The challenges of the European Union: Its economic, technological and geopolitical aspects

In person: CIDOB, Sala Jordi Maragall, Elisabets 12, 08001 Barcelona

Online: www.eusummercourse.eu

Working languages: English, Catalan and Spanish with simultaneous translation

Tuition-free

Following the first edition’s success, the European Parliament’s office in Barcelona, the Representation of the European Commission and the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) maintain their collaboration with the second edition of the summer course on the European Union. The three days will be monographic sessions with theoretical and practical perspectives. The sessions will be divided between an intervention by a keynote speaker from the Commission or the European Parliament, followed by a dialogue with a journalist; and a roundtable with CIDOB researchers; officials of the European institutions, from either the European Parliament or the European Commission; and independent experts. The aim of this summer course is to provide participants with a complete perspective on the debates and challenges of the European Union in the short, medium and long term, and analytical tools so that they can analyse and understand the European reality and become an active member in it. Those enrolled in the course will receive, upon request, a certificate of participation.

The course will address the domestic and international challenges the European Union is facing. The first day will explore the future of EU economic governance, the impact that the NextGenerationEU funds have had and will have, and it will discuss the new fiscal rules of the Stability and Growth Pact through economic and political lenses. The second day will look at what it means to strengthen the EU’s technological and industrial capabilities in terms of data ethics and artificial intelligence, will discuss whether the EU can become an alternative to the American and Chinese views on cyberspace, and it will be assessed what steps are being taken in this direction, with measures such as the European Chips Act, the efforts to regulate cyberspace or the fight against disinformation. The final day will focus on the birth of a geopolitical Europe and its reaction to the war in Ukraine; assessing the situation in the eastern country and what are the next steps for the EU to learn the language of power.

Speakers

Paloma Baena

Senior Director NextGenerationEU, Llorente y Cuenca

Pol Bargués

Research Fellow, CIDOB

Sergi Barrera

Head of the European Parliament’s office in Barcelona

María Canal Fontcuberta

Member of the RECOVER Task Force of the General-Secretariat, European Commission

Carme Colomina

Research Fellow, CIDOB

Gwenole Cozigou

Director DG GROW, European Commission

Albert Cuesta Zaragosí

Journalist with expertise on consumer electronics and information and communication technologies

Clément Evroux

Policy Analyst, European Parliament Research Service

Natividad Fernández Sola

Professor of International Public Law and International Relations, University of Zaragoza

Mar Galtés

Corporate Development Director, Tech Barcelona

Gustav Lindstrom

Director, EU Institute for Security Studies

David McAllister

President of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament; Group of the European People’s Party

Pol Morillas

Director, CIDOB

Claudi Pérez

Deputy Director, El País

Héctor Sánchez Margalef

Researcher, CIDOB

Manuel Szapiro

Director, Representation of the European Commission in Barcelona

Ernest Urtasun

Member of the working group on the scrutiny of the Recovery and Resilience Facility, European Parliament