The new issue of the Global Policy Institute's Social Europe Journal is dedicated to the French EU Presidency after the Irish 'no' to the Lisbon Treaty. This journal includes the exclusive English version of French Foreign Secretary Bernhard Kouchner's speech held at the Humboldt University in Berlin earlier this year.

Following this, Gaëtane Ricard-Nihoul, Secretary General of the think tank Notre Europe in Paris, Michel Delebarre, first Vice-President of the Committee of the Regions and former French Minister of Labour, as well as Jacques Reland of the Global Policy Institute analyse the political agenda of the French EU Presidency.

Furthermore, German Member of the European Parliament Jo Leinen, his assistant Jan Kreutz and the Director of the Federal Trust for Education and Research, Brendan Donnelly, present their views on the Irish 'no' before Hermann Kepplinger closes this journal issue with his critique of the EU's economic policy-making.

The new Policy Paper examines the politics and institutional setup of transatlantic economic relations and identifies structural shortcomings in this experimental form of international governance. Can the institutionalisation of EU - US relations be a model for solving the economic, social and environmental problems of the future? Not in its current form Dr Henning Meyer, Head of the GPI European Programme, argues.

The paper develops some concrete policy proposals to show how a reformed transatlantic agenda with a new President in the White House could help to address vital political issues on an international scale.

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