Open Europe
Open Europe is a Eurosceptic think tank which is part of the Stockholm Network and has neoconservative connections.
Contents
Introduction
The European issue has been a defining fault-line for Conservatives for a generation. A not very well known think tank, but arguably a very significant organisation connected to Cameron’s advisers is Open Europe. This think tank focuses on the European Union and is unusual in that it is directly supported by business leaders. ‘Open Europe believes’ says their website ‘that the EU must now embrace radical reform based on economic liberalisation’.[1]What this appears to mean is integrating all EU countries further and faster into the global economy but with a distinct eurosceptic tinge. The Marquess of Salisbury is on the board of this organisation too. Amongst its supporters are John Sainsbury (Lord Sainsbury of Preston Candover) who donated to Cameron’s leadership campaign along with fellow donor Peter Gummer.
Origins and History
Open Europe grew out of the Tory led anti-EU No Campaign, which itself grew out of the Business for Sterling group. More specifically press reports suggest that it grew out of a break away group from the No Campaign put together by Lord Saatchi in May 2003 and originally known as Vote 2004. Vote 2004, which was headed by Open Europe's first director Neil O'Brien subsequently became Vote No, [2] which was registered as a company Vote No Ltd in May 2004.
Open Europe was incorporated as a UK company on 25 July 2005. Its website was registered on 11 July 2005. [3] It is hosted under the same IP address (212.113.23.102) which hosts the websites of Nick Herbert MP (founder of the No Campaign and former Director of Reform [4]), Theos, and Policy Exchange. [5] Open Europe was launched on 20 October 2005 at the Bloomberg European Headquarters on the south side of Finsbury Square in the City of London.
The initial directors of Open Europe Ltd were its Chairman Lord Leach and Michael Spencer, Chief Executive of ICAP plc. The official position of its director Neil O'Brien was Company Secretary. [6] Several more figures joined the board in 2006.
Examples of influence
On 5 December 2011, Open Europe published a briefing, Continental Shift: Safeguarding the UK’s financial trade in a changing Europe [7], which Ed Conway, economics editor of Sky News said "seems to have influenced and informed the Prime Minister's position negotiating in Brussels" [8]. The Open Europe Blog suggested UK Prime Minister David Cameron "Insert a political declaration in the summit conclusions tomorrow that calls for concrete measures to protect non-euro member states' economic interests; 2) Work out concrete protocol language amounting to a UK safeguard over EU financial services" [9]. The first had already been detailed in a "secret Foreign Office diplomatic note" [10]; the second, not published as of 14 December 2011, corresponds to the "specific protocol on financial services" mentioned by EU President Barroso that resulted in the remaining 26 countries of the EU "moving ahead [on a fiscal compact] without UK’s participation". Prior to this outcome, some commentators had suggested Cameron might succeed, and satisfy Conservative MPs: "the sceptical think tank Open Europe has argued for a protocol for the single market where Britain's influence over financial services laws could be safeguarded, particularly against decisions taken by the eurozone that will impact on all 27 EU countries. As a text contained within a formal protocol, this would have some legal basis." [11]
Stockholm Network
Open Europe, like both Politeia and the Policy Exchange, is a member of the Stockholm Network of free market think tanks whose membership also includes the stalwarts of the free market right from the early stages of the neo-liberal revolution such as the Institute of Economic Affairs, the Adam Smith Institute, the Centre for Policy Studies and the Social Affairs Unit (of a total of 19 UK member organisations).[12]
The Stockholm Network is the ‘main liaison channel’ for free market European think tanks. It was founded in September 1997 and claims to bring together over 120 think tanks from across Europe.[13]The member groups are primarily ‘dogmatic free-marketeers who want to introduce minimalist "flat taxes" (thus ending redistribution via taxation), terminate social protection systems and privatise healthcare. They attack socially or environmentally progressive legislation, which is in place or under discussion, and that places restrictions on market activity. For example, these think tanks consistently cast doubt on the seriousness of climate change, oppose environmental regulations and promote free-market pseudo-solutions to virtually every problem.'[14]
The Stockholm Network links also to the network of right wing think tanks in the US. It has close links with the Heritage Foundation, which ‘frequently’ sends staff to Europe and has ‘worked closely with five like-minded European think tanks to produce and launch a European edition of their Index of Economic Freedom, which ranks countries according to criteria like tax reduction and deregulation policies.’[15]
Neocon connections
Funding
The 2006 accounts of the right-wing American Smith Richardson Foundation describe a $176,000 grant given to Open Europe's then Director Neil O'Brien to research and write a book on the EU for the Policy Forum on International Security Affairs. The project was titled Reforming the E.U. for the 21st Century: Roadmaps for Reform and described as follows:
Neil O’Brien will research and write a book exploring the future of the European Union. He will commission public opinion research, conduct interviews with leading European officials, and convene a series of meetings in order to develop a roadmap for reform of the European Union.[16]
As of July 2009 the book does not so far appear to have been published, although Open Europe did arrange a seminar called 'Reforming the EU for the 21st century' on 14 May 2009 at the Europaforum in Hässleholm. The speakers at the seminar were Mats Persson and Lorraine Mullally from Open Europe and Bruno Waterfield the EU correspondent for the Daily Telegraph. [17]
The 2007 accounts of the Policy Forum on International Security Affairs reveal that the forum provided a grant of $78,080 to Open Europe that year. [18] The accounts provide no further details of the purpose of the grant.
