The State of the Union
2012 edition to take place on 9-10 May 2012
http://www.eui.eu/News/2012/SoU/StateofTheUnion.aspx
The 2012 edition of The State of the Union, organised by the European University Institute (EUI) is again hosted in the historic Salone dei Cinquecento of Palazzo Vecchio (Florence City Hall). The Conference takes place on 9 May, the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, and continues on 10 May. It aims at contributing to the analysis and debate of the European Union’s current situation, EU policies and the functioning of EU institutions and it brings together high-level policy-makers, leading academics and opinion leaders.
Day One – 9 May
The State of the Union Conference is opened by the Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti and features the participation of the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.
The Conference opening remarks will be made by EUI President Josep Borrell, with an intervention of Matteo Renzi, Mayor of the City of Florence.
On 9 May there are two sessions: the first one, entitled “Economic Governance for Europe”, addresses questions on the European sovereign debt crisis and the current challenges of the Eurozone and Europe as a whole. The session is coordinated and introduced by EUI Professor Elena Carletti and among the confirmed speakers are: Edmond Alphandéry, Chairman of the Board, CNP Assurances, Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services, Barry Eichengreen, Professor of Economics and Political Science at Berkeley University, Daniel Gros, Director, Centre of European Policy Studies, Harold James, Princeton University / EUI, Luca di Montezemolo, Chairman of Ferrari, and Olli Rehn, European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs.
The second session, entitled “The EU and the New World”, concentrates on the challenges of globalisation and on the role of the EU as a global actor. The session is coordinated and introduced by EUI Professor Miguel Maduro and it features the participation of: Joschka Fischer, Former Minister for Foreign Affairs of Germany, Helga-Maria Schmid, Deputy Secretary General of the External Action Service, Mark Leonard, Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, Oleg Kharkhordin, Rector, European University at St. Petersburg, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Princeton University / Former Director of Policy Planning for the United States Department of State and Jan Zielonka, Professor of European Politics at Oxford University, Zhou Hong, Director, Institute of European Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Javier Solana, President of ESADEgeo and Former EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy
Day Two – 10 May
On 10 May the Conference will be dedicated to assessing EU Energy Policy and will be structured in four sessions: “Achieving Internal Market”, “Mitigating Climate Change”, “Implementing Security of Supply” and “Three Energy Pillars or Three Energy Policies?”.
The first session “Achieving the Internal Market” will be devoted to the analysis of strengths and weaknesses of the EU Internal Market policy applied to the Energy sector. The session is chaired by Claude Mandil, Former Director, International Energy Agency. Confirmed speakers are Philip Lowe, Director-General, European Commission – DG Energy, and David Newbery, Professor at Cambridge University. Panellists for this session include Inge Bernaerts, Head of Unit, European Commission – DG Energy, Daniel Dobbeni, CEO Elia and President, ENTSO-E, Alberto Pototschnig, Director, ACER, Pippo Ranci, Professor at Cattolica University, Peter Reitz, CEO, EEX (tbc).
The second session is dedicated to Mitigating Climate Change and will be chaired by Denny Ellerman, Director, Climate Policy Research Unit (LdP/EUI). The speakers for this session are Carlo Carraro, Coordinator, Climate Change and Sustainable Development Programme in Venice, and Jos Delbeke, Director-General, European Commission – DG Climate Action. Panellists include José Dominguez Abascal, Professor at the Sevilla Engineering School and Abengoa Research, Carlos Batlle, Associate Research Professor at Comillas University and Visiting Scholar at MIT, Ronnie Belmans, Professor at KULeuven, Simon Blakey, Special Envoy, Eurogas, Karsten Neuhoff, Director, Climate Policy Initiative in Berlin, and Jorge Vasconcelos, Chairman, NEWES.
The third session is dedicated to Implementing Security of Supply and will be chaired by Leigh Hancher, Professor at Tilburg University. Confirmed speakers include Jeff Makholm, Senior Vice President, NERA, and Jean-Arnold Vinois, Acting Director, European Commission – DG Energy. Panellists for this session are Walter Boltz, Managing Director at E-Control and Vice President at CEER, Jacques de Jong, Senior Fellow, CIEP, Francisco de la Flor, Board Member, GIE, Pierre Noël, Professor, University of Cambridge, and Helmut Schmitt von Sydow, University of Lausanne.
The fourth session will assess the topic Three Energy Pillars or Three Energy Policies? It will be chaired by Jean-Michel Glachant, Director of the Florence School of Regulation and Holder of the Loyola de Palacio Chair (EUI) and will host Heinz Hilbrecht, Former Director, European Commission – DG Energy, and Ignacio Pérez-Arriaga, Professor and Director of the BP Chair on Sustainable Development, Comillas University; Permanent Visiting Professor, MIT.
The final Roundtable chaired by Simon Wright, The Economist, will host Jean-François Cirelli, President of Eurogas and President of Gaz de France-Suez, Fernand Felzinger, President of IFIEC Europe (tbc) Christian von Hirschhausen, Professor at TU Berlin and Research Director at DIW Berlin, as well as CEOs from leading Energy companies such as Jürgen Gro?mann, RWE, José Ignacio Sánchez Galán, Iberdrola (tbc) and Paolo Scaroni, Eni.