Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission, directs the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) summer course Quo Vadis Europa? The birth of geopolitical Europe. (Programme here: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/ENG%20PROGRAMA%20QUO%20VADIS_0.pdf).

The summer course, which will take place from 22 to 26 August focuses on the birth of the geopolitical Europe and High Representative Josep Borrell will be joined by journalists, policy-makers and academics.

Europe and the war

On Monday 22 August, the first session starts with the intervention of Josep Borrell and Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director of the newspaper Le Monde on The birth of a geopolitical Europe. Nathalie Loiseau, MEP and president of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence, and Jana Puglierin, director of the Berlin Office and the European Council on Foreign Relations, will discuss European Defence after the War in Ukraine, moderated by contributing editor at Politico Paul Taylor.

A deep dive into Russia and Putin’s War is the first session on the second day, with Catherine Belton, journalist and author of Putin's People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took on the West, Carmen Claudín, senior researcher at CIDOB in Barcelona, and Andrei Kolesnikov, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. José Ignacio Torreblanca, director of the Madrid office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, will be the moderator. 

The European narrative

Mikko Huotari, director of the Mercator Institute for China Studies, along with Susana Malcorra, senior advisor at IE University and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, José Antonio Sanahuja, director of the Carolina Foundation and with moderator Diego Mellado, head of Communication and Public Diplomacy of the European External Action Service, will discuss The war in Ukraine, China and the Global South.

Europe and the battle of narratives will be discussed by Hans Kribbe, political consultant and author of The Strong Men; Jaume Duch, General Director of Communication of the European Parliament and Catalina Guerrero, director of the EFE Agency in Brussels.

Technology and energy

A debate on The global struggle for technological hegemony led by Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, with Anne Marie Engtoft, technological ambassador for Denmark, and Tyson Barker, director of the Technology and Global Affairs Program (DGAP), will be moderated by José Ignacio Torreblanca.

Cristina Narbona, first vice president of the Spanish Senate and Cristina Lobillo, director of Energy Policy of the European Commission, will debate The geopolitics of energy and climate change, moderated by Francisco Fonseca, professor of International Public Law at the University of Valladolid.

Future

The cycle of panels will close on Friday, 26 August with a session entitled Quo Vadis Europa? with Giorgio Anselmi, president of the European Federalist Movement, Guy Verhofstadt, MEP and member of the RENEW Group and Josep Borrell. Anna Terrón, director of FIIAP, will moderate. 

The course can be followed live through streaming on the UIMP website, in addition to the official Twitter channels of the High Representative (@JosepBorrellF), the European External Action Service (@eu_eeas) and the Representation of the European Commission in Spain (@ComisionEuropea). It will also be broadcast live on YouTube on the channels of the Representation (EspacioEuropa) and the European External Action Service (EUExternalAction). Audio-visual coverage of the event will be accessible on the website of the EEAS.

The seminar is a collaboration of the European Commission, the European External Action Service and the European Parliament Information Office with the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP)