‘Europa’, how will you tackle the main challenges you are facing?

4 December 2020 Online conference organised by Maastricht University Campus Brussels

‘Within the Union, the European institutions must be brought closer to its citizens. Citizens undoubtedly support the Union's broad aims, but they do not always see a connection between those goals and the Union's everyday action’ (European Council 2001) Although this quote is almost 20 years old, it is still relevant today, in terms of the gap that many perceive to exist between the EU’s ‘elites’ and its citizens. The Jean Monnet project ‘Spreading and relating EU affairs beyond the EU institutions’ (RELAY) seeks to address this issue. It aims to make the process of EU integration more tangible and to more closely involve citizens in it, when it comes to both the internal and external dimension of the EU. The EU is facing numerous and unprecedented challenges, in a context of political turmoil and change. In RELAY we take the ‘headline ambitions’ of the current European Commission as a point of departure, from the European Green Deal to a new push for European democracy, in order to tackle these challenges and engage European citizens in the shaping of EU policies. This conference brings together academics and stakeholders to explore alternative perspectives on the challenges the EU is facing, in a range of issue areas, from digitalisation to the EU’s role in the world. These challenges have become ever more pertinent against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic that “constitutes an unprecedented challenge with very severe socio-economic consequences” (European Council 2020).

The Charlemagne Prize Academy is, next to many outstanding European institutes and initiatives, a key partner of the RELAY project. Charlemagne Prize Fellows will be speaking at the Kick-Off Conference on December 4th. 

Join us for the Discussions!