The World from the Brussels Forum

17 marzo, 2013 por Felipe Sahagún | Sin comentarios

Brussels Forum is an annual high-level meeting of the most influential North American and European political, corporate, and intellectual leaders to address pressing challenges currently facing both sides of the Atlantic. Participants include heads of state, senior officials from the European Union institutions and the member states, U.S. Cabinet officials, Congressional representatives, Parliamentarians, academics, and media.

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Leaders on both sides of the Atlantic continue to deepen transatlantic cooperation on a vast array of distinctly new and global challenges from the international financial crisis to climate change and energy security to the retention of high-skilled workers, yet there is no single transatlantic forum focused on this broad and increasingly complex global agenda. Brussels Forum provides a venue for the transatlantic community to address these pressing issues. By bringing together leading politicians, thinkers, journalists, and business representatives, Brussels Forum helps shape a new transatlantic agenda that can adapt to changing global realities and new threats.

The Agenda and Format

The Brussels Forum agenda reflects the growing diversity of issues at the core of the transatlantic relationship, as well as the increasing geographic reach of transatlantic cooperation. It includes discussion sessions on broad themes, such as the global financial crisis, Russia, and Afghanistan. Breakout sessions held under the Chatham House Rule explore challenges like Asia, the Middle East, and climate change. Keynote addresses by senior officials punctuate a gathering heavily tilted toward intimate exchange of dialogue among panelists and participants.

Economies in Crisis, Societies in Transition

Five years after the start of the financial crisis, discussions on both sides of the Atlantic have shifted toward broader questions over the role of government in the economy and the limits of political integration. There is now a greater understanding that, both in the United States and Europe, gaps in the making of economic policy led to and exacerbated the economic and banking crises. In Europe, the debt crisis has continuously challenged policymakers to balance between crisis management and the long-term reform of governance structures. And while the United States’ economy has grown steadily in recent months, unemployment has remained high and structural questions about the country’s fiscal situation have thus far been left unanswered. The economic outlook on both sides of the Atlantic remains fragile.

Introduction: Mr. Jean-Luc Vanraes, President, Parliament of the Flemish Community Commission, Brussels Regional Capital
The Hon. Elsa Fornero, Minister of Labor, Social Policies, & Equal Opportunities, Italy
The Hon. Miriam Sapiro, Deputy Trade Representative, United States
The Hon. Koji Tsuruoka, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, Japan
Amb. (rtd.) Frans van Daele, Senior Advisor for International and Government Affairs, Deloitte

Moderator: Mr. David Ignatius, Columnist and Associate Editor, The Washington Post