Can Europe’s new leadership deliver on strategic sovereignty?

The European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) is delighted to invite you to the launch of its flagship initiative on empowering the EU and its member states with strategic sovereignty.

Unless it acts soon, Europe may become not a player in the new world order but the chessboard on which great powers compete for power glory. In cooperation with European Foreign Ministries, the EEAS and Bruegel, Strategic sovereignty: How Europe can regain the capacity to act looks at the different ways that, in a world of superpower competition, Europe is in danger of becoming a plaything of other powers. Based on detailed papers that focus on specific policy issues – including artificial intelligence, defence, hybrid warfare, secondary sanctions, international economic policy, and multilateral institutions – it shows the concrete costs to Europe’s economy and security.

Please join leading policymakers and decision-makers – including, among others, Helga Schmid and Alexander Stubb – to discuss this new concept of 'strategic sovereignty' that can help guide the EU through this new era of geopolitical competition, including an implementation plan that involves key reforms to the EU and member states' machinery for foreign and economic policy making.

RSVP: [email protected] (please include first name, name, function, ID or passport number)

Agenda

(tentative)

• 09.45 – 10.00
  • Registration and coffee
• 10.00 – 10.15
  • Opening address
    • Helga Schmid, Secretary-General, European External Action Service
• 10.15 – 10.45
  • Can Europeans empower themselves with strategic sovereignty?
    • Mark Leonard, Co-Founder and Director, European Council on Foreign Relations
• 11.00 – 11.45
  • Redefining Europe’s economic sovereignty 
    • Ambassador Michael Clauss, Permanent Representative of Germany to the EU
    • Ann Mettler, Head of European Political Strategy Centre, European Commission
    • Guntram Wolff, Director, Bruegel 
    • Chaired by: Steven Erlanger, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent, The New York Times

  11.45 – 12.15

  • Lunch
• 12.15 – 13.00
  • Building Europeans‘ capacity to defend themselves
    • David Král, Director of Policy Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
    • Ambassador Hans-Dieter Lucas, Permanent Representative of Germany to NATO
    • José Sabadell, Director of Policy Planning, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Spain 
    • Chaired by Jeremy Shapiro, Research Director, ECFR 
• 13.00 – 13.30
  • Closing address
    • Alexander Stubb, Vice-President, European Investment Bank; former Prime Minister of Finland