Major conference asks what are the choices for Europe?

EU Commissioner Margot Wallstrom will visit Birmingham on 14 May to address a major conference at Birmingham University about the future of the European Union and to speak to first time voters in a televised Q&A from the City Council Chamber. 'Bringing the policy back in' hosted by the University of Birmingham and co-organised with the European Commission will look at the challenges facing the European Union over the next decade and asks how Europe's place in the world will be affected by the current global depression. The conference brings together a host of high-profile speakers from politics, academia and local businesses including EU Commission Vice-President Margot Wallström, veteran UK Ambassador to the EU Sir Stephen Wall author of A Stranger in Europe: Britain and the EU from Thatcher to Blair, Bill Keegan from The Observer, David Marsh author of the best-selling The Euro: The Politics of the New Global Currency, and local MEPs Malcolm Harbour and Neena Gill. The global economic downturn will be a thread running throughout the themes discussed at the conference with panels on the first day focusing on the single market and the euro. President of the West Midlands' World Trade forum Peter Mathews CMG will speak on the challenges faced by regional industrialists and how European single market regulations could be improved. Conference organiser Nathaniel Copsey from the University of Birmingham's European Research Institute comments: "The EU has a tremendous impact on our lives in the West Midlands - the fate of our car industry shows us that our prosperity is closely tied both to European regulation and global economic changes.