Previous Events

Reforms often face resistance, leaving politicians feeling that it is politically more convenient not to act, despite apparent problems and challenges facing their societies. But at least a dozen industrialised countries have reformed substantially. They managed to get past the political obstacles, and their substantial free-market reforms have produced great economic and social results. What did they do? How did they do it? What can we learn from this for today and tomorrow?

These are issues of crucial importance for the future of Europe. Every European government faces this challenge. An issue of particular importance is whether the European Union is helping or stifling the prospects of further reform. Johnny Munkhammar’s book The Guide to Reform was published this winter and has received substantial attention and praise. He will tell the story of reform and share the main conclusions of the book at this event.

The Stockholm Network has also been assessing the state of market-oriented reforms across the EU in the latest issue of its State of the Union compilation, which tracks the progress of economic and social reform across all 27 EU countries, with each chapter written by a member of our think-tank network. Alongside Johnny Munkhammar’s findings we will present some of its conclusions and ask what Europe still needs to do to make reform possible.

Speakers at the were:

• Johnny Munkhammar, senior fellow of European Enterprise Institute (EEI) and managing director of Munkhammar Advisory, author of The Guide to Reform;
  
• Susie Squire (Chair), network development manager of the Stockholm Network.
  

The event will also include a showing of a new 10 minute DVD, produced by the Stockholm Network, entitled `Saving the Health of the Nation: An Introduction to Health Savings Accounts`.

The panel will consist of:
Nick Timmins (Chair), Public Policy Editor, Financial Times
Geraint Day, Head of Devolved Government and Health Policy, Institute of Directors
Stephen Pollard, President, Centre for the New Europe
Liz Kendall, Social Policy Consultant and former special adviser to Patricia Hewitt MP

Health expenditure in Germany is experiencing dramatic growth. Health Technology Assessment (HTA), the systematic appraisal of the costs and benefits of a medical treatment, is presented as an objective and scientific way to address this dilemma.

Proponents argue that independent professional institutions like IQWiG can systematically and objectively assess which medicines should be financed by the public purse, and which can be rejected on the basis of high costs and low benefits to the patients.

However, the adoption of HTA throughout the developed world raises some important but often overlooked questions. To what extent are HTA systems an objective and scientific tool, and to what extent just another political construct aimed at the systematic rationing of medicines? Why has the phenomenon escaped vigorous public attention? Is HTA compatible with the goals of patient choice and therapeutic autonomy? And finally how does its use affect the future development of new and innovative healthcare technologies?

All these questions and more will be discussed in this event

We very much hope you can join us.

If you would like to RSVP for this event, please register online below or alternatively email kristian@stockholm-network.org.

Please note that this event will be simultaneously translated.

Die deutschen Gesundheitsausgaben steigen dramatisch an. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird Gesundheitstechnologiebewertung (auch Health Technology Assessment oder HTA), also die systematische Bewertung von Kosten und Nutzen einer medizinischen Leistung, als eine objektive und wissenschaftliche Antwort auf dieses Dilemma dargestellt. Unabhängige Institutionen wie das IQWiG, so behaupten Befürworter, könnten objektiv bewerten, welche Medikamente aus öffentlichen Mitteln finanziert werden sollen, und welche aufgrund hoher Kosten und geringem Nutzen für den Patienten abgelehnt werden können.

Die zunehmende Verwendung von HTA wirft wichtige, aber selten beachtete Fragen auf. Ist HTA wirklich ein objektives und wissenschaftliches Instrument, oder dient es lediglich der Rationierung von Gesundheitsleistungen? Warum konnte sich dieses Phänomen bislang einer kritischen öffentlichen Debatte entziehen? Ist HTA vereinbar mit Wahlfreiheit für Patienten und therapeutischer Autonomie für Ärzte? Und welche Auswirkungen hat HTA auf den künftigen medizinischen Fortschritt?

Über diese und andere Fragen wird auf unserer Veranstaltung diskutiert werden. Über Ihre Teilnahme würden wir uns freuen.

Anmelden können Sie sich, indem Sie weiter unten das Formular ausfüllen, oder eine formlose Anmeldung an kristian@stockholm-network.org senden. Eine Simultanuebersetzung Englisch-Deutsch wird bereitgestellt.

