News Bulletin

Euro Commissioner Bolkestein speaks at RAND Europe's 10th anniversary

24 June 2002 – RAND Europe hosted the first RAND Europe Policy Lecture, celebrating its 10th anniversary, on 14 June. The occasion, organised in the Hague, was attended by about 70 distinguished guests, including major clients and Members of Parliament, as well as many RAND Europe staff.

In his introduction, David Gompert, RAND Europe's president, touched on how RAND Europe has grown in ten years from a small Dutch office to the headquarters and largest of three RAND Europe research centres, the others being in Cambridge and Berlin. In all, RAND Europe now comprises 75 staff of 12 nationalities. Introducing the speaker, Gompert said he "followed a piece of brilliant advice from my Dutch friends: Recruit Frits Bolkestein to give the inaugural lecture."

Mr. Frederik (Frits) Bolkestein, a former Dutch MP and currently European Commissioner for the Internal Market, is well known for his outspokenness and clear views on Europe and transatlantic relations. He used the opportunity to give a comprehensive review of Europe's most probable futures, touching on the recent political upheaval in Europe as well as the first political murder in the Netherlands since 1672. He went on to make a passionate plea to put (nuclear) energy, demography and immigration and integration higher on the political agenda for Europe.

Most importantly though, he said, Europe needs to keep its ''Handlungsfähigkeit - the capacity to act - to stay focussed on the internal market, the common currency, competition policy and foreign trade policy" and not get bogged down in bureaucracy. While doing this, Europe should watch against pressures towards forming a "Eurofarm, where some member states [the larger, more powerful ones] are more equal than others".

Only ten years ago, Bolkestein noted, immigration and (lack of) integration was a taboo subject in Europe. Not only has political correctness long hindered the development of appropriate policy measures, it has also in part resulted in the rise of right wing populist and nationalist politics in Europe - a worrying development in itself. However, illegal immigration is not just a problem for the receiving states; it is also often the potentially most productive population that migrates. As diplomas of developing countries are often not recognised, highly qualified graduates end up doing manual or unschooled work, resulting in a considerable brain drain and sorely felt loss of human capital. Of course there should always be room for genuine political refugees, he said, but immigration needs to be controlled.

Demography is also an important issue. As the population grows older, with fewer working people supporting the pensioners and elderly, the possibility of economic deficits grows, which can in the end lead to instability of the European economy and a lack of cohesion. However, demography is notoriously difficult to shape. To the question of how this should be undertaken, Bolkestein replied to the amusement of those present, "I think I have done my bit and will not be contributing more to the population". Afterwards, a number of RAND Europe staff approached him and suggested a comprehensive study into the possible approaches to demographic policy.

The complete text of the speech is available online.

For more information please contact reinfo@rand.org.