The event was backed up by a website: the results of the deliberations of the EIN's eight working groups were posted immediately on the web and displayed on-line during the concluding plenary session attended by all the participants. The conclusions and a record of the plenary sessions were subsequently published as a brochure.

The success of the Oxford event prompted the EPP Group, known at the time as the EPP-ED Group as it included the British Conservative Delegation, to establish the EIN project on a long-term basis, with an annual Summer University rotating among EU member states. The Group accepted an invitation to organise the 2003 Summer University at El Escorial, working in cooperation with FAES, the new centre-right political foundation in Spain. The objective was to increase the size of the Summer University to around 250 participants, and to make this event a substantial annual intellectual meeting-point for Europe's centre-right politically.

The network's working groups met during the first half of 2003, to advance new thinking on several issues singled out in their conclusions of the previous Summer University, with about half such meetings taking place in Brussels and half in individual member states.

The second European Ideas Network Summer University was held at El Escorial on 11-13 September 2003. Over 250 invitees attended, with an impressive representation of senior Spanish participants. The Group's Chairman, Hans-Gert Poettering, opened the proceedings. Among the other keynote speakers were José Mariá Aznar and Ana Palacio, then prime minister and foreign minister of Spain. All ten of the network's working groups met, with over 60 senior participants acting as panellists. As in the previous year, the conclusions of the working groups were posted immediately on the public side of the EIN website at the end of the conference.

Some 300 people from 24 countries attended  the EIN gathering in Berlin. The meeting was twice the size of the launch event in Oxford.  It attracted a large number of leading international personalities as guest speakers. Among politicians, they included Angela Merkel, José Maria Aznar, Carl Bildt, Edouard Balladur, Wilfried Martens, Kenneth Clarke, Ana Palacio, Loyola de Palacio, Alain Madelin and Cyril Svoboda. Notable among the intellectual figures were Francis Fukuyama, author of "The End of History", Peter Slotedjik, the leading German philosopher, and Bruce Sterling, a prominent science fiction writer and futurologist.

Following the European Ideas Fair, on the last day of the meeting, representatives of around 25 centre-right think tanks and political foundations from across the EU came together to discuss possibilities for future joint action and cooperation. This was the first meeting of its kind, on anything approaching such a scale, ever to be held in Europe.

The EIN's fourth Summer University and second European Ideas Fair was held at the Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon, on 22-24 September 2005. It attracted over 300 participants from 27 countries, and was the largest and most diverse network gathering to date.

Among keynote speakers in Lisbon were José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission and former Prime Minister of Portugal, Chris Patten, now Chancellor of Oxford University and Chairman of the International Crisis Group, José Maria Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain, Ernest-Antoine Sellière, Président of UNICE and former President of MEDEF in France, and Professor Anibal Cavaco Silva, the former Prime Minister of Portugal (1985-1995) and now President of his country.

At the 'European Ideas Fair', two roundtables looked at "Economics, Society and Culture in Tomorrow's World" and "Europe's Responses to Challenges Ahead". The speakers in the roundtables included Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister; Antonio Borges, former Dean of Insead and former Deputy Governor of the Bank of Portugal, now with Goldman Sachs; Ashraf Ghani, President of Kabul University and former Afghan finance minister; Bernard-Henri Lévy, the noted French philosopher and writer;  János Matonyi, former Hungarian foreign minister, now with Baker and McKenzie; Craig Mundie, Senior Vice President of Microsoft; and Professor John Wood, chief executive of central research laboratories in the UK and chairman of its corresponding European consortium.

In 2006, the EIN held its fifth summer university and third 'European Ideas Fair' from Thursday 21 to Saturday 23 at the Centre de Congrès, Lyon, France. The event attracted about the same number of participants as the year before (300). By category, participants included 51 European and national parliamentarians, 67 think tankers and academics, 49 business leaders, 25 political advisers and 20 journalists.  Plenary sessions focussed on the challenge of globalisation and the continuing need for Europe to develop an 'agenda for survival" based on economic reform. Keynote speakers included José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Carl Bildt, the former Swedish prime minister who was now serving as Swedish foreign minister, Jacques Barrot, Vice-President of the European Commission, and Dominique Perben, French Minister of Transport. In all, over one hundred of the participants undertook formal speaking roles in the three-day meeting.

For the first time, the EIN working groups met in the format of 'policy roundtables', each with a major outside speaker to set the framework for discussion. Among the latter were C. Boyden Gray, US Ambassador to the EU, and Jean-Martin Folz, then chief executive of Peugeot-Citroën. As in previous years, the conclusions of the twelve policy roundtables were discussed in plenary session on the Saturday morning of the Lyon event and posted on the EIN website immediately thereafter.

