University Times

A G-20 world leader took a side trip to Pitt’s campus last week, calling for Europe’s increased globalization and a strengthened economic partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United States.

Addressing a packed Connolly Ballroom in Alumni Hall, José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission of the 27-nation EU, appealed for building more EU-U.S. bridges to accommodate an ongoing “transformation that goes far beyond the economic and financial crisis and is leading toward a shift in the balance of world power.”

Barroso further advocated strengthening financial reform efforts to avoid the mistakes that led to the global economic recession, and he proposed a “grand bargain” between developed and developing nations to countermand the deleterious effects of climate change while promoting clean energy.

“Only Europe and the United States — with our global reach, our economic power and our shared values that include openness, freedom and human rights — have the critical mass to offer coherent and positive leadership for the world, and to find effective solutions to the new challenges of the 21st century, challenges that have no respect for borders: Such as climate change. Such as pandemics. Such as international terrorism,” Barroso said.

The EU represents nearly a half-billion people in the largest integrated economic area in the world, accounting for more than 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product and 17 percent of its trade, he pointed out.

While European Union countries have been the testing ground for globalization for many years, the EU is at a crossroads, said Barroso, who is a former prime minister of Portugal. “Either grasp the opportunities of the world’s increasing interdependence, or face a slow slide into strategic irrelevance,” Barroso cautioned in his speech, titled “Opening a New Era for Global Europe.”

The European Commission president also called for a new transatlantic agenda for globalization to reinvigorate the Euro-American economic and political relationship. Such an agenda, he said, would include:

• Making the EU-U.S. relationship more outward-looking, and engaging more with third parties, such as Brazil, Russia, India and China;

• Defending and reinforcing an open, rules-based, multilateral trading system, and

• Launching a comprehensive review of respective EU and U.S. efforts to secure international peace and security.

“This agenda would send an important signal to the world that we are determined to reinforce the strategic effect of our partnership by reaching out to others, in search of new partnerships and new multilateral strategies,” Barroso maintained.

Such a transatlantic partnership already has been jump-started by the global economic recession, which has forced the world “to step up the pace of global cooperation,” he said.

Barroso praised the European Commission, which, as the executive branch of the EU sets policy and proposes legislation, for swift and effective action to avert a total economic collapse of the global economy. But he cautioned against the complacency of assuming that the goal is to restore the financial status quo, urging world powers instead to keep up the pressure for reforming financial markets to include a strong push for coordinated international action on remuneration.

“The Pittsburgh G-20 Summit will be pivotal in showing whether the international community can maintain the high levels of cooperation we have seen over the last 12 months, in order to get everyone back onto the path of economic recovery,” Barroso said.

Regarding global warming and its attendant issue of carbon emissions, Barroso repeated the message he delivered earlier this month to the United Nations.

“What I said in New York was that we need a grand bargain: First, to the developing world, if you are serious about the challenge of cutting emissions, we will be there to help, including with financial support. But we need developing countries to contribute to mitigation. In other words: No action, no money,” Barroso said.

“Second, to others in the developed world: As well as delivering on our binding mitigation targets, we need to make a credible financial commitment to the developing world. In other words: No money, no deal.

“The time for playing high-stakes poker — and can the stakes get any higher than this? — is over.”

At the Sept. 24 event, Chancellor Mark Nordenberg conferred upon Barroso an honorary doctoral degree in public and international affairs. He praised Barroso for embodying the ideals of the University, including “high achievement, humanitarian commitment and a meaningful engagement through a purposeful life.”

Russian Federation President Dmitry Medvedev made brief remarks and took questions from students in the Cathedral of Learning Commons Room Sept. 24. Prior to his address, he visited with students in the Russian Nationality Room.

Deane Root, director of Pitt’s Center for American Music, demonstrates a Chautauqua roller barrel organ for Japan’s First Lady Miyuki Hatoyama. Hatoyama and her entourage took a private tour of the Stephen Foster Memorial Museum and visited the Japanese Nationality Room Sept. 25.

This was Barroso’s second visit to Pitt. In 2006 he toured the University Center for International Studies and the University’s European Union Center of Excellence — one of only 11 centers in the United States to receive this designation by the European Commission.

—Peter Hart