9-11 May: International Conference on creating a future vision for Europe: Europe – the Big Absentee?
Where is Europe when world peace and political stability are threatened? Does Europe sufficiently use its power to achieve the Kyoto Treaty’s environmental objectives? How does Europe’s deal with the external immigration pressure? In other words: has Europe fulfilled its promise laid down in the Treaty of Maastricht fifteen years ago? These questions and more will be the subject of debate from 9–11 May 2007 during the international conference Forum Maastricht. Participants include such high-ranking experts on Europe as Jeremy Rifkin, the influential American economist and bestselling author; Frans Timmermans, Minister for European Affairs; Benjamin Mkapa, former President of Tanzania; Ruud Lubbers, former Dutch prime minister and UN High Commissioner for Refugees; and Lanxin Xiang, Professor of International History and Politics in Geneva.
Fifteen years after the Treaty of Maastricht and 50 years after the Treaty of Rome, it’s hard to imagine a world without Europe. The influence of the EU on the daily lives of European citizens has become ever greater. Furthermore, Europe is under increasing external pressure to live up to its political and military role worldwide. Yet Europeans themselves do not seem to believe in this reality, as witnessed by the recent French and Dutch rejection of the EU Constitution. With Forum Maastricht, Maastricht University aims to contribute to a new vision for the Europe of the future.
The conference will start on Wednesday 9 May 2007 with the annual Schuman lecture by Jeremy Rifkin. In his latest international bestseller The European Dream: How Europe’s Vision of the Future is Quietly Eclipsing the American Dream, Rifkin argues that while the American Dream is fading, the European Dream is in many respects far better suited to meeting the societal and economic challenges of the 21st century. The conference programme further consists of three keynote speeches and six panel discussions, with prominent academics and politicians from Europe and other parts of the world. Frans Timmermans, Minister for European Affairs in the new Dutch Cabinet, will give the opening keynote speech on 10 May. Journalist John Vinocur from the International Herald Tribune will open the second conference day on 11 May.
In the lead-up to Forum Maastricht 2007, the book Reviewing Europe – which includes essays about Europe’s present, past and future – will be published in April. On the basis of old and new ideas, concepts and views about Europe, the authors (including Jo Ritzen, former minister and former Vice-President of the World Bank; Jos van Gennip, senator and director of Socires; and Ton Nijhuis, academic director of the Amsterdam Institute for German Studies) will formulate answers to the issues faced by today’s politicians in Europe.
Forum Maastricht brings together politicians, academics, policy makers, NGO representatives, students and national and international citizens interested in engaging in a broad discussion about European topics. The conference aims at contributing to a better understanding of European citizenship and to the relationship between European and national parliaments. Forum Maastricht 2007 will be the third annual conference of its kind, and will continue to stimulate cooperation between higher education, research institutes and the business community.
Source: University of Maastricht press release
