Europe's academic potential

Toespraak | 14-09-2007

Enschede, 10 september 2007

[introduction]

I would like to thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to respond to the President of the European Parliament’s excellent speech. Professor Pö ttering, I was truly impressed by your speech. I will touch upon some of the points you raised and speak about some of the Dutch government’s higher education plans in connection with Europe. I would also like to thank the rector magnificus for the hospitality of his university and the mayor for the hospitality of this beautiful city. Good morning to all distinguished professors, my former colleagues of the Dutch parliament and to you, ladies and gentlemen.

In Dutch, we say ‘Rector Magnificus’. Were you to be appointed in Flanders, you would be called ‘Magnifieke Rector’, which sounds much nicer. Who would not want to be called ‘magnificent rector’? Which goes to show that the Netherlands and Flanders are - to quote George Bernard Shaw – ‘two countries separated by a common language’. We tend to forget that we share a common language and culture. The famous Flemish writer Louis Paul Boon said ‘the Dutch are Englishmen who drive on the right’. Which perhaps might apply to those in the west of the Netherlands, but it certainly does not apply to people living in this part of the country. Nor does it apply to people from the south, where I come from.

[regional cross-border cooperation]

This brings me to my first point: I think we underestimate the strength of regional cooperation within the EU. The potential of European cross-border cooperation is underestimated. It is this potential we need to develop, for example here in Twente and in the south of the Netherlands. Do not get me wrong, my plea is not for a European policy, created by a European bureaucracy, generating even more rules and regulations. I mean the Europe of day-to-day work, of universities working closer together. I am the first to say that problems in this area need to be addressed.

Today is the fifth time in three weeks that people responsible for cross-border cooperation have highlighted problems concerning the regional cross-border labour market. In Zeeland, Limburg, Groningen, Friesland and now here in Twente. National regulations are hindering efforts to cooperate. As a result it is almost impossible to step up cooperation. This affects not only universities on both sides of the border, but also the local and national economies. All because of differences in regulations. For example, if a Belgian citizen wants to work in Zeeland, he has to pay, let’s say, five euros a year for his healthcare insurance premium in Belgium and, in addition, more than one thousand euros in the Netherlands. For health care he does not need. Simply because he wants to work in the Netherlands. It is hardly surprising that illogical regulations of this kind put people off. People we desperately need for our Dutch labour market. I feel that the government must address these problems. The university and the region of Twente would undoubtedly profit from new cross-border cooperation.

Secondly, there is a strange phenomenon which President Pöttering mentioned, that we tend to underestimate Europe’s potential. We tend to underestimate our own strength. Of course, I agree with the Minister of Education that the United States and the United Kingdom to some extent outperform continental Europe in terms of Nobel Prizes and academic performance. But at the same time we are overrun by academics and university managers visiting European institutions, because we are capable of educating many more people at a lower cost.

This does not mean that we can be complacent and forget about the pursuit of excellence. Not at all. Excellence is certainly something we should strive for. But excellence can be achieved within a relatively short period if we can create ‘centres of excellence’ on a European scale. I am an enthusiastic supporter of the initative taken by this university in creating the 3TU federation. I also believe that the University of Twente should be one of the key players in the European Institute of Technology. We should be able to set up such an institution. Because we have the talent, the bright young minds and the will to exploit this potential. The only thing is, we need a new mindset in Europe. It does not mean more European rules. On the contrary, I believe that European higher education will be made possible by less government involvement, by fewer rules. European governments should agree on standards of educational attainment. How these results are to be achieved, should be left to the universities. Let universities create their own European space.

I think that if we create this European space with five hundred million inhabitants, we will outperform anyone in the world. We can also be trendsetters in research and development.

The Financial Times recently published a detailed article emphasising Europe ’s lead in terms of the quality of regulations. When it comes to financial regulations or protecting the environment, the rest of the world looks to Europe. And copies it. Why? For simple economic reasons. Europe is now the biggest market in the world. If you combine the largest market with the highest level of regulation, for instance to protect consumers, you create a global framework.

A worldwide producer will be sure to apply the highest level of rules. Only then will all markets become accessible. In this sense Europe is already a trendsetter and again, we tend to underestimate our strength. The same goes for higher education. If we are able to create a European space for higher education, our research and development capabilities will have the same trendsetting powers as our European economy.

But for this to happen, we need to change our psychology, our mindset. In the past, people felt much the same way about Europe as about the weather. Sometimes it was good, sometimes it was bad – mostly the former – but there was nothing you could do about it, it just happened. That was the attitude in the Neth erlands towards Europe. The general understanding was that it was good for us, so those bureaucrats should be given the go-ahead. In my opinion this was not a good thing. It distanced the citizens of Europe from the European experiment.

