Time for Action: Immediate Priorities for the Next European Commission

Some of the recently published by EPIN members: CEPS (Brussels): Time for Action: Immediate Priorities for the Next European Commission by Arno Behrens, Sergio Carrera, Julia De Clerck-Sachsse, Christian Egenhofer, Michael Emerson, Anaïs Faure Atger, Daniel Gros, Elspeth Guild, Karel Lannoo (and edited by Julia De Clerck-Sachsse).

The EU is at present suspended in a leadership limbo, with the new Commission President nominated but not yet approved. Moreover, until a second referendum is held in Ireland, uncertainty over the institutional framework will persist. So far, attention has focused mainly on who should be the next President of the EU or the European Commission. However, given the immense internal and external challenges facing the EU, the key issue should be what to do.

This CEPS Policy Brief provides an action plan for whoever will sit at the helm of the Union, and in primis, at the helm of the Commission. Setting priorities means concentrating on a limited number of fields. Therefore CEPS research staff has identified priorities in four selected policy fields where concrete action is needed immediately: reform of financial sector regulation and oversight, climate change and energy policy, Justice and Home Affairs and the Common Foreign and Security Policy.

These fields are crucial to fostering a recovery of the EU economy and allowing the EU to become a real actor on the international scene. Taking the actions proposed will stabilise the economy and set the EU on the right course out of its current limbo, allowing it to become a more relevant actor on the global scene as well.

Click HERE for the full text.

This publication is the result of a series of internal policy meetings at CEPS between March and June 2009, on “Rethinking the EU in a global context”, at which CEPS researchers debated the priorities for the next European Commission. To serve as an external expert and advisor, CEPS invited Professor Jan Laurens Brinkhorst of the University of Leiden. The contributors would like to thank Prof. Brinkhorst for his valuable comments and advice during these meetings. They would also like to thank Piotr Maciej Kaczynski for his help in organising and coordinating the contributions to these meetings.

CEPS Policy Briefs present concise, policy-oriented analyses of topical issues in European affairs, with the aim of interjecting the views of CEPS’ researchers and associates into the policy-making process in a timely fashion. Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the authors in a personal capacity and not to any institution with which they are associated.

EPIN Working Papers present analyses of key issues raised by the debate on the political integration of Europe. The European Policy Institutes Network (EPIN) is a network of think tanks and policy institutes based throughout Europe, which focuses on current EU political and policy debates (see back cover for more information). Unless otherwise indicated, the views expressed are attributable only to the authors in a personal capacity and not to any institutions with which they are associated.