4.      Final Conference in Vienna

The Final Conference which was organised by the Info Point Europe Vienna took place from March 28^th until March 29^th 2003 in the premises of the Viennese City Hall (“Wappensaal”). The Conference was attended by more than 150 international participants. Each partner country sent a delegation of 15 people to the Conference of whom nearly the half of it was young people. In addition to that local partners from the larger Vienna Region as well as young people from all over Austria joined the Conference.

The debate was based on the outcome of workshops in the participating countries, the Convention Simulation by young people from all participating countries and the survey conducted in parallel in the ten participating countries.

The Conference was held in English, German translation was provided due to the fact, that the Conference place was Vienna.

The Conference led to a Central European Declaration on the Future of Europe. An overview on the conference as well as the Central European Declaration was published and available via Internet, a leaflet with a brief project summary advertising the project results was produced and distributed in all languages of the participating countries in order to reach a wider public and to guarantee sustainability.

The opening session of the Final Conference was held after the final plenary meeting of the Simulation Game.

All speeches of the welcoming addresses were emphasised the importance of the upcoming enlargement of the European Union in all terms: political stability, economic prosperity, cultural enrichment and ecological progress.

Mr. Rudolf Schicker, City of Vienna, declared this enlargement to be important and logical step in the history of the EU. He also made the thought-provoking statement that from the Viennese point of view this enlargement cannot be considered as an enlargement towards the East as, for instance, both Prague and Ljubljana are capitals situated West of Vienna.

Mr. Christos Alexandris, Ambassador of Greece in Austria, however, informed the audience about the position of Greece, the country holding the Presidency of the Council at that time, within the “Future of Europe” debate and reviewed the tasks of the Greek Presidency regarding the enlargement underlining that the Accession Treaty would have been signed on April 16^th 2003.

Ms Monika Kaschnitz, Head of the European Department of the Vienna Business Agency, pointed out the importance of carrying out transnational

EU-projects for improving co-operation and networking between different countries in order to live the European dimension as a big step towards a common Europe of 25 without frontiers.

The welcoming addresses were followed by the presentation of the project “The Future of Europe – Our Opinion Counts”.

First Mr. Philipp Agathonos, Vice President of the Union of European Federalists,  addressed the audience underlining the importance of the transnational project in the process of the enlargement and the unification of Europe.

Mr. Christian Lettner, Austrian Society for European Politics, reviewed the results of the survey conducted within the framework of the project and cited some of the highlights of the survey.

Ms Alexandra Schantl, Head of the Info Point Europe Vienna, outlined the project and the actions that made part of it.

Ms Bettina Kölbl, the nominated President of the Convention Simulation, presented a conclusion of the final document of the Convention Simulation.

As a closure of the opening session of the Conference, Mr. Karl Doutlik, Head of the EC Representation in Austria, made a key note speech on “Enlargement AND Deepening Europe”. He listed the possible benefits of the enlargement such as peace and security, higher standard of living, better economic situation, a new impulse for the economy and the enterprises, bigger role of the EU in the world, etc. He underlined, however, that the real benefits would not appear together with the enlargement but because of it: for the candidate countries because they have achieved a lot of progress thanks to the enormous efforts carried out during their preparation process, and for the EU because it could not put off any longer its structural reforms as such a large-scale widening would not be possible without deepening.

The panel sessions of the Final Conference were held on Saturday, 29 March 2003 from 9:30 until 17:30 under the chair of Mr. Philipp Agathonos, Vice President of UEF.

The topics of the panel session were:

*  “Europe’s role in a unipolar World”

*  “Economic Governance and Monetary Union”

*  “European Citizenship and cultural Identity”

*  “From the constitutional Convention to a European  Federal Constitution”

The experts joining the Conference agreed that today’s world has changed because of the terrorist-attacks of September 11 2001. It dramatically shifted priorities on the world-agenda. Countries cherishing common values as democracy, law and protection of human-rights had suddenly realised the need to be more united. To promote peace, security and prosperity and to speed up the construction of the enlarged European Union their efforts had to be joined. In an extended “European family”, the choice of democratic values and the concept of a civil society already had been made. The hope was stretched that the European spirit would prevail in the Conventions work, thus continuing to contribute to greater citizen’s interest and involvement in the process of shaping a common future of shared values. 

