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Nov 10 2020
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European Mobility in the context of Covid-19: Keeping the green steering wheel steady?

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About the event

The challenges related to a sustainable transition of the European mobility sector were already manifold before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. Motorised mass transport has reached its limits, mass tourism has massive ecological and social impacts, and EU governments have not been acting fast enough to re-direct investments from a carbon-intensive transport sector to more climate-friendly means of transports, e.g. trans-European railways.

Measures to contain the spread of the virus have brought international transport and travel to periods of a near standstill in 2020. In their attempt to prevent a collapse of entire industries and subsequent mass unemployment, many governments had to bail out airline companies. At the same time, huge investments to re-stabilise the current automobile and airline industry are counterproductive to the European Commission’s aim of ‘accelerating the shift to sustainable and smart mobility’ as part of the European Green Deal.

With their joint online event the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union and the Green European Foundation would like to examine the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on European mobility. How can the EU ensure uninterrupted transport and supply chains, e.g. for medical equipment? What will be the opportunities and challenges of a progressing digitisation of European transport? How will the pandemic shape the future of free movement within the EU? What should international tourism look like in a post-Covid-19 world? How can a just transition of the mobility sector contribute to ambitious climate targets?

Speakers:

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

Annika Degen, Director of EU Office Verband deutscher Verkehrsunternehmen (VDV)

Moderator: Martin Keim, Head of Programme – European Energy Transition, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union

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The event will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube.

Sep 28 2020
Love0

The impacts of Covid-19 on the Western Balkans and the region’s political future

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Context:

The COVID-19 pandemic not only hit the Western Balkan countries in a period of reacceleration of economic activity and put enormous pressure on the already fragile health systems in place, but also had a negative impact on the state of democracy in the region. In response to the outbreak of the virus, some governments relapsed into authoritarian tendencies increasing censorships and restricting the free flow of information. Cases of arbitrary arrest, surveillance, phone tapping, privacy breaches and other digital rights violations during imposed emergency legislation have become an increasing concern.

Furthermore, many experts suggest that the crisis has seriously hampered the EU’s influence in the region. Even though it finally mobilised a financial package amounting to 3.3 billion Euro to fight Covid-19 and its impact in the Western Balkans, the EU’s image in those countries deteriorated due to the initial lack of solidarity and hesitant response towards its neighbours in South-East Europe. Other global players such as China and Russia have been fast in offering assistance and investment to increase their own influence in the region. Often, their economic support goes hand in hand with campaigns to foster alternative narratives and populist sentiments.

Hence, with their joint online event, the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union and the Green European Foundation would like to address with the invited panellists what the latest developments amidst this crisis mean for the Western Balkans societies and what the implications for the region’s political future might be. What are the major impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Western Balkans? How have the governments in the region handled the crisis so far? And, is it necessary for the EU to change its approach to the Western Balkans as reluctant and desultory commitments in the accession process are wearing out the EU’s good image in the region?

Speakers:

  • 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
  • Andrej Petrovski, Director of Tech/CERT at SHARE Foundation, Serbia

Moderator:

Simon Ilse, Office Director, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung Serbia, Montenegro & Kosovo

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The event will be live-streamed on Facebook and YouTube.

Jul 01 2020
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What future for economic and monetary policy in the EU?

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About the event

This second installment of the joint series “Worldwide Pandemic, European Responses” will look at the economic consequences of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and how it is shaping monetary and economic policies on the European level.

The event will discuss what the latest developments amidst this crisis could mean for the future of the EU. Will we see a further integration with a fiscal union following the monetary union? Or are those just extraordinary measures in extraordinary times, and the ECB policy will face massive challenges again in the future as suggested by a landmark ruling of Germany’s Constitutional Court in early May? What are the risks and what are the opportunities of the EU directly borrowing money at the financial markets, which would have to be paid back after the next long-term budget in 2027? What will this debt mean for the actual ‘next generation’ of the EU? Could this be a precedent for future crises to tackle and could an increased economic ‘firepower’ of the Commission revive public approval for the EU and its institutions?

Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought life to a standstill across the globe and the resulting halt in production, interrupted supply chains worldwide, and a drop in consumption have plunged our economies into a severe crisis. Within the EU, the countries hardest hit by the pandemic – Italy and Spain – were also among the member states that suffered most under the European debt crisis a decade ago. Immense efforts and support from financially stronger member states will be needed for their recovery.

To soften the economic and social fallout of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and after coordination and display of solidarity was initially lacking amidst the crisis, the European Commission presented its proposal for a major recovery plan, which includes a recovery fund entitled ‘Next Generation EU’ amounting to 750 billion euro alongside proposals to reinforce the long-term EU budget, the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2021-2027, as well as an adjustment of its own work programme for the year 2020, prioritising recovery and resilience. Additionally, the European Central Bank announced in early June that it would boost its emergency support programme by 600 billion euro to 1.35 trillion euro. The support from the ECB comes on top of up to 540 billion euro in financial aid from Eurozone governments that includes credit lines from the euro bailout fund as well as the above-mentioned proposal by the European Commission.

 

Speakers

  • 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
  • Thierry Philipponnat, Head of research & advocacy at Finance Watch

Moderation: Jennifer Baker, Freelance EU Correspondent

The event will be live streamed on Facebook and YouTube.

Jun 23 2020
Love0

Public Health and Societal Resilience: what role for the EU?

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About the event

Which role will public health spending play within the Next Generation EU budget and the MFF 2021-2027, and how are those two interlinked? How can the general resilience of the EU and its members be strengthened, in light of other crises such as the climate crisis?

Context

This pandemic has exposed the fragility of the European Union as it led to uncoordinated, divergent approaches by the European Union’s member states, and the timidity of any solidarity between member states has prompted many citizens to question the general purpose of the European Union, particularly in times of crisis.

One of the reasons for the lack of coordination certainly lies in the fact that healthcare remains a competence of the member states. Although the EU’s role should be complementary to the member states’ policies, taking on a coordination role in the case of serious cross-border health risks, the individualistic approaches by the EU governments and the lack of information sharing about them made such coordination nearly impossible at the beginning of the pandemic.

As most member states are slowly easing lockdown measures with daily infection rates and casualties fortunately decreasing, the EU seems to slowly find its role in the crisis – having recently unveiled an unprecedented financial package as part of the European Commission’s recovery plan. It is underlined that one of the pillars of this budget will be to learn from the lessons of this crisis and hence rolls out a new Health programme (EU4Health) as well as increased resources for the EU’s disaster response rescEU.

Back in April, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen suggested in an interview to combine the green deal climate plan with a “white deal” for healthcare, coined so subsequently by the media as white is usually the colour associated with healthcare. As the Commission is proposing, alongside the recovery package, to reinforce the EU long-term budget 2021-2027 and allow within it more flexibility, this could potentially mean that a substantial amount is being ring-fenced for healthcare spending.

Speakers

  • 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 unit Crisis management and preparedness in health at the European Commission

Moderated by: Sarantis Michalopoulos, Network Editor EurActiv

 

The event will be live streamed on Facebook and Youtube.