Book Launch: A Second Chance for Europe -- Economic, Political and Legal Perspectives of the European Union

United Nations University-MERIT, Maastricht University Campus Brussels, and the City of Maastricht will hold a book launch event for the edited volume: A Second Chance for Europe, Economic, Political and Legal Perspectives of the European Union, by Prof. Jo Ritzen.

Guests speakers will include Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the European Commission; Annemarie Penn-te Strake, Mayor of Maastricht, the Netherlands; and Mathieu Segers, Professor of Contemporary European History and European Integration at Maastricht University and Dean of University College Maastricht.

The editor, Jo Ritzen, is a professorial fellow in the International Economics of Science, Technology and Higher Education at United Nations University-MERIT and its School of Governance. He is a former Minister of Education, Culture, and Science of the Netherlands, a former Vice President of the World Bank, and former President of Maastricht University.

Book Summary

The book calls upon us to rethink and reboot the European Union. The discontents of globalisation threaten European values and call for a new economic order. EU Member States are backsliding on the rule of law and control of corruption. There is a need to rethink immigration policy. The debt overhang of some Euro countries is unsustainable.

Given the sum total of these vulnerabilities, the book argues that the EU may not survive beyond 2025 in its present form. It puts forward a number of workable solutions: a European economic model to secure full employment, a stronger European Court of Human Rights, a points-based immigration system, clear exit options from the Eurozone, and an Open Education Area with a common second language. These solutions may reduce the number of EU countries in the core-EU, but would increase cohesion and overall sustainability.

Date: 22 November 2017 Time: 16:30 - 19:00
Venue: UM Campus Brussels, Avenue de l’Armée / Legerlaan 10, Belgium