Speaking at the European Strategy and Policy Analysis System (EPSAS) conference, Barroso presented his view on the major trends that European Union and other strategic partners are facing, and laid out possible policy responses.
In his opening speech at the ESPAS conference, President Barroso pointed out that forecasting is more than trying to find out what will happen tomorrow: "It is a way to focus on what matters today. Forward thinking is a precondition for forward planning".
President Barroso listed examples of how the world will change in the years to come and stressed that black and white analyses of the decline of the west and rise of the rest, as well as the analyses that ignore the magnitude of the changes, are simplistic. The challenge for the future according to Commission President is not so much the trends coming at us, but our political ability to shape them.
European integration is part of the answer to face the future challenges. And we will continue to evolve in close cooperation with our strategic partners. We have already set out the vision and a roadmap on how Europe can move into the next stages of integration and opened the debate on how our Union should evolve in the longer run already with the Blueprint for a Deep and Genuine Economic and Monetary Union
The ESPAS project us part of that effort. The conference will feed into the ongoing work to deliver a major ESPAS report in 2014, which should have a clear impact on the political decisions in the next EU institutional cycle.
Press release
Visit the official site of BEPA and watch the video
Opening speech
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