HOUJARRAY FORESIGHT TALKS 2025 

CONVERSATIONS PROSPECTIVES DE HOUJARRAY 2025, September 12-13-14, MAISON JEAN MONNET, Bazoches-sur-Guyonne 

INNOVATION, POWER and DIPLOMACY  in an age of permanent polycrises .Where is the world heading to and what place is in it for the EU and Europe? 

Overview & Program 

“Our philosophy: no European nationalism, but a way to solve problems. And a way to serve the Community without hitting in the face your close allies and neighbors. ( ) Our federalism ‘communitarises’ the problems and has the pretension to find for every political or economical problem a solution on condition it is seen as a common problem. This method doesn't need to stop somewhere. Europe will be in this way useful to Africa and Asia and this can help give sense to its existence.” 

Notebooks of Max Kohnstamm. Wednesday September 18, 1957 Evening at the home of François and Hélène Fontaine in Paris. Own translation from original text in Dutch published in ‘Diep Spel’ by Mathieu Segers, Boom uitgevers, 2011. 

Max Kohnstamm was Jean Monnet's right-hand man and thus closely involved in the establishment and design of the European Union (EU) Kohnstamm acted as deputy secretary-general of the High Authority of the European Coal and Steel Community. In 1956 he left office to assist Monnet and the latter's Action Committee for the United States of Europe. The two men constituted a team that exerted far-reaching influence behind the scenes of European and global diplomacy. In 1974 Kohnstamm became the first president of the European University Institute in Florence. In later years he played a remarkable role in Jacques Delors' policy drive for completing the EU's Common Market. 

As it is important not to get sloppy with labels, the first concern addressed during the inaugural session on Saturday September 13 and at the start of the four working groups is going to be, as in previous editions of the Houjarray Talks, to frame the words and the meaning of the concepts put forward in the title chosen for this year, i.e.  “Innovation, Power and Diplomacy” and to put them into perspective with the help of past and current analyses and of selected events of historical importance.  We remain true to the initial leading ideas present in the previous editions of these foresight Talks which are to take inspiration from the life and times of Jean Monnet as a world citizen and thus reaching beyond the icon of him as ‘Mr Europe’. We follow the views put forward by Professor Gérard Bossuat in a publication by the CIFE* making clear Jean Monnet was not only the man known for being at the origin of a new geopolitical concept to make peaceful relations between European nations durable, but also for being a statesman, a banker and an entrepreneur who included in his views and actions a strong engagement for public interest (‘intérêt commun’) and solidarity. These concerns to think actively about the notion of public interest, paying attention to the nexus between internal and external policies, are also very present in the current overarching strategic research agenda of the Dutch Asser Institute, working in four research strands, all trying to rethink the concept of public interest in international and European law. Their work is also going to be a reference in our Talks this year.

As was already the case last year we continue to work on the different important reports that were produced on request of European leaders by respectively Enrico Letta, Mario Draghi and Sauli Niïnisto, bringing into discussion strengths and weaknesses of the EU 

single market, EU competitiveness, industrial policies as well as civil and military preparedness and readiness. 

The phrase “Power and Diplomacy” is taken from the title of a book by Dean Acheson, a friend of Jean Monnet, State Secretary under President Truman from 1949 to 1953. With Hans Kribbe of the Brussels Institute for Geopolitics (BIG) we agree that Economic statecraft, the use of economic policy for geostrategic purposes, has undeniably taken off in recent years, both conceptually and in practice. This growing use of the economy as a tool of state power reveals in his eyes a dramatic shift in Western attitudes to trade and investment. The consensus that trade and foreign policy needed to be separated into different domains and even into different institutional silos, which certainly in Brussels became an article of faith, is yielding to the realization that economic policy serves a plurality of goals among which external security ranks high. In this context Kribbe states the real choice Europe needs to make is not whether to amass more economic power (it evidently must) but how to use this power in a sensible and targeted way, to what end and, no less important, within what boundaries. This reference to boundaries of power, we believe, can also be seen as an incentive to engage in this discussion by mobilising at maximum knowledge present in the different institutional, professional, entrepreneurial, scientific, civil and cultural networks and platforms existing in Europe and beyond. It is an exercise necessary to communicate and regain the necessary empathy both inside and outside the EU and Europe of what the European project means and has to offer. If we don’t do this, we Europeans risk being enlisted in the narrative of one of the other protagonists in world politics. Discursive power is also power and one which used to be part of Europe’s influence in the world and still is there to remain, if we dare to make it future-proof. 

In this spirit of open dialogue, from the very first edition on, when inviting people to attend the Houjarray Foresight Talks, we always paid attention to having people with different cultural, professional and geographical backgrounds. With the ambitious target to discuss what kind of futures might spring from the present, and decide which of those futures we wish to see promoted, this has become even more challenging and important for these 2025 Talks.

The EU has some major geopolitical tasks ahead of it: reviving the economy by moving back to the global technological and economic frontier, making the most of its capacity to innovate, and building up again military and diplomatic strength to protect itself and make thus greater contributions to global peace and stability, finding back its roots present in the discussions and methods practised by the historical personalities who gave birth to it and also of those who afterwards developed it further with success. This includes paying attention also to the social model and what kind of solidarity we want internally and externally being further developed.