CEU, OTKA Launch Three-Year Project Examining Global Role of the EU

CEU’s Center for EU Enlargement Studies (CENS) and the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA) kicked off a three-year project examining the global role of the European Union with a conference Jan.17.

The conference, entitled “Global Trends and the Role of the EU,” brought a diverse group of experts together to create a vivid intellectual forum for raising questions about current global trends and their effect on EU policies. The broader project, entitled “The Changing World Order and Its Implications for the ‘Wider Europe’,” seeks to attract young researchers to assess the role the European Union will play in a changing global environment.

At the conference, Professor Laszlo Csaba of CEU’s Department of International Relations and European Studies (IRES), addressed the issue of globalization and its challenges for Europe. Professor Boglarka Koller of King Sigismund College in Budapest addressed the problem of creating a common European identity. Dr. Asle Toje of the Norwegian Nobel Institute discussed the future form NATO is likely to take as the European and U.S. commitments shift. Professor Alexander Astrov, also of CEU’s IRES, addressed the challenges in applying international relations theory to explain recent world events and some theories’ failure to predict them.

Dr. David Kral of EUROPEUM discussed the possibility of a multi-speed Europe in the wake of the euro-zone crisis. Professor Peter Balazs, director of CEU’s Center for EU Enlargement Studies and former Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, tackled the problems of EU governance that resulted from the enlargement rounds of 2004/2007. Dr. Kai-Olaf Lang of the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik gave a sober assessment of the EU’s neighborhood and enlargement policies, while Dr. Attila Bartha of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences gave a political economy-based analysis of New Central and Eastern European Member States (NMS) of the European Union.

For more information on project and participants of the conference, see https://cens.ceu.hu/news/2012-01-19/event-report-global-trends-and-the-role-of-the-eu.