Europe Conference 2023: Towards an Ever Larger and Resilient Union?

Once again Europe is facing multiple challenges. The war in Ukraine has moved defence and enlargement to the top of the EU’s agenda, while the recent tragic events in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank require the EU to find a common stand. At the same time, Europe’s competitiveness and global influence are increasingly affected by other global players. This conference takes stock and explores possible avenues for EU actions, also in anticipation of the Danish EU-Presidency 2025.

Programme

• 10.00 - 10.05 Welcome Moderator: Director Lykke Friis, Think Tank EUROPA

• 10.05 - 10.45 Keynote: Cascading Crises [In Danish]
  Margrethe Vestager, Executive vice-president of the European Commission (on leave), on the state of the Union & Economic Security – in Conversation with Lykke Friis
  Q&A

• 10.45 - 11.30 Discussants: European Competitiveness – Europe’s Challenges and Answers [In Danish]
  CEO of the Confederation of Danish Industries, Lars Sandahl Sørensen & President of the Danish Metal Workers’ Union, Claus Jensen, CEO of DLG, Kristian Hundebøll, CEO of VELUX, Lars Petersson and Merete Juhl, CEO, Danish Agriculture & Food Council

• 11.30 - 12.15 Lunch

• 12.15 - 12.45 Towards EU Enlargement and the Danish EU Presidency [In Danish]
  Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen
  Q&A

• 12.45 - 13.20 EU36? – Institutional and Political Challenges Ahead [In English]
  Director of the geoeconomics program at the German Council on Foreign Relations and member of the German French working group on EU institutions, Shahin Vallée
  Q&A

• 13.20 - 13.55 The Middle East and Ukraine: A Permanent Sea Change for European Security & Defence? [in English]
  Distinguished Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, Camille Grand
  Q&A

• 13.55 - 14.00 Concluding remarks 
  Chairman of the Board, Jørgen Tang-Jensen, Think Tank EUROPA

• 14.00 Coffee and cake