EU Foreign Policy – and the Quest for Leadership

Warsaw, October 23-24, 2008

27.10.2008

Participation in a closed seminar entitled EU Foreign Policy – the Quest for Leadership, which provided an opportunity to discuss the most challenging issues the European Union (EU) is currently facing in the context of exceptional events on both the regional and global stage. The debates focussed particularly on the EU's new Eastern Partnership, the future of transatlantic relations following US presidential elections, EU-Russian relations after the war in Georgia, the review of the EU's European Security Strategy, the economic and political consequences of the current financial crisis, the reform of the EU's institutional structures following the Irish "no" to the Lisbon Treaty, and issues related to energy security and climate change.

The conference was launched with a public debate and a keynote speech delivered by Olli Rehn, Member of the European Commission on 2009 - Year of the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership. 

The conference proceedings were opened by Radosław Sikorski, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland and Alexandr Vondra, Vice Prime Minister for European Affairs of the Czech Republic. Other participants included among others Joao Vale de Almeida, Head of the Cabinet of the President of the European Commission, Robert Cooper, Director General for External and Politico-Military Affairs in the General Secretariat of the EU Council, Sir Brian Crowe, Deputy Chairman of Chatham House, Wolgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich's Security Conference,  Antonio Missiroli, European Policy Centre, Miguel Angel Navarro, Secretary General for EU Affairs (Madrid), and Nick Witney, Senior Policy Fellow, European Council on Foreign Relations.

The seminar was organised jointly by demosEUROPA – Centre for European Strategy and the Bertelsmann Stiftung with the support of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and took place in Warsaw on 23-24 October 2008.

Downloads:

EU Foreign Policy – and the Quest for Leadership – Programme

EU Foreign Policy – and the Quest for Leadership – List of Participants

Maria Sadowska and Pawel Swieboda, Transatlantic Community – A Second Life? (paper prepared in the context of the conference)