The Polish poet and diplomat Czeslaw Milosz analysed in the 1950s how European intellectuals became captive to system thinking and admiration of communism; others voiced similar concerns. It serves as a general warning about all –isms, to keep an open and critical, evidence based mind. Why should centralising Europeanism and globalism, with their benefits, but equally with collateral effects, be an exception? The voices of contemporary intellectuals should be heard and enrich current debates about future social and economic arrangements in Europe.
One such approach of re-evaluation started when the first group was launched by the EU’s Council Presidency in December 2011. Since then, they have developed into an original model for brainstorming about paradigm shifts in public policy. Their use of the Socratic method and the mutual belief of its participants in a European Common Good stimulate creativity and serendipity. Their independence allows them to engineer truly new ideas, free of formal and legal constraints, and to produce reports which can inspire a new generation of policies to deal more effectively with disruptive challenges that the countries and their Union are facing. Since the beginning, they have been served voluntarily by EPPA; ten years later, their expansion has led to setting-up a new home in the Centre Condorcet.