Webb, Richard --- "The 'new Europe' looking ahead to 2020" [2003] ELECD 129; in Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude; Mooslechner, Peter (eds), "Structural Challenges for Europe" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2003)

Book Title: Structural Challenges for Europe

Editor(s): Tumpel-Gugerell, Gertrude; Mooslechner, Peter

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781843764748

Section: Chapter 29

Section Title: The 'new Europe' looking ahead to 2020

Author(s): Webb, Richard

Number of pages: 6

Extract:

29. The `new Europe' ­ looking ahead
to 2020
Richard Webb

Presenting this paper at the Oesterreichische Nationalbank's East­West
Conference 2002, for which I first drafted this chapter, was my first direct
contact with an extraordinary social enterprise ­ the building of a new
Europe. Until very recently, Europe existed only as a geographical abstrac-
tion ­ the area called `Europe' on our maps. Today, a living, social organ-
ism is being created, a society with civilized rules of behaviour and
interaction. It is less than a country or nation but much more than a name
on a map. I call it a `new Europe', but that understates the change. In a fun-
damental sense, what is being created is the first true Europe.
I have been invited to look into the future of this new society, and to spec-
ulate on its role in the world economy.
The view that I will offer you will be that of a Peruvian, a Latin American
and, more generally, an observer from one of the world's poor countries.
And the question from our perspective is ­ what will this new Europe mean
for our countries?
My answer is positive and hopeful. I believe that Europe, as it evolves
towards the year 2020, will contribute in several, significant ways to the
emerging societies of the world. Allow me to suggest some reasons for that
optimistic forecast.


ROLE MODEL

Europe's first and perhaps most important contribution to the developing
world will be as a ...