIDER

In the Green corner we have this rather dashing apron featuring a slightly men-

acing fork-wielding fist inviting one to join the food revolution. In keeping with the cu-linary theme, a number of fold-out cards highlight some issues the Greens are campaigning for, all fittingly illustated with various foodstuffs.

GREENS

If you attended the Sustainable Energy Week you could have received a drink in a Tetra Pak carton with a bib illustrating their eco-friend-liness. They are produced with green energy.

TETRA PACKCelebrating its 50th anniversary in 2008, Eurochambers pro-duced this rather fancy novelty

pen which starts flashing when you write. With it, the next Eurochambers meeting

could turn out to be rather a colourful occasion. Who cares

for a metor shower when a Eu-rochambers event is a more than ad-

equate replacement?

EUROCHAMBRES

Tidbits More than a free lunch New Year always sets the stage for a frenzied exchange of mountains of pro-motional material as companies, consultancies and other associations order an indecent number of pens, diaries, key chains, etc. featuring logos, contact details – and for a more personal touch – the occasional team photo. Nowa-days, this practice is not limited to the New Year, as it seems every launch, re-

lease or celebration is accompanied by some themed rubix cube or anti-stress ball. Need to know what you did last week? As a novel and more amusing way to keep track, we suggest you need only empty your bag, and the fresh mints adorned with some auto-manufacturers logo, the branded beach ball and Eu-ropean Agenda pencil sharpener will give you more than a vague idea…

This year, the European Lib-eral Women’s Network (EL-WN), aiming for something more personal, has produced this calendar of “liberal wom-en.” For each month we get a nice picture and short description of a prominent member of ELDR. In addition each month has a short fea-ture on one of the special days of the month (such as World Health Day, World Women’s Day, Human Rights Day etc...)

ELDR

The practice of each new presidency dis-tributing scarves for ladies and ties for the men was followed by the Slovenian presidency, who also produced this rather cute rucksack with hat and winter scarf. In the spring, they will be distributing beach towels also featuring the presidency logo.

SLOVENIAN PRESIDENCY

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— 64 — EUROPEAN AGENDA 02/2008

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Social Brussels: Networking & relaxingLife in Brussels: The right places to relax and to socialise with fellow EU professionalsby daniel f. le ray and max obenaus

>>> @seven

www.atseven.eu

WHERE IS IT? Mirano Continental

WHEN IS IT? Thursdays, 7pm

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Entrance fee 7 euro, membership 45 euro/75 euro

WHO IS THERE? Expats, the wider EU Community

WHAT’S HAPPENING? @seven is a club of ‘friendsetters’ from all corners of the globe, ranging in age from their late twenties to their forties. The club consists of peo-ple of all nationalities, who meet directly after work in order to socialise, relax and exchange new experiences and cultures in a relaxing setting. @seven takes place every Thursday evening at 7pm in the Mirano Con-

tinental hotel, offering the Brussels professional a perfect extension to their out-of-office social

life, which nonetheless complements their networking skills. All companies, institu-tions and European Union staff working in Brussels can become members of the club, which is a community of “world

wide people” with a passion for life.

>>> Eurolunch www.eurolunch.eu

WHERE IS IT? Espace 53

WHEN IS IT? At the discretion of individual members

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Depends on services provided and individual profile

WHO IS THERE? Professionals living and working in the EU

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Eurolunch was created to simplify the often un-

comfortable search to meet the “right” contacts in Europe. Created by a group of professionals with experience in PR, networking, lifestyle-coaching and dating, Eurolunch provides services to people living in or travelling

through Europe, and aims to help them enjoy a good lunch in great company. Of course,

nothing can replace personal contact between two people, and Eurolunch facilitates it in a more personalised way than ads, internet dating or big business networking. Their services, based on your needs, provide the right set-up to reduce the stress of that first meeting and help prepare you for follow ups. Through Eurolunch, you could be invited to great business and/or dating events across Europe, and meet other clients that also use their services.

For a long time, it was down to Brussels professionals to make their own contacts and to set up their own networks of people, be it for business or pleasure. But as the heart of the European Union, with the EC and count-less lobbying groups and diplomats from all over the world, Brussels has always been ripe for the picking when it comes to EU social and network-ing events. Over the last few years a number of events have sprung up throughout the city geared towards EU professionals and politicians, as well as to those working for just a short time in Belgium.

From intern to ambassador, making and maintaining contacts from all walks of life is a vital asset to working in the EU, and each of the events mentioned here tailors to a slightly different aspect of the European pro-fessional’s life and work. Whether it be relaxing and making contacts over dinner, or exchanging business cards - or Blackberry details - on the dance floor, finding the right person at the right time is paramount to getting along in the world of communications, politics and business, as well as in life at large!

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>>> EU Bubble Dinner Party www.bubbledinnerparty.eu/

WHERE IS IT? No permanent venue

WHEN IS IT?Friday, 4th July 2008 (TBC)

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?65 euro/10 euro

WHO IS THERE? Active EU professionals and opinion-shapers

WHAT’S HAPPENING? The EU Bubble Dinner is a private event for all active professionals and opinion-shapers working in the European Union, and Brussels in particular, who are often too busy to socialise in a relaxing party atmosphere. The unique European Union Bubble evening starts with a “mo-ment détente” followed by a “moment deluxe.” And for those on the VIB access list, there’s an after-dinner party starting at around 11pm, with dancing and partying as well as, of course, networking.