Now that sufficient scientific consensus has been reached on climate change to ensure that all political parties accept the need for serious policy in this area, the debate has shifted from debating the science towards establishing the best mitigation and adaptation policies. However, the information that exists in this area today is often hard to compare and contextualise.

The Stockholm Network’s Carbon Scenarios Project aims to fill this gap by using scenarios to provide a structure for discussing and comparing different future policy options. The goal is to build plausible scenarios which can then be used to discuss responses to climate change with key stakeholders, including business, government, and the media.

The scenarios have been built in a workshop of experts from the environment, energy, business, economics and policy spheres, and we would now like to present a draft version of the scenarios and discuss their implications with a Brussels audience. This discussion will help us to refine the scenarios to improve their plausibility, communicability and educational value.

Speakers at the event were:

• Mark Lynas, journalist and author of Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet;
  
• Paul Domjan, energy fellow of the Stockholm Network.

The candidacy of Turkey to become a member of the EU brings to the fore questions of what it is to be a European and what the Union is for.

Large majorities of Europeans are opposed to Turkey`s accession: over 80 per cent in Austria, over 70 per cent in France and at least 55 per cent in Germany. Is this hesitation solely on religious grounds? Or is the controversy more profound?

This distrust is not a one way street: until recently, a majority of Turks lent strong support to EU entry. Now, according to opinion polls, many are disillusioned and disenchantment is growing.

Proponents of Turkish membership argue that the EU is not strictly defined by borders or geography. Instead of shared territory, claim EU enlargement commissioner, Olli Rehn, and others, the question is one of shared values. But what are these values? Most trends within 21st century Europe do not sustain evidence of a strong belief in a shared or common meaning. What are these values, and who defines and enforces them?

Democracy is a much vaunted asset in the EU. But democratic societies must be built by peoples themselves. Democracy cannot be imported into Turkey by the EU and, vice versa, will the EU`s policies, including the recent Lisbon Treaty, lead Turkey closer to a strong economic and democratic future?

Speakers at the event included:

• Bruno Waterfield, Brussels correspondent for The Daily Telegraph

Paul Domjan will be speaking on the project and the scenarios at the Amigo Society (Brussels) on the 6th March. Please see upcoming events for further details.

When did you last have a GMO breakfast? Unless you carefully checked the ingredients, chances are you have ingested genetically modified cereals recently.

How much of a problem is this?

The media incites us to greet unidentified risks with great caution: the policy equivalent is the precautionary principle. This entails considerable regulation and safety precautions for the general public until any untested product or technology has been proven harmless. The approach is seemingly common sense: better safe than sorry. This can, however, put a straitjacket on research and scientific inquiry overall.

GMO crops are a case in point: these have been in use for 20 years and not a single health incident has been reported. Yet, national and EU authorities have decided that the technology which has the potential of saving millions of people from death by starvation must be suspended.

Risk management in modern societies is increasingly not based on a reasonable evaluation of probabilities. Instead it is dictated by the potentially disastrous consequences of unlikely events and infinitesimal risks. This calculus is made essentially on political, rather than scientific criteria.

Speakers at the event were:

• Nathalie Moll, executive director of Europabio;
  
• Dr William Durodie, senior lecturer in Risk and Corporate Security of the Resilience Centre, Cranfield University;
  
• Dr Tim Evans (chair), former director of development of the Stockholm Network.

Next year`s Olympics will open China to outside scrutiny as never before. But what changes will that bring? Will it mean freer media and faster political reform, or will the changes be merely cosmetic? The Chinese authorities hope a glittering games and advanced urban infrastructure will permanently change the outside world`s view of the country. But will that obscure the true picture of pollution, oppression and corruption? Will the games be a milestone on China`s path to modernisation, or a smokescreen, enabling the authoritarian one-party state regime bequeathed by Mao to dodge still further the questions that threaten its existence.

This symposium takes place within a series of policy symposia that are intended to identify and clarify the intellectual property dimension in the life sciences. They are addressed to a wide range of stakeholders, including international policymakers, government agencies, legislators, delegates, and civil society actors. The symposium offers an open forum for exchanging information and experiences in relation to the interaction between life sciences innovation and the intellectual property system.

Download the presentations from this event by clicking the links below: