Virtual Annual Council Meeting 2020

The ECFR Annual Council Meeting is one of the leading conferences on Europe’s foreign policy. This year, the meeting took place virtually on 29-30 June.

Originally planned to be held in Berlin, this year’s Annual Council Meeting was the first one held online due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The focus this year was Europe’s Sovereignty agenda, impact of the covid-19 pandemic and the German EU Council Presidency in the second half of 2020.

Agenda

Monday, 29 June

• 12.00 – 12.55
  • Opening: Germany in Europe and the German EU presidency
    • Heiko Maas, Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Germany (pre-recorded)
    • Followed by discussion:
    • Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, Deputy Chairman of FDP parliamentary group, German Parliament
    • Franziska Brantner, Member of the Bundestag; spokeswoman for European policy and parliamentary whip for Alliance 90/The Greens
    • Niels Annen, Minister of State, Federal Foreign Office; Member of the Bundestag
    • Norbert Röttgen, Co-Chair, ECFR; Chairman for Foreign Affairs Committee, German Parliament
    • Chaired by Lykke Friis, Co-Chair, ECFR; Director of Think Tank Europa
• 13.00 – 14.00
  • A Europe Ready to Compete? EU-China relations and the new geopolitical realities
    • Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for A Europe Fit for the Digital Age; European Commissioner for Competition
    • Carl Bildt, Co-Chair, ECFR; Former Prime Minister and Former Foreign Minister, Sweden
    • Chaired by Janka Oertel, Director, Asia programme, ECFR
• 14.15 – 15.15
  • Security Cooperation after Brexit
    • Mircea Geoana, Deputy Secretary General, NATO
    • Lisa Nandy, Shadow Foreign Secretary, House of Commons
    • David McAllister, Chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament
    • Chaired by Anand Menon, Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs, King’s College London
• 15.20 – 16.20
  • Quarantimes Special Session
    • Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
    • Chaired by Helle Thorning-Schmidt, Board Member, ECFR; Former Prime Minister of Denmark
• 16.30 – 17.15
  • A conversation with George Soros
    • George Soros, Founder and Chairman, Open Society Foundations
    • Chaired by Mabel van Oranje, Emeritus Chair, ECFR; Chair, Girls Not Brides
• 17.30 – 18.30
  • Europe’s role in global health
    • Jens Spahn, Federal Minister of Health, Germany
    • Mark Suzman, CEO, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
    • Chaired by Gunilla Carlsson, Former Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS; Former Minister for International Development Cooperation, Sweden

Tuesday, 30 June

• 10.30 – 11.30
  • History revisited: Global implications of pandemics and lessons learned from the past
    • Lawrence Freedman, Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King’s College London
    • Margaret MacMillan, Professor of History, University of Toronto
    • Chaired by Marta Dassù, Board member, ECFR; Senior Advisor for European Affairs, The Aspen Institute
• 12.00 – 13.00
  • European solidarity in crisis mode
    • Opening by Jana Puglierin, Head, ECFR Berlin
    • Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy and Finance, France
    • Manuel Muñiz, State Secretary for Global Spain
    • Alexander Stubb, Board Member, ECFR; Director of the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance; Former Prime Minister of Finland
    • Chaired by Teresa Gouveia, Board Member, ECFR; Former Foreign Minister, Portugal
• 13.05 – 14.00
  • Covid-19, geopolitics and European sovereignty
    • Opening by Susi Dennison, Director, European Power programme, ECFR
    • Ivan Krastev, Board Member, ECFR; Chairman, Centre for Liberal Strategies
    • Alexander Soros, Deputy Chair, Open Society Foundations
    • Chaired by Mark Leonard, Director, ECFR