Tom Spencer

Biography

From his own website

Executive Director, European Centre for Public Affairs (ECPA), 1987-1989, 1999 - . Consultant to the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) 2005. Visiting Professor of Global Governance, University of Surrey, 2000-2003. Visiting Professor of Public Affairs, Brunel University, 2003 - .

Senior Advisor to the Institute for Environmental Security in The Hague, 2003 -. Board Member of Action for a Global Climate Community 2004 - .

Chairman, Counterpart Europe, 2000 - 2002, an NGO active in sixty countries. He was a Commissioner of the Commission on Globalisation, 2000 - 2003. Co-Moderator of the "National Sovereignty and Universal Challenges: Choices for the World after Iraq" conference held in Brussels in June 2003. Chairs meetings of the Religious and Scientific Committee of the Religion, Science and Environment Symposia organised by His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople 2000 -.

President, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence Policy, 1997 - 99. He took a particular interest in East and Central Europe and was Chairman of the EP-Czech Joint Parliamentary Committee. Awarded the Great Golden Medal for Merit of the Republic of Austria (1996).

President, GLOBE International (Global Legislators for a Balanced Environment) linking four hundred Members of Parliament worldwide, 1995 - 99. Awarded the Forum for the Future's Green Ribbon Award (1999).

Leader of the Conservatives in the European Parliament (the British Section of the European People's Party Group) 1994 - 97.

Member of the European Parliament for Surrey 1989 - 1999. He was Deputy Chief Whip and served on both the Agriculture and Environment Committees. Rapporteur, "Trade and Environment: Reform of the GATT" (1991) and "CO2/Energy Tax", (1994 - 1997).

Associate Dean of Templeton College, Oxford, 1984 - 1989, responsible for marketing the College and recruiting post-experience programmes. Undertook the re-branding after the change of name from the Oxford Centre for Management Studies and involved in the establishment and branding of the Institutes located at Templeton. Established the ECPA based at the College and lectured on European issues.

Member of the European Parliament for Derbyshire from 1979 - 1984. Conservative Spokesman on Social Affairs and Employment and subsequently on External Trade. Rapporteur for EU Directive on “Information and Consultation in Multi-National Enterprises" (1981-84)

J Walter Thompson & Co, 1975-1979, where he was responsible for managing the Guinness advertising.

Assistant to the Director of the "Britain in Europe" Referendum Campaign in 1975 and Secretary to the Referendum Steering Group. Worked in the United States Senate for Senator John Tower of Texas, summer 1975.

He worked for Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co, 1972-1974, before deciding he did not want to be a chartered accountant.

He was Chairman of the European Union of Conservative and Christian Democrat Students from 1971 to 1974, and the first winner of the Robert Schuman Silver Medal for services to Europe.

He attended Southampton University, 1967-1972, where he gained an Upper 2nd, B.Sc. (Soc. Sci.) in Accountancy and Commerce. His dissertation was on efficiency in small businesses. His unsubmitted M.Phil. was on "Aspects of the theory of the firm in the UK Poultry Industry". Educated at The Nautical College, Pangbourne, 1961-1966 ('A' Levels: English (A), History (A), Geography (C) 'S' Levels Grade 1 in History and Geography).

He is an adviser on the development of the e-parliament. He is a member of the Council of Federal Trust; the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Public Affairs and the Handbook of Public Affairs; the Advisory Council of the Centre for Corporate and Public Affairs at Manchester Metropolitan University; the MSc Business and Public Affairs Advisory Board at Brunel University; the Advisory Councils of Echo Research, the Fondation EurActiv and the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE).

He was a consultant to the World Bank, 2001. He has been, variously, a member of the Editorial Board of the European Business Journal, Senior Advisor to the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies in Japan and the Institute for International Education in New York. He was Patron of the Global Commons Institute Trust and a member of the Court of the University of Surrey.

His first book, "Public Affairs and Power: Essays in a Time of Fear" was published by Landmarks in December 2003 and his second, "Everything Flows: Essays on Public Affairs and Change" was published in February 2005.

Tom Spencer was born in Nottingham in 1948. He is married with three daughters and a granddaughter. He enjoys recreating old gardens, restoring old houses and exploring new ideas. He has a particular interest in the place of science and ethics in modern society.^[1]

Views

Tom Spencer, Executive Director of the European Center for Public Affairs, one of the commissioners of the Commission on Globalization, said the differences between the U.S. and the EU run much deeper than the war in Iraq.

"The rough water in the Atlantic is not caused by anything that the Europeans initiated or any inherent defect in Atlantic institutional structures," he said.

"Rather it is caused by a change in U.S. self-perception that fundamentally alters the nature of the game. The arguments of recent months have in reality been not about Iraq, but about the exercise of global power."

Spencer added: "With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Europe is understandably less important strate-gically to the Americans. The balance of American interest in European integration has clearly shifted, with the European Union now seen as a global competitor to America at all levels other than the military."^[2]

Tom Spencer, director of the European Centre for Public Affairs think-tank, sums up the challenge for those continuing to seek radical reform: "Are we talking about anti-capitalism, anti- globalisation or anti-Americanism? It didn't matter before September 11; now it does." He was speaking at a recent conference in Budapest on globalisation, hosted by George Soros, the billionaire financier, and attended by academics, campaigners and policymakers. What emerged from the conference was that continuing to conflate Mr Spencer's three critiques was to risk strong opposition.^[3]

Articles by Spencer

TOM SPENCER 'Let EU electorate choose the Commission president' Financial Times (London, England),June 19, 2004 Saturday, London Edition 2, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR; Pg. 14

Notes

1. ^ Tom Spencer Knitting Circle profile, accessed February 2007.
2. ^ Tom Spencer Tom Spencer's biography, Spencer's website, accessed February 2007.
3. ^Alan Beattie 'Anti-globalisation warriors shift their ground: The appetite for mass confrontations at international conferences has diminished'. Financial Times (London,England), November 9, 2001 Friday, London Edition 1
4. ^ Stefania Bianchi 'EU-U.S.: IRAQ IS HIGH ON U.S.-EU SUMMIT AGENDA' PS-Inter Press Service, June 23, 2003, Monday.