The outcome of a three-year process of consultation by a distinguished panel chaired by Jacques Delors, this reports considers the requirements for an education for the twenty-first century capable of tapping and nurturing the rich potential for learning inherent in every individual. Education is viewed firstly in its social setting - in the light of the challenges of global interdependence, enhanced democratic participation and sustainable development. The report goes on to define the four pillars of learning to live together - and to review the task of formal and nonformal education in the context of the tasks of formal and nonformal education in the context of the learning society. A series of pointers and recommendations complete a document that is establishing itself as required reading for anyone with a profesional or informed interest in educational matters. Published also in Arabic, Chinese, English, French and Spanish

Co-authored by an international team of researchers and drawing on interviews with senior officials, The European Commission of the Twenty-First Century tests, challenges and refutes many widely held myths about the Commission and the people who work for it.

Europe’s financial crisis cannot be blamed on the Euro, Harold James contends in this probing exploration of the whys, whens, whos, and what-ifs of European monetary union. The current crisis goes deeper, to a series of problems that were debated but not resolved at the time of the Euro’s invention. Since the 1960s, Europeans had been looking for a way to address two conundrums simultaneously: the dollar’s privileged position in the international monetary system, and Germany’s persistent current account surpluses in Europe. The Euro was created under a politically independent central bank to meet the primary goal of price stability. But while the monetary side of union was clearly conceived, other prerequisites of stability were beyond the reach of technocratic central bankers. Issues such as fiscal rules and Europe-wide banking supervision and regulation were thoroughly discussed during planning in the late 1980s and 1990s, but remained in the hands of member states. That omission proved to be a cause of crisis decades later. Here is an account that helps readers understand the European monetary crisis in depth, by tracing behind-the-scenes negotiations using an array of sources unavailable until now, notably from the European Community’s Committee of Central Bank Governors and the Delors Committee of 1988–89, which set out the plan for how Europe could reach its goal of monetary union. As this foundational study makes clear, it was the constant friction between politicians and technocrats that shaped the Euro. And, Euro or no Euro, this clash will continue into the future.

Containing a selection of texts on education prepared during the work of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, this volume bears witness to some paradoxes faced by education: to reconcile divergent aims and trends, to embody both continuity and renewal, to encourage conformity and innovation. These papers are intended to complement existing literature to respond to questions that arose in the course of the Commission's work, and to illuminate specific issues that cross disciplines.

Since 1985, when Jacques Delors became President of the European Commission, no politician has made a bigger impact on Western Europe. But while his successes encouraged countries outside the Community to seek membership, they also provoked a wave of anti-Brussels sentiment in the 1990s. As The Economist's Brussels correspondent, Charles Grant had unique access to Jacques Delors, his friends and enemies, and the European institutions. This is the first major biography of the man who, rising from the humblest of origins, became the architect of the new Europe. It is also a fascinating and revealing analysis of how Brussels, the house that Jacques built, really works.