Enrico Letta Appointed President of the Jacques Delors Institute
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Former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta, dean of the School of International Affairs at Sciences Po in Paris, has been appointed president of the Jacques Delors Insitute, a European think tank founded twenty years ago by former European Commission President Jacques Delors.
Enrico Letta succeeds António Vitorino, a former European commissioner and former Portuguese deputy prime minister who was appointed to head up the think tank in 2011. António Vitorino was appointed in the wake of the sudden death of Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, who had chaired the institute for five years and whose line of thought continues to provide the think tank with its inspiration today. The institute's founding president said that he is "happy" that Enrico Letta has been appointed and he sent the former Italian prime minister his best wishes for a successful term of office. "I am certain that Enrico Letta will prove capable of pursuing our mobilisation in favour of the construction of Europe, particularly at a time when Europe is facing so many challenges", Jacques Delors said, also voicing his gratitude to António Vitorino and to the institute's team as a whole.
The institute's new president said that he is "extremely honoured to become the president of the Jacques Delors Institute. This appointment provides me, in my capacity as a convinced proEuropean, with a splendid opportunity to grasp in my endeavour to devote even more of my time and energy to imparting a fresh thrust to European integration, a process in which my faith is even stronger at this time of crisis. We should see this crisis as an opportunity for imparting a fresh boost to the European project".
Enrico Letta, who will be heading up a team of some twenty people in the institute's two offices in Paris and in Berlin, will be able to rely on the assistance of Jacques Delors, the institute's founding president, and of Pascal Lamy, its president emeritus who is a former director general of the World Trade Organisation and a former European Commissioner.
Contact:
Nicolò Conti
Head of communications and media relations
Jacques Delors
Pascal Lamy
Enrico Letta
Mobile: +33 6 84 95 39 48
@nicolo_conti
About the Jacques Delors Institute:
The Jacques Delors Institute is a European think tank founded by Jacques Delors in 1996 (under the name of Notre Europe) when his term as president of the European Commission came to an end. Based in Paris and Berlin, its principals (Board of Directors, Board of Trustees, European Steering Committee) include some fifty figures who have contributed in one way or another to the construction of Europe. The institute's purpose is to produce analyses and proposals for Europe's decision-makers and for the broader public while also making its contribution to debates on the European Union.
The institute's most recent work concerns, in particular, the refugee crisis and the Schengen area, the institutional and political challenges facing the EU, the strengthening of social Europe, the future of the Economic and Monetary Union, the establishment of an Energy Union and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
In the course of 2015 this work led to the production of some sixty publications in French, English and German, to almost 200 events and interventions in Europe and beyond, and to more than 700 appearances in the media all over the world.