Programme

 
Programme overview
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  • Day 1

    The Health Crisis

  • The race to vaccinate is still under way in most EU countries and policymakers are continuing their search for solutions. Clearly, there is a need for more EU-wide coordination in pharma and healthcare. But healthcare is a national competence, and this is also where the expertise lies. Nevertheless, for crises that cross borders, such as pandemics, cooperation on data comparability and availability would be a good start. How can public-private partnerships play a role in this issue? This session will discuss the policy initiatives in this domain, taking into account the findings of a working group on pharma within the CEPS task force on industrial policy.
    Health
    Industrial policy
    Innovation

  • Covid-19 has shown the EU to be utterly unprepared for a highly contagious disease. With no competence in the field of health, and institutions such as the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) understaffed and under-resourced, what should be done now? Does the EU need a ‘Health Union’ or is Covid-19 unique? Do we need more than a strengthened ECDC and European Medicines Agency? What lessons can be drawn from what is widely viewed as a disaster in vaccination management? This session will be livestreamed on CEPS Youtube Channel.
    Health

  • The High-level Commission on Global Economic Transformation at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (NYC) focuses on actions that need to be taken immediately to bring the pandemic under control and ensure a prompt and robust economic recovery. The Commission argues that a series of actions could be taken today by developed countries, at low cost to themselves and in their enlightened self-interest, which would benefit billions of people in the developing world enormously. This session will be livestreamed on CEPS Youtube Channel. This session is organised in collaboration with The Institute for New Economic Thinking, as part of PERISCOPE, a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
    Economy
    Health

  • Democracy was in retreat in the EU, even before the pandemic. Crises generally strengthen the executive governmental level vis-à-vis parliaments, and this crisis has further emboldened autocratic leadership in some member states. One year on since Covid-19 hit Europe, we ask whether democracy as a form of governance has delivered or disappointed, compared to crisis management by more authoritarian systems? Might the pandemic accelerate a process of democratic renewal? How resilient is European democracy and what are the potential long-term consequences for the way governance is organised? This session is organised as part of PERISCOPE, a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
    Health
    Institutions
    Rights and Security

  • Governments are desperately seeking ways out of some of the physical distancing and mobility restrictions imposed to control the spread of Covid-19. The idea of granting special privileges to those who have been vaccinated or immunised is thus gaining momentum, across the world. There is currently no international consensus on how or why such certificates should be used, however. The European Journal of Risk Regulation (EJRR) has convened a symposium on Covid certificates to mobilise the research community that has been working on the issue from a variety of regional and disciplinary perspectives, to collect actionable evidence that might advance the state of knowledge and inform policymaking. This session will be co-organised with the EJRR and will feature a discussion of the key issues, ahead of the launch of EU Digital Green Certificates in mid-June.
    Health
    Rights and Security

  • The pandemic and the range of measures introduced by states to limit the spread of the virus have had far-reaching impacts on migrants and refugees, due to the often precarious legal status and socio-economic vulnerabilities faced by those populations. This Lab session aims to discuss the main challenges faced by migrants and refugees in light of the evolving policy and legal responses to Covid-19. It considers the fundamental rights impact of restrictive policies, including border closures, travel restrictions and the suspension of asylum procedures. It also aims to identify promising practices developed by states, international organisations and NGOs to ensure that the fundamental rights of migrants and refugees are protected, including in the context of the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration. This session is organised as part of ASILE, a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.
    Health
    Rights and Security

  • Day 2

    The European Green Deal

  • The European Commission will soon present a proposal for a revised EU ETS. The current rules agreed in late 2017 only entered into force at the beginning of this year, but the Paris Agreement and the new -55% target for 2030 always made a further revision inevitable. Besides an updated emissions trajectory, two major elements of the ETS could be revised: the compensation for carbon leakage risk and the sectoral scope of the system. This session will consider the relative merits of both elements and the further reforms that may be related to the supply mechanism – the Market Stability Reserve – and the role of carbon removal credits in the system.
    Climate
    Economy

