Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the 13th annual Summer University of the European Ideas Network (EIN), which took place in Porto, Portugal, on 27-29 June 2013, gathering more than 200 personalities from policy-makers, opinion leaders, entrepreneurs, academics, political consultants, journalists and representatives of civil society.
Maria da Graça Carvalho chaired the Round Table on Research and Innovation. The Panellists were Wolfgang Wittke, General Director, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission; Jonathan Wareham, Vice Dean & Professor, ESADE - Ramon Llull University; Brigitte Andersen, Professor of the Economics and Management of Innovation, Big Innovation Centre (BIC); Stephen Ezell, Senior Analyst, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation; Maria do Céu Patrão Neves MEP, Member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Member of the EP Committee on Fisheries. The Rapporteur of this working group on Research and Innovation is Richard Hudson, CEO& Editor of Science / Business. Final report here.
The list of notable speakers included the Portuguese Prime Minister, Pedro Passos Coelho, the current Prime Minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, the Prime Minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and former President of the Euro Group, Jean-Claude Juncker, the former Prime Minister of Spain, José Maria Aznar, and the Chairman of the EPP Group, Joseph Daul, among others.
Under the scope of this conference, Maria da Graça Carvalho participated also in the Round Table Relationship between Climate Change and Energy Policies in a post 2020 World (see intervention here), chaired by Pilar del Castillo, MEP, Member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, EPP Group Coordinator of the EP Committee on 'Industry, Research and Energy'. Among the panellists they were Adrian Van den Hoven, Deputy Director General, Business Europe; Jorge Moreira da Silva, former UN director for climate change, 1st Vice-President of the PSD; Christian Growitsch, Director of Applied Research and Member of the Management Board of the Institute of Energy Economics, University of Cologne; Richard Seeber MEP, Member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Member of the EP Committee on ' Environment, Public Health and Food Safety'; Eija Riitta Korhola MEP, Member of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, Member of the EP Committee on ' Environment, Public Health and Food Safety', Head of the Finnish Delegation. The Rapporteur was Laura Parmigiani, Research Fellow, Centre for Energy (IFRI).
The event also included a tribute honouring the 15th anniversary of the death of Francisco Lucas Pires, former President of the CDS party, MEP and Vice-President of the European Parliament.
The European Ideas Network is an open pan-European think-tank established in 2002 and sponsored by the EPP Group (Christian Democrats) in the European Parliament. The network brings together politicians, businessmen, academics, think-tanks, journalists, policy advisers and outside experts to discuss some of the major issues facing Europe today. It also coordinates the joint activities of over forty national think-tanks and political foundations across the EU.