NEW COMMUNITY - OLD POLICIES? Will the New Member States Be AbleTo Influence EU Policies?
Conference, organised withn the framework of "CASE European Seminars" project, a joint venture of CASE and the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation, was held on October 31st 2003 at Jerzy Turowicz conference room (Stefan Batory Foundation), 10a Sapieżyńska St., Warsaw.
The Polish public is currently debating the question of voting procedure in the Council of Ministers of the enlarged EU. The discussion revolves around the importance of the voting system established in the Nice Treaty as a guarantee for political position of Poland within the EU. Keeping in mind importance of this issue, one has to realize that the Polish position within the EU will also depend on our capability to define policy goals and ability to defend them on the European forum. This in turn depends on the intellectual and administrative potential of Poland, on the quality of our political system and the Polish political elite. Thus above issues are the subject of the "New Community - Old Policies?" conference.
The conference marks the end of the first year of CASE European Seminars,
a joint venture of CASE and the Leopold Kronenberg Foundation. Previous seminars were devoted to discussion on the future of selected EU policies and the shape they will take after the EU enlargement. What is the EU that Poland and other candidate countries need? What should the new Member States do to achieve the main goal behind the accession, which is acceleration of social and economic development? During seminars, issues related to immigration, European Employment Strategy, Common Agricultural Policy and European Central Bank functioning were discussed. At this Conference apart from general political issues problems related to accession we will discuss the input of candidate countries to formulation of European Employment Strategy as well.
Presentations will be held by Mr. Marek Szczepański, Vice-Minister of Economy, Labour and Social Protection; Dr Michał Boni, former Minister of Labour and Social Protection; Prof. Herman Schmid, Member of the European Parliament, Swedish Representative; Mr. Tomas Dahlman, director of the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies and former COREPER I coordinator in the Permanent Representation of Sweden to the European Union; Prof. Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński, President of Collegium Civitas; Prof. Jane L. Curry from the Santa-Clara University, political scientist and expert on Eastern European affairs. Mr. David Kral from the Czech Republic and Ms. Marta Darulova from the Slovak Republic will represent our partner institutes. Thanks to their contribution we will be able to address not only Polish but also other Visegrad countries problems.
The "New Community - Old Policies?" conference is a summary of project sponsored by International Visegrad Fund (www.visegradfund.org) and Stefan Batory Foundation.
Program
Panel 1. Policy-making in the enlarged EU
10:00 - 10:10
Introduction
Prof Barbara Błaszczyk, President of CASE
10:10 - 10:30
Decision processes in the EU-15 - what has determined the capability of Member States
to defend their interests?
Mr Tomas Dahlman, Director of the Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies
10:30 - 10:50
National administration in view of the new challenge - the case of Slovakia
Ms Marta Darulová, Akademia Istropolitana Nova, Bratislava
10:50 - 11:10
"European" competence of Polish political elites
Prof. Edmund Wnuk-Lipiński, Collegium Civitas, Warsaw
11:10 - 11:30
Coordination of the European policy in the Czech Republic - relations between the state institutions after the end of negotiations
Mr David Král, Europeum, Praha
11:30 - 11:45
EU accession as a challenge for the political systems of the CEEC - a comparative perspective
Prof. Jane Leftwich Curry, Santa Clara University, Fullbright Chair at the Warsaw University
11:45 - 12:15
Discussion
Lunch Break
Panel 2. European Employment Strategy as an Example of a Post-Enlargement Policy
13:00 - 13:20
European Employment Policy - long term strategy for the enlarged EU: past, present, future trends
Prof Herman Schmid, Member of European Parliament
13:20 - 13:40
Future Challenges - Do National Employment Policies Fit Into European Employment Strategy?
Dr Michal Boni, former Minister of Labour
13:40 - 14:00
Institutional Arrangements of Employment Policy - role of government administration, lobbysts organizations and labour
Mr Marek Szczepański, Deputy Minister of Economy, Labour and Social Policy
