Peter Sutherland is a fan of plain speaking. As the debate drew to a close, he said that "Creating a united Europe was the most noble cause pursued in the last century." Sutherland, an Irishman who "constantly crisscrosses the border between politics and economics," once played an extremely active part in European politics and is now the Chairman of BP and Goldman Sachs International, as well as being a member of the International Advisory Board of the Allianz Companies.

Sutherland was joined on the podium by Chairman of the Allianz Supervisory Board Henning Schulte-Noelle, Secretary of State for the European Union at the German Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology Joachim Wuermeling and moderator Martin Winter. At this second Allianz Lecture, held on May 7, 2006 in Munich's Residenz Theater, the distinguished panel discussed the subject of "Europe in the face of global competition."

In the face of this competition, Henning Schulte-Noelle described Europe as being "basically quite competitive." He said this applied not only to the large conglomerates, but also to small and medium-sized companies.

Despite only moderate growth and high unemployment, he continued, more and more international capital, "that shyest of all beings," is coming into Europe. However, he believed that the EU had been less successful in the "competition for people, which must be deemed equally important," asserting that "brain drain" must be turned into "brain gain."

Nevertheless, he thought that in general, the situation in Europe was better than the mood at present, lamenting that "Far too many people have already begun to take for granted the enormous economic achievements of European unity, such as free movement of goods, a greater range of products and services to choose from, lower transaction costs and prices and the common currency."

Joachim Wuermeling expressed similar feelings concerning the widespread apathy as regards Europe and called for renewed efforts to be made, saying that, "Each generation has to conquer Europe anew."

There was no escaping the fact that the European Union's Lisbon Process has failed six years after Lisbon promised to make Europe the world's most dynamic and competitive economic area, the EU is further away from achieving that goal than it was then. Schulte-Noelle mused that, "Perhaps a strategy such as that is simply too much for the EU, as most of the initiatives and measures needed to be implemented not by Brussels but at a national level by the individual member states."

The three experts also saw the collapse of the European Constitution as a missed opportunity - European politician Wuermeling said it would have been a "Renewal and Fitness Program for Europe." They agreed that it would have been better to have ratified the Constitution before EU enlargement and expressed their regret at the fact that its approval or rejection in a referendum was primarily dependent on how strong or weak the respective national government was.

Sutherland also insisted that as soon as possible after this wave of enlargement is complete, new members should be given equal rights, including the right to work anywhere in the EU. Otherwise, he warned, people in the accession countries would soon cease to be so enthusiastic about Europe.

He commented that in his native Ireland, where the economy has benefited immensely from EU membership, opening the borders has been an extremely positive experience; despite, or even because of, the high level of immigration, growth on the Emerald Isle has remained high and unemployment low.

All participants in the forum have noticed a lack of political leadership in Europe. Wuermeling has been pinning his hopes on Europe as "the only plausible answer to globalization, but Europe is not living up to these hopes."

Peter Sutherland stressed that the key European states, and Germany in particular, need to assume responsibility for leading Europe into the future, and at the same time called for a strengthening of the European institutions. Yet he also pointed out that this would only be possible if the individual governments gave it their wholehearted support and commitment.

For that reason, Sutherland continued, it would be better for a small group of European countries to press ahead with the process of integration than for 25 member states all to grind to a halt, although he emphasized that the door must always remain open to latecomers. Those who do not move forwards fall backwards, he said, asserting that if the worst came to the worst, one day Europe's only role on the global stage could be as a "sightseeing destination for Asian tourists."

And although Jean Monnet, "Father of the European Community" is said to have declared that if he were to start the process of unification anew, he would begin by striving for cultural unity, for his part Schulte-Noelle stated categorically that, "Although he is absolutely right as far as creating emotional ties, a feeling of togetherness and a common European identity is concerned, even he would not have disputed the fact that economic success was, is and remains essential to European unity."