Open Europe
Open Europe is one of the British Conservative Party (the Tories) related think tank in London with an office in Brussels .
Open Europe advocates economic and political reforms in the EU . According to the company's own presentation, these reforms should follow the principles of subsidiarity , transparency and personal responsibility . For such reforms, independent research, public relations, and contacts in all political parties, media, business and science should be mobilized. Open Europe was founded as a private company by British business people who also fund the think tank.
Open Europe Berlin (OEB) is formally independent of its British counterpart, but works closely with London. OEB has the legal form of a not-for-profit GmbH and is mainly financed by a donation from the British entrepreneur and game inventor Tom Kremer. From 2010 to 2015 the Swede Mats Persson was Director of Open Europe. In 2015 he became political advisor to Prime Minister David Cameron in the course of the EU reform debate . Persson was also a co-founder of Open Europe Berlin and represented on the board.
aims
The think tank is close to the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom in large parts of European policy . According to his own statements, in view of the weak economic development, increasing global competition and the demographic crisis in Europe, it is urgently necessary to find a new model of European cooperation that is in harmony with the economic reality and the preferences of the citizens. For the future development of the EU, Open Europe is drafting the program of a leaner, outward-looking EU that facilitates internal and global free trade at the same time democratic, transparent and responsible for its actions. For the think tank, flexible integration represents a further focus of the future development of Europe. The EU should be flexible enough to allow competencies to flow back to its member states and to integrate them into the EU to varying degrees.
The think tank assumes that the EU has reached a critical moment in its development. Globalization , enlargements, failed EU referendums and the euro crisis would run counter to the idea of “an ever closer union”. However, Europe has the potential to master the challenges.
The work is aimed at "implementing the principles of a market economy regulatory policy [...] as the core of a European regulatory policy". From the perspective of Open Europe, a European regulatory policy based on market economy should be achieved by promoting free trade internally and externally and curbing over-regulation. Disclosing waste of money, advocating stable money and a European regulatory policy instead of interventionism are further goals of the Europe -critical organization. The director of Open Europe Berlin, Michael Wohlgemuth , has also called for more direct democracy based on the Swiss model in the EU in an essay together with the German “economic expert” Lars Feld .
Award
On July 10, 2012, the Think Tank received the Think Tank of the Year award in the “International Affairs” category from the British popular newspaper Prospect .
criticism
In a letter to the editor to the FAZ , Jo Leinen , President of the European Movement International (EMI) , accused the think tank of secretly spreading a nationalistic and British view of Europe by promoting an “open Europe”. This has nothing in common with the founding idea of the EU as a common legal area in which the same rights apply to everyone and all member states stand up for one another. With the opening of a branch in Berlin in the fall of 2012, the think tank is now trying to create an anti-EU mood in the largest country in the EU.
Bernd Hüttemann , General Secretary of the European Movement Germany (EBD) , accuses the think tank of not representing the neutral British position, but the partisan opinion of the Eurosceptic conservatives in Great Britain, and blaming Open Europe for the Brexit vote of the British. Open Europe taught the British government to “ cherry-pick ” the European Union. In addition, it is not understandable from which sources Open Europe is financed and who provides the guidelines in the background, said Hüttemann.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Objective. (No longer available online.) Open Europe, archived from the original on September 21, 2013 ; accessed on February 2, 2014 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Open Europe Berlin. Lobbypedia , accessed January 17, 2013 .
- ↑ a b New think tank wants to develop European regulatory policy . In: FAZ . October 29, 2012, p. 13 ( PDF; 570 kB [accessed on February 2, 2014]). PDF; 570 kB ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Our vision. Open Europe, accessed January 17, 2013 .
- ↑ Lars Feld , Michael Wohlgemuth : Dare more Switzerland! In: FAZ . No. 93 , April 22, 2013, p. 18 ( PDF; 222 kB [accessed on February 2, 2014]). PDF; 222 kB ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Think Tank of the Year Awards 2012. Prospect , July 11, 2012, accessed January 17, 2013 .
- ^ "Refined anti-European": EMI President Jo Leinen on the opening of Open Europe Berlin. Network European Movement Germany, January 11, 2013, accessed on January 17, 2013 .
- ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Think Tank Open Europe: Rejection for Brexit thought leaders | Germany | DW | 09/21/2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017 .
