Restoring faith in the European Union : strengthen solidarity, unity and determination

Abstract

The TEPSA pre-Presidency Conference which took place at the University Campus, Valletta, came at a very important cross-road in the life of the EU. Just before the start of the Maltese presidency of the Council of the EU two important events in world politics have cast their shadow on the future of Europe, namely the election of Donald Trump by a minority of votes as the next President of the US and the June referendum in Britain where a small majority voted to pull Britain out of the Union. The Trans-European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) was founded in 1974 with the help of the London based Federal Trust. Prior to the start of every new presidency of the Council of the EU, it organizes a pre-presidency conference in the country concerned and presents its recommendations to the incoming presidency. The conference in Malta was held on the 10 and 11 November 2017 and the main theme was RESTORING FAITH IN THE EU: STRENGTHEN SOLIDARITY, UNITY AND DETERMINATION. It was inaugurated by the Hon Louis Grech MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto who spoke about the Priorities of Malta’s Presidency of the Council of the EU. The proceedings began with brief introductory speeches by Prof Jaap de Zwaan, Secretary General of TEPSA and Professor Roderick Pace of the Institute for European Studies which organized the event. The first session was moderated by Dr Peter Agius, Head of the European Parliament Office in Malta. Around 50 representatives from the member institutes of TEPSA in the 28 member states attended the conference together with more than 60 locally based participants who included students, civil servants, members of the public and of the diplomatic corps. The Hon Dr Ian Borg, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry for European Affairs and Implementation of the Electoral Manifesto responsible for the EU Presidency 2017 and EU Funds, later participated in a discussion on the Minister’s presentation and the TEPSA recommendations. Late in the afternoon he also delivered the closing speech to bring to an end the first day of the conference. The first Pinder Memorial lecture in honour of Professor John Pinder, former Chairman of the Federal Trust who passed away last year, was delivered by Professor Roderick Pace Jean Monnet Professor at the Institute for European Studies at the University of Malta. Following a brief introduction by Brendan Donnelly, Executive Director of the Federal Trust, Professor Pace spoke on John Pinder’s contribution to European integration. The title of the presentation was “John Pinder: An Intellectual Leader in Politics”.