Rajoy, Letta, Monti and Passos Coelho at the conference on the future of Europe and youth unemployment

The Berggruen Institute will foster dialogue in Madrid aimed at rescuing the EU from division and unemployment.

MADRID – The Berggruen Institute on Governance (BIG) will host the international conference Project Europe as part of the program for the fourth forum of its Council for the Future of Europe, to be held for the first time in Spain. It will take place in Madrid on February 27 and 28.

The event, being held in close collaboration with PRISA, will feature Prime Minister of Italy Enrico Letta, Prime Minister of Portugal Pedro Passos Coelho, and Prime Minister of Spain Mariano Rajoy, as well as former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González and former Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti among others.

The conference, which will focus on young people and youth employment, brings together a range of European leaders, ministers, politicians, economists, editors, leading thinkers and students to discuss and debate ideas that will enable Europe to emerge from a state of paralysis and division.

The Berggruen Institute, founded by philanthropist Nicolas Berggruen, is a think tank dedicated to the design and implementation of new ideas for good governance, and brings together cutting-edge entrepreneurs, global thinkers and political leaders from around the world. One of its key projects is the Council for the Future of Europe, which has already organized three conferences in Berlin, Rome and Paris, and whose aim is to promote a common European discourse on the design of a federal political union and to propose the steps needed to achieve such an outcome.

The fourth series of this debate, now being held in Madrid, will also address the upcoming elections to the European Parliament 2014 “as an opportunity to tackle the sense of democratic deficit pervading European institutions,” said Berggruen Institute Special Advisor Sylvie Goulard.

Members of CFE will hold a press conference immediately before the council opens on Thursday, February 27. Individual interviews of council members or speakers may be available upon request.

Conference sessions from the Project Europe forum will not be open to the public but may be followed via streaming online video in Spanish at elpais.com and in English on the world section of The Huffington Post (theworldpost.com). Interested parties can also join the conversation on Twitter by following @berggruenInst and tracking the hashtag #BIGProEU. Press can register for the event by sending an RSVP to the contact below.

PRESS CONTACTS:

Angeles de Benito 

angelesb@prisa.com

T: +34 91 330 10 53