The CEPS, a dynamic French think tank

“It is very fashionable to talk about think tanks these days but it must be said that, behind the machinery designed to produce great things, there is sometimes just hot air.” Loïc Tribot la Spière is founder and Managing Director of CEPS, an independent, multidisciplinary organization which currently has nearly 500 members, representing 23 nations and from all the different political horizons. Members pay an annual subscription fee in return for a share in the association. “We pool talents and our members supply the ‘fuel’ for our clubs. As we are keen to avoid producing impersonal, bland information, they are all encouraged to take part in the discussions and not just produce reports.” The members naturally include political and economic decision-makers, academics and intellectuals, but also Jesuits and even spiritual leaders, both “pastors and imams”. CEPS is a form of organized civil society that takes stock of the existing situation but, above all, is determined to denounce failings and propose alternatives. “During the last Presidential elections in France, we joined in the debate by publishing a book of proposals on the majorissues of public policies (Editor’s note: “Osons l’avenir”, 10,000 copies printed),” indicated Mr Tribot la Spière.In practice, some of CEPS’ past studies have already resulted in political decisions, such as the abolition in France of the National Economic Planning Agency and of DATAR (Delegation for territorial planning and regional action), and the setting up of a secure government intranet system last December. “We work on a number of different subjects. Among them are defence and economic intelligence, which we call strategic intelligence. Even before Jean-Claude Mallet handed in his White Paper on Defence and National Security, we had already published our own Blue Paper on the subject. By sending it to 300 French decision-makers, we managed to upset the usual state-controlled processes.”CEPS has a participatory status with the Council of Europe and is keen to make its voice heard in the various European institutions. However, this does not prevent it from condemning the way the Commission tends to act as a “service provider“. In the view of the Managing Director of CEPS: “The Eurocrats are so keen on Europe that they have forgotten that, first and foremost, it is made up of citizens.” Referring again to good practices in certain Member States, CEPS believes that European citizens should be considered not as simple users but rather as “consumers of services of general interest,” and “shareholders of public goods.”The CEPS does not receive any public subsidies and does not benefit from any loans of personnel or premises, but is nonetheless able to maintain its independence through the multiplication of its sources of private funding. Apart from its members’ subscriptions and the sales of its products (Editor’s note: CEPS manages a collection of books, published by Publisud), its financial resources are provided by firms and financial institutions, together with its activities in the form of “clubs, forums, studies and advisory services” with public and private bodies, in France and abroad. CEPS is represented in Germany, Belgium, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, and also in Côte d’Ivoire, the United States, Japan and Lebanon. Turbulence: a think-tank on the financial crisisCEPS is in the process of launching a new think-tank, Turbulences, in a view to understanding the current financial crisis but also to building a network capable of facing up to it. At the heart of the current issues, the think tank aims to “explore, in a methodical and discerning manner, a new system of financial and industrial governance.” The club’s first session will begin in November, chaired by Bernard Bourigeaud, founder of Atos Origin. “The time when citizens were ‘sleeping partners’ is a thing of the past,” confirmed Mr Tribot la Spière. “Is it the vocation of state coffers to be sovereign wealth funds? We are moving towards enormous tax burdens and it is not certain that this is really acceptable!”