The EU at a crossroads: who are we in a changing world order?

​In these turbulent times: who are we, as engaged EU citizens, as EU Affairs professionals, as sustainability advocates, as believers in the future of Europe?

​The EU is waking up to a different world. Global power dynamics are shifting, while Europe is facing the impacts of being the fastest warming continent with unprecedented levels of biodiversity loss. At the same time, the European economy is unprepared for what’s coming.

​Long-held beliefs in a multilateral rules-based order, in ongoing socio-economic progress, and in European excellence are being tested.

With the amplifying attacks on democratic institutions, the EU Green Deal, and evidence-based policymaking, denial is no longer an option. 

​For advocates of a more sustainable EU, neither the posture of resisting the trends nor the posture of wearing a technocratic mask seem to be working any longer.

​In the EU-bubble and related lobbying and industry associations, in European businesses, and even amongst civil society, the large unspokens are coming to the surface.

​Geopolitically and morally, the indebtedness of the EU. Democratically, the failure in facing the far-right. And economically, the perseverance of the fossil-fuel based industrial system.

Today, the EU can no longer afford to maintain its current narrative - of being the global sustainability leader, of avoiding its colonial history and of ignoring non-Western narratives, of the continuity of its politico-economic model.

With this open conversation, we hold space for making sense of the current developments affecting our life and work. Based on our observations, we ask how we can show up - without burning out - in facing the quickly changing circumstances affecting the viability of our work.

​We close our conversation by sensing into the horizon opening up - which narrative about the future of Europe may be emerging? How do we want to partake and shape those narratives so that they can translate into personal and collective actions?

​The setting will be informal, allowing for an open and free-flowing conversation. We will provide some light facilitation to get to know each other and to deepen emerging threads.

Conversation under Chatham House rules - the conversation will not be recorded.

Co-hosted by Katrien Rennemeier (A little better) and Jean-Philippe Steeger (Perspectivist)