- December 16, 2020
On December 16, 2020, the Aspen Institute Germany hosted an Online Discussion on “Between the German Council Presidency and the Bundestag Election: Ideas the Future of Europe”. After a short presentation of the results of a Strategic Foresight Process on “The Future of Europe” organized by Aspen Germany over the summer, State Secretary Miguel Berger, German Federal Foreign Office, addressed the audience and panelists with a keynote, assessing the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union and outlining his vision for the future of Europe. Afterwards, Dr. Volker Ullrich, MP, Member of the European Affairs Committee for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Christian Petry, MP, Spokesman on European Affairs for the SPD parliamentary group, Michael Link, MP, Spokesman on European Affairs for the FDP parliamentary group und Dr. Sergey Lagodinsky, MEP for the Greens, discussed their assessments and visions for the future of Europe. The discussion was moderated by Annette Riedel, Editor for Current Politics and Culture, Deutschlandradio.
In light of an increasingly volatile security environment, the panelists discussed whether the EU needs to expand its own defense capabilities, and if so, how could this look like? Among other issues, the panel further discussed what impact the economic crisis resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic will have on achieving climate neutrality, sustainable agriculture, and other ambitions. Common themes throughout different focal points of the discussion were financial solidarity and inequality among EU member states, opportunities to strengthen a coherent European identity, and the state of relations with the US, China, and other global superpowers. This event was open to the interested public. Aspen’s recent publication “Aspen Strategic Foresight: The Future of Europe” is available on our website. In case you missed this event, you can follow the discussion on Aspen Germany’s YouTube channel:
