The Charlemagne Prize Academy was officially kicked-off during a Karlspreis Europa Summit on November 14th, organized in cooperation with the State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia. The event comprised four panel discussions on the key issues of Europe's future, such as security, sustainability, social equality and institutional reforms, as well as a festive fellowship award ceremony, in which the first five research fellows were officially announced. 

Various names from politics, science and culture took part in the event, such as the Secretary-General of the European Parliament, Klaus Welle, the Ambassador Permanent Representative of Spain to the European Union, Juan Pablo García-Berdoy, the former commander of NATO's Joint Force Command, General Egon Ramms, the Director of the Institute of Future Energy Consumer Needs and Behavior of the RWTH Aachen, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Madlener or the founder of the Think Tank "ThinkYoung" Andrea Gerosa. 

The keynote speech was given by Minister President Armin Laschet. 

Public statements on the event can be found here (german only):
Aachener Zeitung: Europa-Akademie des Karlspreises: Laschet: „Macron hat recht“
Westdeutscher Rundfunk: Neue Karlspreisakademie in Aachen - Forschen für Europa
Süddeutsche Zeitung: Aachener Karlspreis gründet Akademie für EU-Zukunftsfragen