Brussels, 28/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Adapting or reacting to globalisation is not enough, Europe must be an actor, anticipate change and abandon its old models, which may lead to stagnation. This was the main message sent out by a panel of thinkers from throughout the world, who came to Lisbon on 23 and 24 September for the European Ideas Fair of the EPP-ED a group of the European Parliament (see EUROPE 9036). The fair, which was organised to close the Summer University of the EIN (European Ideas Network), was opened with a debate on economic, social and cultural issues, during which António Borges of Goldman Sachs said that Europe had been overtaken by the United States and Asia, because it tries to protect its existing industries, rather than concentrating on new ones. "Competition will take place at the level of talent", he noted. In the view of the vice president of Microsoft, Craig Mundhie, new technologies can help to improve the education of emerging populations and provide adequate care to the ageing populations (self-medication). For this reason, Europe must invest more in research projects, despite the risks, and ensure that generations of engineers are renewed, insisted Professeur John Wood of the European Strategy Foundation on Research Infrastructures. In this debate on globalisation, the question of identity should not be forgotten, pleaded Marguerite Peeters, founder of the Institute for Intercultural Dialogue in Brussels.
In the face of these challenges, the role of political decision-makers in Europe is to update their message, without attempting to hide the reality of changes, and to re-establish a link between personal prosperity and the European project, said the vice president of the European Parliament, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski (of Poland). Europe has ceased to inspire dreams, lamented the French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, noting that the image of the "Polish plumber" could become one of the "dirty words of one-track thinking", along with liberalism, America, and globalisation. The former European Commissioner for Transport and Energy, Loyola de Palacio, expressed her hopes for a Europe which went hand-in-hand with the United States to defend an open society, and said that we must make progress with negotiations with Turkey, this large country which, she said, has internalised the modernisation of Islam. "Otherwise, we will end up Islamising modernity and the Internet will be at the service of mediaeval ideas", she warned. The President of the University of Kabul, Ashraf Ghani, urged Europe to "think in global terms", for instance by playing a role in the revitalisation of major international organisations.