Symposium and lunch debate: The European Council turns 50!

07/11/2024

In recent decades, the European Council, founded in 1974, has developed into one of the central decision-making bodies in the European Union. The heads of state and government represented there determine the strategic direction of the Union and take groundbreaking political decisions, for example on the enlargement and deepening of the EU. However, the Council also played a prominent role in the Union's crisis management during the euro crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.

In view of the many current challenges, both academically and practically interested parties are once again expecting trend-setting decisions from Brussels. The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are threatening the European security architecture. Economically, the EU is increasingly being left behind by China and the USA. At the same time, enormous financial and social efforts are needed to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050 as planned.

What role does the European Council play in such important policy areas as the common foreign and security policy? What is the state of interinstitutional relations, which have recently been particularly tense between the Council and the Commission? These and other questions were examined by selected experts from science and practice during the two-day conference on 7 and 8 November 2024. Afterwards, Dr Uwe Corsepius gave an exciting keynote speech as part of a public IEP lunch debate, building on his experience as Former Secretary General of the Council of the EU and Head of the Department on European Affairs at the German Federal Chancellery under Chancellor Angela Merkel.

IEP organised this event together with the Arbeitskreis Europäische Integration, the Centrum für Türkei- und EU-Studien an der Universität zu Köln (CETEUS) and the Geschwister-Scholl-Institut für Politikwissenschaft der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität.