About this project

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic is having a grip on societies worldwide but has in particular exposed some crucial vulnerabilities of the EU and its institutions and called European solidarity in question once again.

Even when the immediate health crisis will be overcome, the EU countries will have to deal with the aftermath, may that be economically or socially, for a long time. It is already evident that the European project and its inherent values are under immense pressure. What’s more is that although the lockdown of a majority of the world population has led to a substantial cut of emissions, the Covid-19 pandemic has also halted crucial climate negotiations, led to the postponement of COP26 until 2021, and is hence posing an urgent threat to decisive climate action.

The Green European Foundation and the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung EU office are therefore organising joint participatory online talks to analyse what is currently at stake in this crisis and how the pandemic is influencing our daily lives as well as our political, environmental, economic and societal realities in order to stimulate the current debate and to offer inspiring content.

The topics to be covered by the series are public health, economic and monetary policies, mobility, and more.

Episode 1:

Public Health and Societal Resilience: what role for the EU?  with Petra de Sutter, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA group & Chair of the Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection; Ingrid Keller, from the Unit Crisis management and preparedness in health at the European Commission; Moderated by Sarantis Michalopoulos, Network Editor EurActiv.

Episode 2:

What future for economic and monetary policy in the EU? with Ernest Urtasun, Member of the European Parliament Greens/EFA and member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, Gabriele Michalitsch, economist & political scientist, lecturer at Vienna and Klagenfurt University & guest professor in Beijing, Budapest and Istanbul, and Thierry Philipponnat, Head of research & advocacy at Finance Watch; Moderated by Jennifer Baker, Freelance EU Correspondent.

Episode 3:

The impacts of Covid-19 on the Western Balkans and the region’s political future with Lejla Gačanica, Independent legal counsel and researcher, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Liljana Popovska, former MP in the Macedonian Parliament and leader of Democratic Renewal of Macedonia (DOM), board member of the Green Institute, North Macedonia, and Andrej Petrovski, Director of Tech/CERT at SHARE Foundation, Serbia; Moderated by Simon Ilse, Office Director, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Serbia, Montenegro & Kosovo.

Episode 4:

European Mobility in the context of Covid-19: Keeping the green steering wheel steady? with

Georges Gilkinet, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility and the National Railway Company, Belgian Federal Government, Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General, Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), European Commission, and Annika Degen, Director of EU Office Verband deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV); Moderated by Martin Keim,  Head of Programme European Energy Transition, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union.

 

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