  • The Green Deal is a central plank in the EU’s recovery strategy and the EU prides itself on being at the forefront of the fight against climate change. However, this is a global problem which requires global coordination. Action is thus required internally with a mix of taxes, incentives and public investment, and coordination with the EU’s global partners. How can the internal and global dimensions be reconciled when the EU and the US use different instruments? Is transatlantic and global cooperation possible? This session will be livestreamed on CEPS Youtube Channel.
    Climate
    Energy

  • With most of the world’s economic blocks now having committed to climate neutrality, the question is how green – climate neutral and circular – markets will develop. Is free trade the way to spread low-carbon technology around the world, or do we need government-led industrial policies that force new low-carbon technology onto the market?
    Climate
    Economy
    Energy

  • A deal on the next reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is highly likely this year. A key feature of the 2018 EU Commission proposal relates to the governance of the CAP. Through CAP strategic plans, member states would have greater flexibility to design their own interventions and rules, such as setting climate and environmental goals. This new EU-wide framework will be based on a toolbox of broad policy measures and on a set of common result indicators establishing a new monitoring and evaluation framework developed by the European Commission. Will the resulting national agricultural policy interventions be able to meet the Green Deal objectives and targets? Will the new objectives ensure that the EU adjusts its climate ambition upwards, while guaranteeing a level playing field across member states?
    Agriculture and Food
    Climate
    Finance

  • With its Green Deal, the EU is attempting to take a leadership position internationally. Europe’s emissions are decreasing rapidly, so a successful international climate change effort will require the engagement of major economies and emitters such as China, India, South Africa, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Indonesia. A ‘new’ EU climate diplomacy is therefore a central element of the Green Deal. What should the main pillar of this EU climate diplomacy be – carbon border measures, special trade regimes and financial support for low carbon technologies? Will the tools be sufficient to engage other countries or is the EU overplaying its hand?
    Climate
    Foreign policy

  • Day 3

    Europe's Industrial Future

  • What measures are needed to ensure that Europe’s industry can prosper and remain competitive globally? In this session, CEPS experts will present the main recommendations of the Industrial Policy Task Force, which ran from November 2020 to May 2021. A wide range of different policy domains was covered in these discussions, from agriculture to energy and the Green Deal, digital transition strategic value chains, the future of competition policy and trade, policies for jobs and skills, and possible actions in the healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors. Numerous recommendations are addressed to the EU institutions and member states, to ensure that systemic industrial transformation becomes an engine of future resilience and sustainability in the EU and beyond.
    Industrial policy

  • Europe seems to be losing out in the industries of the future, from AI to chips to fintech and biotech. Can an EU industrial policy change this trend? What concrete measures does the Commission propose, for real impact? Should we focus on particular sectors or favour horizontal measures and basic research? This session will be livestreamed on CEPS Youtube Channel.
    Industrial policy

  • With the green and digital agendas, the EU Commission is setting out to broaden the focus of industry towards stakeholder value. It places the wellbeing of the worker at the centre of the production process and uses new technologies to provide prosperity beyond jobs and growth, while respecting the production limits of the planet. How will this happen, and how can it be commercially sustainable?
    Industrial policy
    Innovation

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a key concern for governments worldwide: there are clear advantages, but likewise notable challenges, to international alignment on various issues, such as risk assessment, standardisation, R&D and data governance. The CEPS-Brookings Dialogues on International Cooperation on AI, involving representatives from seven governments (Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, the UK, the US, ) and the European Commission top-level academics, discuss the findings from its first report. This session is jointly organised by CEPS and The Brookings Institution, as part of an ongoing collaboration on AI.
    Artificial Intelligence
    Innovation

  • The Covid-19 crisis has disrupted the functioning of EU judicial cooperation in criminal matters and impacted the use of instruments of mutual recognition of judicial decisions across the EU. Procedures for the surrender of persons through the European Arrest Warrant have been particularly affected. Remote proceedings (via videoconference) and IT platforms for the digital exchange of documents and information are now indicated as the solutions to ensure mutual trust, interoperability and security in EU criminal justice cooperation. Can these applications be deployed without infringing key EU fundamental rights and rule of law safeguards? Under which conditions can the digitalisation of EU cooperation in the area of criminal justice be made compatible with the right to a fair trial, and the rights of defence, such as the right to attend one’s trial, to communicate confidentially with a lawyer, and to challenge evidence? This session is organised as part of STREAM (JUST AG 101007485), a project with financial support from the Justice Programme (JUST-JCOO-AG-2020) of the European Union.
    Rights and Security

