Risks and Trends

R&T 2021: On Europe, politics and society

Preview 2021-02-17
What is European sovereignty and how the epidemic has changed Polish society - find out at Risks and Trends.

Europe (10.00 am)

Can Poland be sovereign in a sovereign Europe? Despite the closing of borders, last year brought a new opening for the EU. The challenges of 2020 did not extinguish the debate on how to ensure that the EU and its member states can decide their own destiny in an increasingly unstable world. Brussels has been pondering how to manage a situation in which familiar mechanisms based on international cooperation are giving way to new forms of confrontation. How to build European sovereignty without falling into the trap of protectionism? How do individual capitals relate to the changes that are taking place? And who actually bears responsibility for the decisions made in Brussels?

Szymański and Stubb on EU vaccine strategy. Konrad Szymański has been in charge of the Polish government's European policy since 2015, having previously been a member of the ParlEur for many years, while Alexander Stubb is a former Finnish Prime Minister and currently co-founder of the School of Transnational Governance in Florence. In the first conversation of the European segment of Risks and Trends, Agnieszka Smoleńska, PI's Senior European Affairs Analyst, will ask them how the EU is changing as a result of the new challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and what sovereignty means in this context today. The interviewees will also consider what mistakes the EU has made in dealing with the epidemic and the lessons it needs to learn from them.

Leonard and Sasnal on the geopolitical awakening of Europe. Mark Leonard is the head of the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a centre that has recently been exploring, among other things, how Europeans perceive the EU's global priorities, especially in relations with the US and China. Patrycja Sasnal heads the Research and Analysis Office at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. In a discussion hosted by Piotr Buras, head of the ECFR Warsaw Office, experts will reflect on the meaning of EU declarations that it will conduct its foreign policy - in Sinatra-like fashion - "its own way". They will use the new investment agreement between China and the EU and the prospects of relations between Brussels and the new Washington administration as examples.

Bradford on the EU's global influence. Anu Bradford is a lawyer at Columbia Law School and author of The Brussels Effect: How the European Union Rules the World. In an interview with Agnieszka Smoleńska, she will talk about why EU regulations (e.g. RODO) are adopted and copied by companies and countries around the world. She will also say why different entities trust EU regulations and how the "Brussels effect" benefits European companies. Bradford will explain how the EU's shift towards protectionism could jeopardise Brussels' quiet success of that is the replication of EU regulations around the world.

Politics and society (3.00 pm)

Has the epidemic changed Poles. 2020 has restored the central role of the state in public debate. The state of healthcare has become the focus of public interest. Has Poland coped with the biggest challenge since World War II? Were the restrictions introduced by the government proportionate to the threat? Were the successive anti-crisis shields effective? At the same time, the state's measures - not only those related to the epidemic - triggered the biggest wave of demonstrations in the history of the Third Republic and radicalised the language of politics. Which aspects of the turbulent year will stay with us for longer? Will the conflicts exposed in 2020 change the current axes of political dispute?

Bucholc and Łuczewski on public reactions to the epidemic. In the first part of the debate Monika Helak, researcher at PI, and Wojciech Szacki, head of PI's political department, will talk to sociologists Marta Bucholc and Michał Łuczewski. Bucholc is a specialist in history of social thought from the University of Warsaw. Łuczewski, also from the University of Warsaw, deals with issues of the nation, and until 2019 was deputy director of The Centre for the Thought of John Paul II. The guests will answer questions about what Poles think about the role of the state today and whether they will become more involved in social and political activity. They will also discuss what society will look like when the epidemic ends. In the second part of the meeting, Szacki and PI Executive Director Andrzej Bobiński will use the video podcast format to talk about how politicians see the role of the state and what else awaits the political scene in this parliamentary term.

Europe

Politics and society

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dr Agnieszka Smoleńska
Fmr. Senior European Affairs Analyst
dr Agnieszka Smoleńska
Write to author
Wojciech Szacki
Head of Political Desk
(+48) 22 436 73 26
w.szacki@politykainsight.pl
Wojciech Szacki
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