Seated amidst the grandeur of the Bibliotheque Solvay in Brussels, the Tomorrow's Europe event launched with a debate over such small and easily-answered topics as the nature of democracy and the future of the European Union. The very topics, in fact, that this blog hopes to discuss over the coming weeks.
With a panel featuring everyone from world statesmen to distinguished academics, it's easy to get overwhelmed, so who are they all? Well, from left to right in the above photo:
Giuliano Amato (Italian Interior Minister and former Chairman of the European Convention on the Future of Europe)
Jens-Peter Bonde MEP (Co-Chairman of the Independence and Democracy Group in the European Parliament)
Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (former President of France and President of the European Convention on the Future of Europe)
Margot Wallström (Vice-President of the European Commission)
Stephen Boucher (Co-Secretary General of thinktank Notre Europe, organisers of the Tomorrow's Europe deliberative poll)
Henri Monceau (Programme Director for Transnational Governance and Deliberative Democracy at Notre Europe)
Professor James Fishkin (Chairman of the Department of Communication and Director of the Center for Deliberative Democracy, Stanford University)
Professor Robert C Luskin (Associate Professor of Government and Director of the Center for Deliberative Opinion Research at the University of Texas at Austin)
Marc-André Allard (Head of International Studies at polling firm and Tomorrow's Europe organisers TNS Sofres)
Moderator John Lloyd (former editor of the New Statesman, contributing editor at the Financial Times)
So, who argued what and with whom? There's more to come...
