Conversations for the Future of Europe
In the second installment of the Conversations for the Future of Europe series, speakers Ulrike Guerot, Alberto Alemanno and Stefan Collignon will discuss the possible ways Europe can reform its institutions, reconnect with its citizens and avoid further potential populist and secessionist movements.
The Covid-19 pandemic is the last in a series of crisis that has alienated Europe from its citizens. More than ever the EU is under pressure to reform its institutions and to reconnect with its citizens. In addition to Covid-19, Brexit, the question of Catalan or Scottish independence, the rise of populism nearly everywhere in Europe and serious problems with the application of Rule of Law – just to name a few problems – darken the political environment. Today’s European Union is not stable. Without a decisive step forward, it will not be sustainable. In perspective, in European democracy, citizens must be the sovereign and equal before the law, the parliament must decide and there must be separation of powers. This would be the Great Reformation of Europe! In order to accomplish this radical new beginning of Europe, we only have to remember what Jean Monnet always said: L’Europe, nous ne coalisons pas des états, mais nous unisons des hommes ( Europe does not mean to integrate states, but to unite people ).
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This is the second of four Conversations for the Future of Europe in 2021.
Conversations for the Future of Europe feature one speaker and two discussants and will take place on Zoom.
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Conversations for the Future of Europe 2021
To guide the steps of the European Union and to mobilize its citizens so as tomake such steps possible, it is not enough to analyse the past and criticize the present. It is crucial to concoct concrete proposals for a better future and to subject them to a no-nonsense, multidisciplinary discussion. The conversations for the future of Europe aim to contribute to such a discussion.
A concern for concreteness and political feasibility should be present throughout, the aim being, as in Robert Schuman’s 1950 declaration, “des réalisations concrètes” rather than vague dreams. However, this should not prevent us from bearing in mind Max Weber’s warning at the end of
Politik als Beruf : Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth that man would not have attained the possible unless time and again he had reached out for the impossible. A concern for feasibility is compatible with boldness. Indeed, it may require it.