cep now has Berlin office

On 1st October 2016, the Centre for European Policy, the European think-tank of the Stiftung Ordnungspolitik, opened its Berlin office in the Federal Press Conference building. 

To mark the opening, Bundestag President Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, Prof. Dr. Dr. Udo Di Fabio (former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany) and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Stark (former member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank ECB) held a discussion with FAZ newspaper editor Holger Steltzner on the question: “Have Europe’s elite heard the warning shots? EU at the crossroads”.

In his keynote speech, Bundestag President Lammert called for calm and a “level-headed consideration of our own interests”. Following Brexit, we should not be offering the British “virtual membership” nor striving for rapid integration of the other countries because, although this political integration process may look structurally easier without the British, we will not find majority support for it, even in Germany. But to glorify the greatness and efficiency of the nation state at this stage would be a “grotesque anachronism”.
The discussion then turned to the question of what the middle ground between these two extremes might look like. Di Fabio underlined the trilemma faced by the EU of integration, sovereignty and legitimation; Jürgen Stark thought there was still huge potential for integration in the internal market.
Moderated by Holger Steltzner (FAZ), the speakers also held a fascinating debate on the EU Commission’s increasingly political role and the question of whether there is a need for a neutral body to take over its function as “Guardian of the Treaties”.