The obscure conservative foundation the Institute for Policy Research has also funded Open Europe repeatedly. Full details from Charity Commission filings are in the table below.
Funding agency[19] | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | Total 2005-2010 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Institute for Policy Research | 70,000 | 95,346 | 127,000 | 181,500 | 105,000 |
Events
On 22 May 2007 Open Europe co-hosted an event at the House of Commons with the International Media Intelligence Analysis called 'Iran, Britain and Europe: Post hostage crisis, what can we expect next?'. The event included presentations by Claude Moniquet, the Director of the European Strategic and Intelligence Center and Mark Fitzpatrick of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Non-proliferation at the State Department.
Fitzpatrick said that Iran was looking to develop longer range missiles capable of reaching western Europe and that Israel “has real reason to see an Iranian nuclear capability as an existential threat”. Moniquet said that there was a danger of terrorist attacks in Europe if military action is taken against Iran, saying that “Iran was a terrorist state for 23 years. We have no proof this has changed. Iran is working hard to organise terror in Europe,” targeting the UK in particular. [20]
On 9 October 2007 Open Europe hosted a debate on the Galileo European Satellite System. One speaker at the debate was Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation. According to Open Europe's account of the speech Brookes said that some in the US are alarmed about the military aspects of the Galileo and saw the push for the system as symptomatic of some in Europe that are pushing Europe to pursue its own security and defence identity, separate from the US and NATO. He said: “It could be argued that the militarisation of the EU – Galileo being part of that – marks one of the greatest geo-political shifts in the transatlantic alliance since the second world war. In the eyes of some the ESDP [European Security and Defense Policy] embodies some of the worst elements of European animosity towards the United States.” [21]
People
Contact
- 7 Tufton Street, London
Resources
- Open Europe 2005-2007Board Accessed 22 Aug 2007
- Open Europe 2005-2007Supporters Accessed 22 Aug 2007
References
- ↑ Open Europe About Us, accessed 25 February 2009
- ↑ Steve Richards, 'A campaign with a winning message - and a complete lack of self-confidence', Independent, 19 May 2005
- ↑ Open Europe Whois Record, accessed from Domain Tools at 9:35 on 18 June 2009
- ↑ Tom Baldwin, ‘Davis team plan fuels fears over factions’, The Times, 27 October 2001
- ↑ Reverse IP Search, 10:22, 18 June 2009
- ↑ Open Europe Ltd Companies House Appointments, accessed 18 June 2009
- ↑ Open Europe press release, "UK Government should use EU Treaty negotiations to secure “emergency brake” on financial laws", 5 December 2011, accessed 14 December 2011; PDF of report
- ↑ Ed Conway, What the PM Really Asked For In Brussels, Sky News, 9 December 2011
- ↑ http://openeuropeblog.blogspot.com/2011/12/what-could-cameron-hope-for.html
- ↑ Bruno Waterfield, Debt crisis: as it happened December 8, 2011, Daily Telegraph, 8 December 2011, accessed 14 December 2011
- ↑ James Landale, PM's EU task: Saving the euro and saving his party, BBC News, 7 December 2011, accessed 14 December 2011
- ↑ See the list of UK members at http://www.stockholm-network.org/network/details.php?id=1, accessed 2 April 2007.
- ↑ http://www.stockholm-network.org
- ↑ Corporate Europe Observatory, "Covert industry funding fuels the expansion of radical rightwing EU think tanks", July 2005. http://www.corporateeurope.org/stockholmnetwork.html
- ↑ Corporate Europe Observatory, 2005.
- ↑ Annual Report 2006, Smith Richardson Foundation, Inc. Accessed 27 December 2008.
- ↑ Europaforum, Hässleholm, Torsdag 14 maj/Thursday, accessed 19 June 2009
- ↑ Policy Forum on International Security Affairs 2007 IRS Form 990, p.3
- ↑ Data compiled from filings at the Charity Commission.
- ↑ 'Iran, Britain and Europe: Post hostage crisis, what can we expect next? - 22 May 2007', Open Europe Events, accessed 19 June 2009
- ↑ 'Galileo - is it worth it? 9 October, 2007', Open Europe Events, accessed 19 June 2009