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Category: Roundtables

Created on 18 March 2011

The European Institute held a meeting of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Trade on Friday, March 18th, with Hiddo Houben, Counselor and Head of the Trade and Agriculture Section at the Delegation of the European Union.  Mr. Houben briefed participants on the current state of EU-U.S. trade relations and highlighted opportunities for increased transatlantic cooperation  in an increasingly competitive global  environment.

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Category: Our Must Reads

Created on 09 March 2011

"The Fall-out from Libya" by Stanley Pignal. This Financial Times blog post describes the potential EU-wide impact of a possible wave of asylum-seeking refugees fleeing widespread violence in Libya. It explores the EU's work-in-progress on immigration-sharing among member states. As a whole, it provides an excellent overview of the legal and political strands of this complicated question for the EU. Recommended by European Affairs. (3/09)

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Category: Roundtables

Created on 08 March 2011

On March 8, 2011, The European Institute held a meeting of its Transatlantic Roundtable on Telecommunications and Information Technology with Pierre Louette, Executive Vice President and Group General Secretary and Eric Debroeck, Senior Vice President for Regulatory Affairs from France Telecom – Orange. Mr. Louette and Mr. Debroeck offered their perspectives on the telecommunications regulatory environment in the transatlantic community and assessed the current debate over net neutrality and broadband deployment, both in the United States and in Europe.

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Category: Roundtables

Created on 18 February 2011

The European Institute held a luncheon on Friday, February 18, 2011, with Robert-Jan Smits, Director General of DG Research and Innovation at the European Commission, to discuss Europe’s new Innovation Union strategy.  Found lagging on key innovation indicators, “Europe has come to realize that research and innovation are the key for advanced economies both to remain competitive and to secure social and economic progress” Mr. Smits said. Under the Innovation Union Strategy, Europe is taking important steps to remove barriers and implement a coherent framework to spur innovation. Among the EU’s priorities: the removal of barriers for venture capital funds by 2011; a valorization of international property rights so as to create a sort of “EU-wide eBay for patents and knowledge”; a review of public procurement policies to boost innovation;  and an increase in Research and Development funding. Ultimately, Mr. Smits concluded, Europe will be a “tough competitor” for innovation-based economic growth.