Vision Europe Summit 2015
The first annual conference of the consortium of foundations and think tanks entitled the Vision Europe Summit, of which the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation is a member, takes place in Berlin on 17th and 18th November and discusses the future of the welfare state.
Set up this January, the Vision Europe Summit consortium brings together the Bertelsmann Stiftung foundation (Gütersloh, Germany), the Bruegel (Brussels, Belgium) and Chatham House (London, United Kingdom) think tanks, the Compagnia di San Paolo foundation (Turin, Italy), Notre Europe – the Jacques Delors Institute (Paris, France), Sitra – The Finnish Innovation Fund (Helsinki, Finland) and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal).
Its mission is to foster European integration and reflect on some of the most looming challenges to public policies in Europe. The collaboration between the think tanks and foundations participating in the consortium advances through working groups meeting with the objective of producing a set of recommendations on public policies and applicable whether at the European Union level or that of national governments.
Transforming the social state
Within a context in which public expenditure on the welfare state has been rising in all European states – greater than 20% of GDP in the countries represented by this consortium (Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom) –, the Vision Europe Summit 2015 seeks to aid in finding the sustainable solutions for the future of welfare states in Europe through contributing with innovative suggestions that deal with the various challenges, including the demographic dimensions. The Berlin conference is to agree and issue a joint declaration on behalf of the European foundations and think tanks participating in this consortium.
The occasion also serves for the release of a survey on citizen attitudes towards the welfare state that may assist in coming up with answers to the question “Transforming the welfare state: in what way, how and for whom?”.
Other information: www.vision-europe-summit.eu
Publications