Throughout 2005 and 2006, the European Ideas Network continued to build upon the substantial progress already being made in: i) strengthening the interface between EIN activity and general policy-making within the EPP Group, ii) developing a strong and effective in-put from the EPP transnational party and national parties within the EPP family, and iii) bringing together centre-right think tanks and foundations from across the EU in a new common.

Interface with EPP Group policy making: The designation of the annual EIN Summer University as an official EPP Bureau meeting increased the participation of key EPP Group policy-makers within the EIN. The Group is increasingly drawing upon EIN discussions  as a source of policy ideas and thinking. Several Group Members currently serve as Chairmen of EIN working groups. Group coordinators and prominent committee members have become more closely involved in the EIN's working groups. Four horizontal Group working groups were created in spring 2006, with their work specifically dovetailing with that of EIN and emphasising the cross-over between network research and Group policy-making.

Interface with the EPP transnational party and national parties: The EIN process has been greatly advantaged by the active involvement of the EPP transnational party, particularly of its President, Wilfried Martens. Each of the EPP member parties is invited to send representatives to the EIN Summer University on an on-going basis. The EPP and EIN organised a seminar for national party policy directors and other key strategists to discuss long-term policy priorities across the EU. This seminar met in early March 2006, courtesy of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, which hosted the meeting in Cadenabbia (Italy).

Interface with think tanks and foundations: The EIN has continued to develop strong links with like-minded bodies across the European Union. Over 40 organisations from 18 countries are now parties to the process. Organisations involved include the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung in Germany, the Fondation pour l'Innovation politique in France, FAES Foundation in Spain, the Századvég Foundation in Hungary, the CDA Research Institute in the Netherlands, and the Stockholm Network and European Enterprise Institute at international level. During 2005 and 2006, the EIN has hosted the think tanks and foundations to quarterly coordination meetings in Brussels, and also held bilateral one-day seminars with national think tanks in various national capitals. The latter events included one or more seminars with Policy Exchange in London, FAES in Madrid, the Fondation pour l'Innovation politique, Fondation Robert Schuman and Institut Montaigne in Paris, Timbro and the Ratio Institute in Stockholm, and the Austrian Institute for Security Policy Studies in Vienna. The KAS also hosted the EIN and its associated think tanks to week-end seminars in Cadenabbia (Italy) in August 2005 and July 2006.

In June 2006, the six-monthly EIN Review Meeting - which brings together the chairmen and rapporteurs of EIN working groups along with representatives of associated think-tanks - was hosted by the Constantine Karamanlis Institute in Athens. The Greek prime minister, Costas Karamanlis, was guest of honour and addressed this meeting over dinner. At the Athens meeting, the EIN and its think-tanks partners decided to launch a new electronic newsletter, designed to help distribute details of the work of their cooperation to a wider audience. This product was first issued in the autumn of 2006.

Building on the EPP group's relations with republicans in Congress and paralleling the EPP transnational party's links with the International Republican Institute in the United States, the EIN also continued to work on developing links with centre-right think tanks in Washington D.C. Leading EIN members held a working lunch with the President of the IRI and representatives of five think tanks in Washington in May 2006. One year later, In July 2007, during the EPP Group Presidency's annual visit to Washington, the EIN held a successful seminar and working lunch with like-minded American think-tanks.

Warsaw 2007: "The World in 2025" Project

Over the year 2007, the European Ideas Network has undertaken a major project designed to identify the key challenges and choices which decision-makers within the EU and its member states will face over the next two decades, and to develop forward-looking ideas to address them. The exercise is intended to promote greater coherence in the ideas process on the centre-right in European politics.

The project has been developed jointly with the EPP Group at the European Parliament, the EPP transnational party and the 40 think tanks and political foundation associated with the network. The project originated with work recently done by the Fondation pour l'innovation politique in Paris, which initiated a process to discuss major prospective reports on the World in 2025. The European Ideas network and the Fondation pour l'innovation politique decided to extend that process  through the EIN network of working groups, think-tanks and foundations, and to transform it into a common draft "2025" document. All the EIN activities for 2007 have been organised within this broader discussion framework.

The outcome of this process has been a Discussion paper entitled: "The World in 2025: How the European Union Will Need to Respond" which was submitted first to a number of centre-right think tanks and foundations representatives meeting in Brussels in late August 2007, then to participants attending the sixth  EIN Summer University in Warsaw on 20-22 September. Participants to the event were invited to post their comments on-line.

