European Council on Foreign Relations

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is:

... a pan-European think-tank launched to promote 'vigorous' EU foreign policy, with offices in Berlin, London, Madrid, Paris, Rome, Sofia and Warsaw. As the European Union prepares to sign a new treaty at the October inter-governmental conference in Lisbon, fifty prominent Europeans will launch the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on 2 October, to promote a more coherent and vigorous European foreign policy in support of Europe's common interests and shared values."

Purpose

From its founding statement:

The founding members want to move the European Union out of an era of introspection, which deepened after the French and Dutch ‘no' votes, and force it to face up to its global responsibilities. They have drawn up a Statement of Principles which calls on European heads of state and government to:

• Develop a more coherent and vigorous European foreign policy, in order to tackle an increasing number of global challenges, including climate change, world poverty, nuclear proliferation and the surge of violent extremism;
• Co-operate more effectively in multilateral organisations, such as the UN, the World Bank, the IMF, and WTO in order to increase the EU's collective power;
• Stand by the EU commitment to the prospect of eventual membership for Turkey and Western Balkans countries, in order to encourage their continued political, economic and social development;
• Increase incentives - such as visa regimes and market access - for the EU's immediate neighbours to draw them further into the EU's sphere of influence;
• Make the EU's aid and trade relations - including the €12bn of European Neighbourhood Policy and €22bn of aid to the third world under the Cotonou Agreement - more conditional on political reform in recipient countries;
• Use the full gamut of European power to back European values, including, if all else fails, a willingness to use military force to stop genocide or avert humanitarian catastrophes, on both the wider European continent and around the world.

Founding Members

Among the fifty founding members are former prime ministers, presidents, European commissioners, current and former parliamentarians and ministers, public intellectuals, and cultural figures from 27 EU member states - including:

Founding Members
Urban Ahlin (Sweden) - Deputy Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; foreign policy spokesperson for the Social Democratic Party	Giuliano Amato (Italy) - Minister of Interior; former Prime Minister and vice president of the European Convention	Martti Ahtisaari (Finland) - UN Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo; President of the Crisis Management Initiative; former President
Hannes Androsch (Austria) - Founder of AIC Androsch International Management Consulting	Marek Belka (Poland) - Executive Director of the UN Economic Commission for Europe; former Prime Minister	Svetoslav Bojilov (Bulgaria) - Founder of the Communitas Foundation, President of Venture Equity Bulgaria Ltd.
Emma Bonino (Italy) - Minister for Europe and International Trade; former European Commissioner	Robert Cooper (United Kingdom) - Director-General for External and Politico-Military Affairs, Council of the EU General Secretariat	Marta Dassu (Italy) - Diplomatic adviser to Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema; Director of the Aspen Institute Italia
Gijs de Vries (The Netherlands) - Senior Fellow at the Clingendael Institute; former EU Counter-terrorism Coordinator	Jean-Luc Dehaene (Belgium) - Member of the European Parliament, former Prime Minister and vice president of the European Convention	Gianfranco Dell'Alba (Italy) - Chef de Cabinet for Minister Emma Bonino
Andrew Duff (United Kingdom) - Member of the European Parliament, ALDE	Sarmite Elerte (Latvia) - Editor-in-chief of Latvian daily newspaper Diena	Brian Eno (United Kingdom) - musician and producer
Joschka Fischer (Germany) - former Foreign Minister and vice-Chancellor	Timothy Garton Ash (United Kingdom) - Professor of European Studies at Oxford University	Bronislaw Geremek (Poland) - Member of the European Parliament, ALDE; former Foreign Minister
Diego Hidalgo (Spain) - Co-founder of Spanish newspaper El Pais and President of FRIDE	Mary Kaldor (United Kingdom) - Professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of Global Governance, London School of Economics	Gerald Knaus (Germany) - Founding director of the European Stability Initiative
Rem Koolhaas (The Netherlands) - architect and urbanist; Professor at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University	Caio Koch-Weser (Germany) - Vice Chairman of the Deutsche Bank Group; former State Secretary	Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria) - Chair of Board, Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria
Mart Laar (Estonia) - Former Prime Minister of Estonia	Mark Leonard (United Kingdom) - Executive Director of the European Council on Foreign Relations	Adam Lury (United Kingdom) - Director of Menemsha Ltd; former advisor to Lord Browne
Alain Minc (France) - Chairman of Le Monde; Head of consulting group AM Conseil	Christine Ockrent (France) - Editor-in-chief at France Télévision	Leoluca Orlando (Italy) - MP; President of the Sicilian Renaissance Institute
Cem Özdemir (Germany) - Member of the European Parliament, Green Party	Simon Panek (Czech Republic) - Chairman of the People in Need Foundation	Teresa Patricio Gouveia (Portugal) - Trustee to the Board of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation; former Foreign Minister
Chris Patten (United Kingdom) - Chancellor of Oxford University; Former EU Commissioner and Governor of Hong Kong	Diana Pinto (France) - Historian and author	Andrew Puddephatt (United Kingdom) - Director of Global Partners & Associated Ltd.
Sigrid Rausing (Sweden) - Founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust	Albert Rohan (Austria) - Deputy to the UN Special Envoy for the Future Status Process for Kosovo	Pierre Schori (Sweden) - Director General of FRIDE; and SRSG to Cote d´Ívoire
Elif Shafak (Turkey) - Author	Narcís Serra (Spain) - Chair of CIDOB Foundation; former Vice President	Aleksander Smolar (Poland) - Chairman of the Board, Stefan Batory Foundation
George Soros (Hungary/US) - Chairman, Open Society Institute	Dominique Strauss-Kahn (France) - MP, Professor at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris; Former Finance Minister	Helle Thorning Schmidt (Denmark) - Leader of the Social Democratic Party
Michiel van Hulten (The Netherlands) - Managing Director of Burson-Marsteller, Brussels; Former MEP and chairman of the Dutch Labour Party	Mabel van Oranje (The Netherlands) - International Advocacy Director, Open Society Institute	Antonio Vitorino (Portugal) - Lawyer and former European Commissioner
Stephen Wall (United Kingdom) - Chairman of Hill and Knowlton]] (Public Affairs EMEA) and former Europe advisor to PM Tony Blair	Andre Wilkens (Germany) - Executive Director of the Open Society Institute in Brussels
Source."

Principals

• Mark Leonard – executive director

Experts

• John Fox from the British Embassy in Beijing,
• Francois Godement of the Asia Centre in Paris,
• Ulrike Guérot of the German Marshall Fund,
• Thomas Klau from the Financial Times Deutschland, and
• Daniel Korski from the UK Department for International Development. Also joining are
• Ognyan Minchev of the Sofia-based Institute for Regional and International Studies,
• Pierre Noel of the University of Cambridge,
• Nicu Popescu from the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Jose
• Ignacio Torreblanca of the Real Institute Elcano
• Nick Witney, former chief executive of the European Defence Agency, and
• Hans Wolters from the World Wildlife Fund.

Funding

ECFR has raised its initial core funding through FRIDE (Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior), Sigrid Rausing, the Communitas Foundation, and the Soros Foundations Network.