  • Day 4

    The Economic Recovery

  • CEPS has launched a Recovery and Resilience Reflection project with a team of researchers and external experts. Two papers have already been published, each picked up and recommended by the Financial Times, Politico and a number of national newspapers. The project analyses the strategy, national plans and implementation of the facility. This session brings together the group’s experts, including high-ranking EU and national officials in charge of planning, to discuss the underlying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of this unprecedented EU recovery policy. Speakers will present the national implementation aspects, the wider role of other instruments and implementation monitoring, present and future.
    Economy
    Finance
    Institutions

  • This session focuses on the Recovery and Resilience Facility. Despite the official position that the RRF will focus on recovery from the impacts from COVID, the facility is being used to achieve a large number of EU objectives in the area of climate change, digitalisation, the economy, employment and other social challenges. This could lead to a lack of focus and potential mistargeting. This risks making the process to a box-ticking exercise and a diversion from the real need for structural reform that accompanies the investments. How can serious structural reforms in member states be achieved and the funds properly deployed to create the basis for a more resilient economy?
    Economy
    Finance
    Institutions

  • Day 5

    A Strategic Union

  • The EU may not be a superpower but it holds a ‘power surplus’ when it comes to the trade-regulatory nexus. How should the EU deploy this power surplus in the pursuit of strategic interests and fundamental rights? Should it continue to project itself as a model and/or seek to ‘weaponise’ its regulatory powers in pursuit of foreign policy goals. Or should it wield this power to enhance the regulatory compatibility between its own and others’ jurisdictions through cooperation rather than relying on the passive market-based influence of the so-called Brussels effect?
    Foreign policy
    Trade

  • Brussels is buzzing with the phrase of strategic autonomy, but the concept will need to be made concrete before other international players will take the EU seriously. In his closing keynote address, Kishore Mahbubani, Professor at the National University of Singapore and former Permanent Representative to the United Nations, will approach the issue from the question ‘Has China Won?’, the title of his latest book. Painting a canvas of massive geopolitical contest, he will trigger a panel debate about Europe's options on how to deal with a world dominated by Sino-American rivalry. In what concrete areas can the EU exercise its ‘autonomy’? Does it need new instruments? Can the EU limit itself to ‘soft’ power in a world of ‘hard’ power politics? This session will be livestreamed on CEPS Youtube Channel.
    Foreign policy

  • The EU-Turkey relationship has gone from bad to worse in recent years. The EU's realpolitik approach now signals the potential for interest-based cooperation while also threatening more serious restrictive measures. Deep-seated bureaucratic and political forces within Turkey hamper the EU's ability to advance its normative and values-based agenda with Ankara. Moreover, Turkey takes an increasingly assertive stance in its own neighbourhood. The EU therefore needs a new, more strategic and (possibly) less normative approach to the Eastern Mediterranean, which is no longer of primary interest to the US. Differing views prevail among member states when it comes to relations with Turkey, however. Can the need for cooperation and confrontation with Turkey be a fertile ground for a common European foreign policy that strengthens the EU's status as a geopolitical actor in the Eastern Med? This session will chart the contours – and possible trade-offs – of what such an approach could entail.
    Foreign policy

  • China has overtaken the US to become the EU’s top trading partner but, as the Union’s economic relationship with China has deepened, so too have security and human rights concerns. Rising Sino-American tensions are dividing the world along ideological lines (democracies v. autocracies). Contrary to the US, trade with China is still seen as a ‘win win’ in Europe. But geo-politics might trump geo-economics. Will the EU be forced to take sides or can it preserve its autonomy in determining its strategic stance?
    Foreign policy
    Trade

  • The Multiannual Financial Framework 2020-27 will allocate about €50 billion to the EU Neighbourhood and sub-Saharan Africa under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI). This is a new EU development financing architecture, which works under new rules and points to a new approach that goes beyond the old mix of 'aid and trade'. Can this new instrument hail a new EU-Africa partnership? Does it fit the long-term development needs of the African continent, and should there be a stronger role for the private sector as part of the recovery strategy, post Covid-19?
    Economy
    Foreign policy