Europa 2004

The debate on the future of the Union

The research project "Europa 2004" - now near completion - was inspired by the Declarations on the Future of the European Union approved by the European Councils of Nice (December 2000) and Laeken (December 2001), which put the accent on the contribution that the academic world and research institutes can make to the Union's institutional renewal. In particular, the documents invited civil society and national public opinion to participate in the debate on the future of the Union, in addition to the institutions, thereby contributing to the work of the Convention, the body set up to examine the main issues involved in Union reform and to formulate a draf treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe.

"Europa 2004" project

The research project "Europa 2004", was started up by the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in July 2001 with the support of the Compagnia di San Paolo. The main objective of the project was to draw up, discuss and systematically analyse proposals for the institutional reform and strengthening of the European Union. To that end, the IAI promoted a network of Italian experts specialised in European issues able to contribute to the debate on the future of the Union with suggestions and proposals. With the support of this network, the IAI developped various forms of dialogue and co-operation with Italian public institutions, on the one hand, and other research centres that undertook analogous initiatives, on the other.

This website

In the framework of the research project, the website Europa2004.it was mainly dedicated to the debate on the future of the European Union in Italy and in Europe. Therefore the core of the site is a broad collection of the abridged version of the most important documents, speeches and position papers, linked to the full text version wherever possible.

After the end of the Convention, the website has also addressed the following issues:

• the further developments of the European constitutional process
• the international role of the EU, with particular regard to the European foreign, security and defence policy (CFSP/ESDP)
• role and powers of the European Parliament wiht a special focus on the June elections.

In July 2004, the updating of Europa2004.it has been stopped. Consequently, links to external sites might not work anymore. This website will remain online at least until mid 2005, when it will be probably absorbed in the forthcoming website of a new IAI research project.