>>> 6to9 www.6to9.be

WHERE IS IT? Espace 53

WHEN IS IT? Thursdays, 6pm

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? 5 euros

WHO IS THERE?Professionals from EU Institutions, Brussels political workers

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Every Thursday from 6pm until 1am, the 6to9

Club features a social playground, great music, special offers and the fantastic

company of the international community working in Brussels. Food is served in the bar and restaurant at Espace 53, which

arranges and organises the event, and each week sees a new theme for the party

and events: in the past there have been massage events and in-house wine tast-

ings, and future 6to9 gatherings promise fun casinos, animation events, and much more. Every week there is live music from

8pm onwards, offering the best in live music and DJs to keep the party atmos-

phere going through the evening.

>>> Soirée Internationale WHERE IS IT? Restaurant “Les Ailes des Anges”

WHEN IS IT?Monthly

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?Varies according to financial means - between 20 and 35 euros

WHO IS THERE? Anyone from intern to ambassador, on personal invitation only

WHAT’S HAPPENING? Each month, Ex-MEP Frank Schwalba-Hoth hosts his “Soirée Internation-ale” with 60 to 80 participants - a mix of MEPs, interns, diplomats and

artists. After cocktails, partici-pants are introduced, a buffet is enjoyed, and it is considered “im-polite” to sit longer that 30 minutes at one table. At around 10.30pm a “special guest” is introduced - an actress or MEP, a Minister or novelist, fol-lowed by questions and answers. At 11, the person whose birthday falls closest to that date gets a cake, and dessert and jasmine tea are served. Next events are planned for 3 March (with Lester Brown, Earth Policy Institute) and 31 March (Christo-phe Leclercq, Euractiv).

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Should I stay or should I go now? Should I stay or should I go now? If I go there will be troubleAn’ if I stay it will be doubleSo come on and let me know!”

— 66 — EUROPEAN AGENDA 02/2008

BRUSSELS INSIDER EUROCRATS BABBLE

7 REASONS TO STAY:

Brussels life is Expat life for beginners: There are all these foreigners around, but just last night you happened to run into that guy from

your home village at Place Lux.

Belgium has lovely food, and they don’t make a fuss about it. You have, among many others, chocolate, freshly baked waffles, raw

meat, Steaks, and of course the mouth-watering Moules Frites. Then you have, of course, beers – whit beer, old beer, black beer, brown beer, strong beer, fruity beer salty beer etc. You might as well accept the fact that in a couple of years, you will have a magnificent beer belly and a couple of kids that go to an international prep school.

Brussels does not only create a lot jobs, it also gives birth to the most impossible job titles. Ever gotten across a “Deputy Head of European

Strategic Communications Consultant Representative Unit of Under Sec-retary Producers Associations”? No? Well, this could be you very soon.

The Belgians endured centuries of occupation and are therefore fa-mous for their culture of civil disobedience. Learn from this. Don’t

mind the police car standing next to you when crossing those red traffic lights. Go pay those taxes when YOU feel like it, and never pay attention to who is in government and what language they speak. They will pass.

Be honest: Despite all polemics about the inefficiency of European bureaucracy – you really believe in this! Just remember this Ameri-

can tourist which you recently told that you feel more “European” than English/German/French/Slovenian/etc

If you make that extra little effort and travel a bit through the Bel-gian countryside, you might finally realize that you do live in a very

nice country. The grass is always greener on the other side – just ask yourself, would you really be more happy at the French Riviera?

Another thing we can learn from real Brusseleirs: They stopped car-ing about who is Wallonian and who is Flemish centuries ago. They

are the real Europeans.

Living in Brussels Should I stay or should I go?

7 REASONS TO GO:

You are fed up of being the adult, aged and wrinkled equivalent of an Erasmus student.

You have only left for a month’s holiday and come back to find that half of the people you knew seem to have gone off to work

somewhere else and yet, for some obscure and rather suspect reason you always seem to see the same old faces at the receptions you go to.

Real life takes place a 2hours plane away from Brussels, starting Friday noon and ending Sunday night .

The highly unpredictable and depressing grey dampness that periodically smothers the entire country, let alone city - it’s time to

remind yourself what the sun really looks like.

Buzzwords and Eurospeak – you never want to meet/see/hear of/smell a stakeholder ever again. You are over-networked rather

than overworked and want to live somewhere where everyone speaks one language well rather than here where everyone speaks lots of languages quite badly.

You can’t face next week’s conference meeting on Safety Stand-ards and harmonisation in the rubber duck manufacturers indus-

try. Plus: You tried to get into/out of a Metro car the other day.

You have been the subjected to a very well orchestrated, intense yet subtle lobbying campaign, and so don’t really know why you

want to leave, but just feel deep down it’s the right thing.

Don’t you hate all those people banging on about how they are just here in Brussels for a year or two, to further their professional career and then choose the working destination of your dreams? Well, don’t forget you once were one of them. Here are 7 reasons for and against a city whose expat-citizenry oscillates between ignorance and love at second sight…

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european agenda 02 2008

Documents

european citizens

sustainable european

european public sphere

issue of european agenda

eu agenda

political brussels

good paneuropean legislation

eu calendar