Europe needs vision

Summer Academy Europe focuses on redressing democracy's shortcomings

Participants in the Summer Academy with Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Polish president.

Participants at this year's Summer Academy Europe met with a number of prominent speakers, including Aleksander Kwasniewski (center), former Polish president.

Photographer: Sebastian Pfütze

Europe's decision-makers lack vision -- that was one of the conclusions reached by speakers and participants at the Summer Academy Europe, organized by the Bertelsmann Stiftung and held last week at Steinhöfel Castle east of Berlin. Well-known speakers such as Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Polish president, Derek Scott, economic advisor to Tony Blair, Cem Özdemir, co-leader of Germany's Alliance 90 / Greens Party, and Rita Süssmuth, former president of the German Bundestag, met with 23 Summer Academy participants to discuss the future of European democracy.

The timing was fortuitous. Given the distressingly low rate of participation in the European Parliament elections two weeks before, the topic was more than timely. Participants in the Summer Academy, next-generation leaders from business, politics and the media, reflected with the event's speakers on ways to overcome the well-known shortcomings in European democracy. In addition, they developed suggestions for increasing transparency and participation in the European Union and imagined a best-case scenario for democracy in Europe in the year 2030.

One highlight was the one-day excursion to the "twin cities" of Frankfurt on the Oder in Germany and, directly across the river, Slubice in Poland. After undertaking a "historic border crossing" in the form of a walk over the Oder River, participants engaged in a debate at the Collegium Polonicum on the state of democracy worldwide. Serving as the attendees' sparring partners were Denise Gregory, director of the Brazilian think tank Center for International Relations, Dr. Xinning Song of the Renmin University in Beijing and the United Nations University in Bruges, and Joel Marsden, author, producer and director, who reinforced his vision of global elections with excerpts from his documentary film "World Vote Now."

Afterwards, the participants in Frankfurt and Slubice visited a number of local contacts in the cities' municipal governments, businesses, media outlets, civic organizations, universities and cultural institutions in order to examine how the European Union's changing democratic structures are affecting the border region. The meetings, organized by the Bertelsmann Stiftung with the support of the Institute for Applied History at the European University Vidadrina in Frankfurt, proved highly productive.

The Summer Academy Europe takes place for one week each year. Participants are nominated to take part by policymakers, business leaders and media representatives. The academy's alumni network currently has over 400 members.