This document, now available in nineteen national languages, raises the issues of what are the trends underway over the next 20 years which, when clearly identified, will enable European leaders to take the decisions necessary to ensure that Europeans can remain prosperous and firmly in the forefront of global leadership. More specifically, the document focuses on five major policy areas for which greater time and effort must be put on addressing urgent issues that can wait no  longer: Competitiveness and the Global Economy; Demography and Immigration; Terrorism and Security; Energy and Environment.

The 2007 EIN programme comprised eleven seminars involving nine foundations in seven capital cities covering the 12 working groups.

The sixth EIN Summer University and third European Ideas Fair were held at Hotel Sofitel-Victoria in Warsaw on 20-22 September.  Again, over 300 European and national politicians, business leaders, academics, think tankers and journalists took part in the meeting, with representatives of over thirty think tanks and political foundations. The new Group Chairman, Joseph Daul, kindly gave the opening speech of welcome.  The help and encouragement of Jacek Saryusz-Wolski MEP, leader of the Polish delegation, was highly valued in the conference preparation. Excellent presentations were made by a number of distinguished keynote speakers - including José Manuel Barroso, Wilfried Martens, Lech Walesa, Donald Tusk MP, Waldemar Pawlak MP, Jeremy Rifkin, Garry Kasparov and Craig Mundie, amongst others.

As usual, the conclusions of the Summer University have been published to summarise both the background as well as the conclusions for each of the Roundtables which took place. From these summaries, it is appeared that major priorities which the EIN should be looking at should be: i) the impact of globalisation and the need for skills, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit; ii) energy and environment, with particular reference to climate change; iii) issues relating to security and the need for closer transatlantic partnership in an increasingly multi-polar world.


Fiuggi, Italy, 2008: Reaching Beyond Europe
The seventh Summer University and first under the leadership of Jaime Mayor Oreja MEP, Vice-Chairman of the EPP, took place in Italy on the theme of 'The World in 2025: The Place for Values in an Uncertain World'. Key speakers included Francois Fillon, Prime Minister of France; Silvio Berlusconi, Prime Minister of Italy; Hans-Gert Pöttering, President of the European Parliament; José Manual Barroso; Wilfried Martens, President of the EPP; former Prime Minister of Belgium; Rodrigo Rato, Former Director General, International Monetary Fund; Kevin Andrews MP, former Minister of EMployment and Workplace Relations, Australia; Franz Fischler, former EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development; Chairman, Rise Foundation, Brussels; Franco Frattini, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Italy; and Antonio Tajani, EU Commissioner for Transport.  

The event marked another opportunity to extend the international reach of the Summer University with speakers and participants from China, Japan, India, Jordan, Nigeria, Colombia and the United States joining European colleagues for the discussions. Two special plenary sessions focused on subjects of particularly topical interest: The Global Economy and its Future and European Values or Universal Values?   

The Summer University built on an annual programme which had sought to integrate the work of the EIN with the daily work of members of the EPP Group by offering a series of breakfast meetings. Speakers during 2007 included: Jim CLOOS, Director, Directorate for General Political Questions, Council of the EU on the subject of European Governance;  Walid PHARES, Senior Fellow & Director for Future Terrorism Project, Foundation for the Defence of Democracies, Washington; author "Future Jihad", "The War of Ideas" & "The Confrontation" on Terrorism and Security; Riel MILLER, International Consultant, Xperidox Futures Consulting on The Future of Education;  Jamie SHEA, Director, Policy Planning, NATO on Challenges in a Multi-Polar World; and Gérard-François DUMONT, Professor, University Paris-Sorbonne on Demography & Immigration. The EIN had also sought during the course of the year to develop its programme of joint events with partner think-tanks by holding seminars in London, Madrid, Paris, Washington, Stresa, Budapest, and Madrid.

 

After seven years of activity and with an active membership now of over 600 policy-makers and opinion-formers across the European Union, the European Ideas Network has evolved as a key intellectual cross-roads for the centre-right in Europe. It has moved from being a minor adjunct to the political activities of the EPP Group, to a major component of the EPP Group's broader profile and strategy for reshaping the political climate in Europe. As Hans-Gert Poettering remarked as Chairman of the EPP group in Lyon: "The European Ideas Network is an important political initiative of the EPP Group. We are building something unique: a think-tank network on a continental scale. In the European Parliament, we are now the dominant force in shaping policy outcomes. As we try to use that power well, the EIN is a think-tank process that can help us make the right choices for Europe".