As the process of appointing a new EU leadership team gets underway, now is the time for new and sustained initiatives on longer-term challenges which will shape both European and global welfare in the years to come.

In a rapidly changing and interdependent world, Europe’s new leaders need to adopt a global perspective in European policy-making, a new understanding of the EU’s global role, and in particular, a new approach to international development. Do Europe’s new leaders recognise the need for a new global strategy that links internal and external action? How can Europe’s policymakers ensure there will be a greater commitment to collective action at EU level? Is there a readiness to connect new ways of working with new systems and processes? Does the European Think Tank Group's 2014 report "Our Collective Interest: Why Europe's problem need global solutions and global problems need European action" offer the sort of answers needed?

FORMAT AND SPEAKERS:
Opening remarks was offered by Lilianne Ploumen (Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, tbc). These was followed by initial reactions from keynote speakers including:

• Elmar Brok MEP, Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs (tbc)
• Fernando Frutuoso de Melo, Director General for development co-operation, European Commission
• Jagdish Koonjul, Ambassador of the Mission of Mauritius to the EU (tbc)
• Simon Maxwell, European Think Tanks Group
• Linda McAvan, Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Development (tbc)
• Maciej Popowski, Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) (tbc)
• Shada Islam moderated an open panel discussion with the audience, bringing together representatives from the diplomatic community, EU institutions and civil society in Brussels.

Please visit the Friends of Europe website for the full programme, latest speaker updates and logistical details.

The European Think Tanks Group and Friends of Europe
The European Think Tanks Group brings together four leading European Think Tanks: the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE), Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior (FRIDE) and the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM).
http://www.ettg.eu/ 

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