At the moment, unfortunately, we are in the opposite position. Nowadays, anything that comes from Brussels is essentially bad. Europe is ‘bad for you’. ‘Europe decides about the size of our ladders, about whether bananas should be straight or bent.’ This is the image of Europe today. In order to change this attitude I call on you academics to speak up for Europe. For what it stands for and for what needs to be improved. Because as it happens, this Europe is the best show in town. Europe is the best guarantee for a future as prosperous as our past. And with successful European cooperation we can prevent the ghosts of recent history from re-emerging.

To President Pöttering, I have to say that I recently spoke to Jacques Delors. He said to me that in his opinion, and I think he is absolutely right, the European Parliament is by far the best functioning European institution today. Again, this conflicts with popular belief. Many citizens see the European Parliament as a circus travelling between Brussels and Strasbourg. A circus whose members only join for the money. But at the same time there are many like Jacques Delors, who follow day-to-day business at the European Parliament and who are convinced the European Parliament is operating better than it has ever done. It is our task to convince voters, who will have to vote in 2009 for a new European Parliament, of this very fact.

To return to education, I mentioned the need for better performance in research and development and the need to encourage excellence. Another ambition is to improve performance at the bachelor stage. What is crucial in my opinion is gaining experience abroad. To give young people, students and those who have a job, an opportunity to broaden their horizons. Air travel has become cheaper and cheaper. Today, it is cheaper to buy an airline ticket to Rome or Barcelona than it is to catch a train in Enschede to The Hague. So many people travel all over Europe. But all too often they travel in what I would call a ‘national cocoon’. They travel abroad, go to a beach, ask for the same beer and fries they have at home, and after two weeks or so return. Without any local experience of the country they travelled to. This is a great shame. How can we change that? By sending them abroad for a longer period of time, for study or for work.

With all this travel, I do not have the impression that we know more about each other than the previous generation did. It seems as if we have lost interest in the diversity of Europe. And this is in fact what is important for the debate in the Netherlands. Young and old seem to see Europe as a huge washing machine. All those colourful European differences are put into it, it is switched to ninety degrees centigrade, and the result is a grey mass representing European culture. Which doesn’t mean anything to anybody. The Dutch are afraid of losing their identity. Losing their language and their culture. This is very strongly felt in my country. I am convinced that we cannot rectify this by entrenching ourselves behind our dikes. We can only do so by putting people in touch with other Europeans.

I shall give one example to emphasise this point of self-confidence and cultural diversity. Last week I had a meeting with the National Youth Council. We talked about their European projects. One of these young people of 20 or 21 said to me, ‘I really learned to value Holland and Dutch society when I was abroad for six months’. And he echoed my own experience as a youth and teenager living abroad. I was prouder of the Netherlands than anyone. And I couldn’t understand, when visiting my grandparents in the Netherlands, that everybody took what the Netherlands had achieved for granted. For people to truly appreciate the richness and importance of our own culture and society, it is crucial that students and others spend some time abroad.

If you ask a fish to define water, it will not be able to do so unless you take it out of the water. And the same applies to our culture. You can only define your own culture by contrasting it with a different culture. And only by experiencing other cultures can you lose your fear of things that are different.

One important subject that President Pöttering mentioned is climate change. In my opinion it is essential for Europe to show leadership on climate change. The European Council and Chancellor Merkel’s German Presidency secured a great achievement in March. People said that Europe could never be a trendsetter on climate change. But Europe took the lead and the G8 countries followed suit. Now you see countries in Asia and the Pacific thinking along the same lines.

Prime Ministers Balkenende and Blair took the initiative for this course in 2006. The European Council then took decisive measures. My British counterpart Jim Murphy and I published an article last week to take CO2 reduction yet a step further – by aiming at a 30% rather than a 20% reduction. It is necessary particularly for domestic reasons. If we want to achieve ambitious goals on climate change we need Europe. If Europe does not agree that drastic measures are called for, the rest of the world certainly will not follow. It makes no sense to take CO2-related measures at national level alone.

For this reduction to be achieved we need technology. To be able to leave the world in a better state for our children and grandchildren. And this is without a doubt the biggest challenge we are facing today. Universities like the University of Twente can make a difference when trying to meet these ambitions.

Finally, I would like to say it was a source of pride to hear President Pött ering speaking to us in Dutch. I feel equally proud to know that so many German students, also at this university, are proficient in Dutch and learn it so quick ly. However, I am not so proud about the fact that today more French people learn Dutch that Dutch people learn French. And more German people learn Dutch than Dutch people learn German. This is a trend we urgently need to reverse, again with the assistance of universities.

Let me turn to the students now.

The most important thing is to have fun. I hope you will have fun! In my university years at the end of the seventies, people were preparing for unemployment. No-one more so than myself. With my interest in history and French literature, and coming from a purely working-class background, prospects were grim. ‘For God’s sake,’ my parents said, ‘learn something that will get you a job,’ so I also studied law. And I did find a job!

But as I told my son last August when he started his university studies in Utrecht, the most important thing is to have fun. Fun in meeting new people. In encountering new aspects of life which will broaden your spectrum. These experiences will be part of you for the rest of your life. Of course you have to work very hard, but above all, have fun!

Thank you very much.