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Wednesday, 31. January 2018 12:30 pm – 2:00 pm Save in my calendar

The European Union at the Beginning of 2018: Still Alive, but Can it Kick Hard Enough Under Pressure?

This event is fully booked

2017 was another bad year for the European Union, maybe not quite as bad as many of us feared, but certainly not one to be celebrated, even though it should have been a year of celebration 60 years after the signing of the Treaty of Rome. Many of the serious problems Europe had been wrestling with over the last years remained unsolved. For the upcoming event we have picked three of them. First, the continuing wave of populism. With elections to come in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy and Sweden, we will see whether the populist train which was hold up last year in the Dutch and French elections, has really been brought to a halt. As has recently been shown in the Austrian election, but also in Germany before, that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. So what if Central Eastern Europe continues to backslide and polarise, Italy will plunge into chaos and even the often highly praised Swedish democracy is eroded by hateful populism? Will the EU be strong enough to cope with new populist setbacks? And then there is Brexit, the tiresome negotiations, the insecurities for citizens on both sides of the channel, the heated, often spiteful political and public debate. Where will we all stand by the end of this year? And finally, there is the relation with Turkey, one of the EU’s two powerful and difficult neighbours and still officially accession candidate, its seemingly unstoppable backsliding into ‘illiberalism’, the at times aggressive rhetoric of its president against Europe and his bold interference with European citizens and values. A Turkey, also, which is widely divided about Erdogan’s policies and whose co-operation Europe needs to solve the migration crisis and to fight terrorism. How can Europe continue to work with Turkey without (further) compromising its values and abandoning the country’s democratic opposition?

Date: Wednesday, 31 January 2018, 12:30 - 14:00 (light lunch 12:00 - 12:30)

Location: Hotel Leopold, Rue du Luxembourg 35, 1050 Brussels

Speakers:

  • Péter Krekó, Director Political Capital Institute Budapest
  • Jean Lambert, Member of the European Parliament (Greens/ EFA)
  • Amanda Paul, Senior Foreign and Security Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre

Moderator: Klaus Linsenmeier, Director Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union

No admittance without confirmed registration. E-mail registration only. Please send the attached reply form to marianne.ebertowski@eu.boell.org

The Chatham House rule applies. Working language English.