Europe as a task & Challenges for the EU

On 12 July 2023 the Summer Academy was hosted in the Provincial House of Flemish Brabant. It was the central day of information and discussion. You can find the Summer Academy programme here.

On the third day of the Summer Academy, we had a warm welcome by our ESU-president An Hermans, in the provincial house of the province of Flemish Brabant. She highlighted the theme of our Summer Academy, “Europe as a task”, and mentioned the need of “holding generations together”. By referring to history, through Robert Schuman, Konrad Adenauer and later Vaclav Havel, she spoke of the European project which can only be achieved ‘step by step’ and ‘day by day’. Our president stressed the idea of a “Europe of values, with a humane centered policy” and the need for a spirit of responsibility and cooperation in Europe.

We were also welcomed by Wouter Van Butsel, Head of CEDER, the political study department of CD&V. He talked about the choice of the CD&V to be a party for the seniors, as it always has been in the past. He mentioned not only to talk about health and long term care, but to broaden the subjects. Seniors want to be part of the whole society.

At 10 o’clock, we had the long-awaited speech from our distinguished guest-speaker Herman Van Rompuy, who served as the first president of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. He spoke about several subjects, including the experience of a permanent crisis since the last 15 years in Europe. He talked about democracy, migration, climate change, security and other issues. Most importantly, he talked about hope, and the idea that hope is a verb. He concluded with the saying “the less the time is ripe, the more we have to do to make it ripe”. You can find the integral speech here.

After the speech, we had a very interesting discussion, moderated by Heinz Becker, ESU-vice president and former MEP for Austria. We had the chance to listen to Marilyn Neven, programme manager at International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance), and Georg Männik, ESU-presidency member from Estonia. Mrs. Neven talked about the topic of democracy, and how it is under assault throughout the world, as more and more countries are developing into autocracies instead of democracies. As a result, democracy is increasingly becoming a core strategic theme for the EU.

Furthermore, mrs. Neven stressed the need for a call for more multilateralism: a beginning of an international dialogue on democracy. She also stressed the need for renewing the European narrative on democracy. After this, mr. Männik talked about the current war in Ukraine, and raised some questions about the steps which should be taken when the war will be over.

Heinz Becker highlighted several parts of Herman Van Rompuy’s analysis to be discussed by the audience and brought it in relation to next year’s European elections. It caused lively discussions. The fact that the next keynote speakers (Patrick Penninckx and Tomi Huthanen) were so kind to attend the morning session with Herman Van Rompuy, created the conditions for an integrated perspective and broad discussions throughout the whole day.