The conference opened with a keynote speech by Professor Federico Fabbrini (DCU Dublin and Princeton) where he emphasized how the war in Ukraine is heavily impacting European integration, as the EU is making important steps in the field of its external relations and defence, immigration management and energy security. He also highlighted, however, several setbacks due to the war in Ukraine, notably in dealing with countries such as Poland and Hungary, where the respect for the rule of law is questionable.
Finally, he touched upon the proposals to reform the EU that have emerged from the ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’, suggesting that these would go a long way in addressing those shortcoming in the EU governance and power structure that the war in Ukraine has indeed exposed.
The three-year Horizon 2020 project ‘Differentiation: Clustering Excellence (DiCE)’ was led by the EUI in collaboration with the University of Oslo, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in Rome, the University of Exeter and the Brussels-based think-tank TEPSA.
Watch here the recording of the whole conference.