The Union should remain one of the main pillars of democracy, freedom and save-guard, of liberty on protection in the world. The Charta of fundamental rights as a milestone of democratic and humanistic values should be fully incorporated into the constitution. 

The European Constitution should be approved by the Member states according to the current national constitutions. The Experts hoped to find the majority of the people in the Member-states to adopt the European-constitution. 

It was generally agreed upon, that it would be important to define the area of competences in the Union, on the European level and on the level of the Member-States. Therefore it was considered essential to preserve in the final-text of the future constitutional treaty the formulation of an even closer Union. This even closer Union was seen to be essential for the development of Europe. The experts reminded that this opinion was already shared by the founding fathers and has inspired many Europeans in their efforts to create a more coherent and efficient Union. They also expressed their hope that the European spirit will prevail in the Conventions work, thus continuing to contribute to greater citizen’s interest and involvement in the process of shaping our future of shared values. 

It was proposed to have a joined security-network throughout the European continent, in compassing not only the political but also the economic, social and regional dimension of security. The enlarged EU should implement a comprehensive security-policy. The participants also talked about a greater coherence in the common foreign and security policy to ensure the Unions leading role in the international affairs.

As the Union enlarges and its borders move further to the east, attention should be paid to the external dimension, especially also in the field of justice and home-affairs-policy. The round agreed that such an approach is absolutely needed to be able to face the new challenges and threats of the temporary world.

Importance has been given to the creation of a European Army to protect Europe and its Member states. 

The EU is a form of diversity Union, so the differences have to be encouraged, but the new Europe also has to achieve a certain basis on common views and policies. Solidarity should become the guiding principle of policy orientation. It should be the major characteristic of the integration-process.  

Europe is integrating into a future and deeper Union. The social economic cohesion should remain one of the primary goals. The EU should enhance also full safety to counteract diplomatic change, to fight poverty and create new jobs. Not only the member-states, but also the candidate-states should work hard to achieve this goal.

It was highlighted, that the European Unions major task remains the reinforcement of the political dimension of enlargement. Most participants would like to see a broader public debate on the Future of Europe. It is expected that the enlargement will again prove to be the driving force of new European policy-initiatives in response to the particular needs of the citizens. This new arrangements would make the Union more democratic, efficient and closer to its citizens and open to the outside world. The European citizens should be determined to make the most of this opportunity.  

There was no doubt among the participants, that the Union needs one legal-personality.  

The opinions on the Stability-Growth-Pact were diverse. The question was, if we need something like a Stability-Growth-Pact. “Do we need it right now? What could be changed?” The main outcome was:” We need something like a Stability-Growth-Pact, but not precisely this one, which we have in place. As long as we do not have a federal or political Union, we need a regime of monetary dominance.” 

It was mentioned that the physical presence of the Euro acts as a symbol of real community. The Euro-stability is until now not guaranteed. In the absence of a European tax the EU is only playing a supporting role to national interests. The Euro underlines the structural differences between Europe’s global monetary ambitions and there is still a low level of organisation of development in its economic institutional foundations. So a coherent financial framework and common economic vision are urgently needed to back the new monetary Union.  

The question arose, if the candidate-countries should join the Euro quickly? It showed that the answer is not easy. There is still a long way to go just in the development-process. The candidate-countries will have a problem of catching up with Western-Europe in a relatively short time. The general opinion was that it is not such a good idea for the candidate countries to join the Monetary-Union too quickly. They are not mature enough yet, to do so. 

Participants from the candidate-countries expressed their hopes for the New United Europe: “We expect the EU to enhance the democratic-political-process, and to improve the citizen’s participation. This is the last chance for us to decide between one of the two main approaches of the European Integration, the community approach or the intergovernmental approach.” 

As conclusion of the single panel discussions the participating experts as well as the audience underlined that the chance to “create a common European building, with nice and comfortable apartments for the European countries and their citizens” should be taken and that all means to build an independent, strong and powerful European external policy should be provided. Furthermore they expressed their hope to find the majority of the people in the Member-states to adopt the European Constitution, generating the European Union as the real global power in all points of view. Last but least they underlined the importance to make the EU more democratic and transparent bringing common European issues closer to their citizens. All this aims should be achieved by the end of this decade.