- October 28, 2019
On 28 October 2019, the Aspen Institute Germany, in cooperation with the Embassy of Finland in the Federal Republic of Germany, hosted an evening event on the topic “From Juncker to von der Leyen: New Start or Carry on?“ After an input statement by H.E. Anne Sipiläinen, Ambassador of Finland to the Federal Republic of Germany, and Dr. Jörg Wojahn, Representative of the European Commission in Germany, Rüdiger Lentz, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute Germany, moderated a discussion with Judy Dempsey, Nonresident Senior Fellow and Editor-in-Chief of Strategic Europe at Carnegie Europe, Rebecca Harms, Former Member of the European Parliament (Bündnis 90/Die Grüne) and former Chairwoman of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament, Dr. Doris Pack, President of the EPP Women (European People’s Party), President of the Robert Schuman Institute (RSI) and former Member of the European Parliament and the Bundestag (CDU/CSU), and Dr. Jörg Wojahn. Especially in view of current challenges, such as the threat of an unregulated Brexit, and a European community that threatens to drift further apart on various core issues, the participants dared to look ahead to the next five years. To this end, the main topics of the designated Commission President’s agenda were taken up and their feasibility discussed by the panel. This resulted in a wide range of topics, in which the European Green Deal was addressed as well as the future of the transatlantic relationship and the challenges of digitisation. All participants also agreed that new enthusiasm for European cooperation must be generated and that it must become more tangible for individual citizens.
