The European Strategy Forum

Objective

The European Strategy Forum, a not for profit Association under Portuguese law, will encourage debate about strategic issues affecting the European Union and its member states.  It will do so through high level conferences, study groups, briefings, publications and public meetings.

The Board of Patrons

The Board of Patrons is presided over by the President of Portugal, Professor Anibal Cavaco Silva. Its other members are José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg and doyen of the European Council and Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament.

Governance

As required by Portuguese law, the Forum has a three-tiered governing structure consisting of a General Assembly, an Executive Committee and a Fiscal Committee.

The General Assembly is chaired by António Vitorino, former Commissioner for Justice and Home Affairs.

The President of the Executive Committee is Peter Ludlow, who was for twenty years the Founding Director of CEPS, Brussels’ leading public policy research institute.

The Chairman of the Fiscal Committee, is the former Portuguese minister, Luís Valente de Oliveira.

The Secretary General, Paul Burton, who is responsible for day to day management, is based in Ponte de Lima, in offices provided by Valimar, an association of six local authorities in the Lima Valley and on the Atlantic littoral.

Programme development

The Forum meets twice a year in Ponte de Lima. These meetings normally take place during the Ascension Day weekend in May and the last weekend in September.

The September meeting, entitled ‘Setting EU Priorities’, reviews EU strategy across the board, from economic policy to defence policy, and from internal security to institutional and constitutional affairs. The first meeting of this kind took place on 29 and 30 September 2006.

The May meetings are organised around the EU’s relations with key partners in the emerging, multipolar world. The first meeting in the series, in 2007, was concerned with EU-China relations, while the second, in 2008, will focus on India, the third, in 2009, on the EU and sub-Saharan Africa, and the fourth, in 2010, on the EU and Latin America.

The Forum will commission and publish substantial papers by leading experts in connection with every meeting.

The Forum will also organise regular meetings in Lisbon. These meetings will include quarterly briefings on developments in the European Union by Peter Ludlow, two book launches a year in association with the Jacques Delors Centre, confidential briefings for founding members and a ‘Presidents only’ dinner for leading figures in the companies and institutions that support the Forum.

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The European Strategy Forum’s programme, which will be directed by Peter Ludlow, will be closely coordinated with EuroComment’s  Brussels-based study programme.

Membership and Participation

The membership of the Forum will consist initially of two categories:

·        A core group of leading figures in the EU institutions and member states. Up to a third will be Portuguese while the remainder will be drawn from the rest of the European Union and beyond. Members in this category will be nominated for three years renewable.

·        Founding members, including the Bank of Portugal, the Gulbenkian Foundation and up to 12 major companies that are prepared to commit themselves to support the Forum for at least three years.

Guests will be invited on an ad hoc basis to every plenary meeting of the European Strategy Forum according to the subject matter. In the case of the thematic meetings, the Forum expects to invite twenty or more leading figures from the regions concerned.

 Location

The offices of the European Strategy Forum are located in Ponte de Lima and all plenary meetings will be held in the town.

Participants in the conferences, who will be welcome to bring spouses or partners, will be housed in some of the fine country houses that are such a splendid feature of the region.

Funding

The European Strategy Forum is funded by membership fees and grants from foundations and official institutions. The following public and private sector entities have already pledged €50,000 or more during the next three years:

The Bank of Portugal

The Gulbenkian Foundation

Allianz Insurance

BCP Millennium

Banco Espirito Santo

BPI

Banco Santander Totta

Brisa Austo-estradas de Portugal

EDP

Somague

Vodafone

The Forum expects to increase its funding during the current year. Additional grants linked to the direct costs of the May meetings with non-EU countries may be raised as and when required.

                                                                                 Ponte de Lima, July 2007