ESPAS Conference 2020: Europe's Road to 2030 -Building a more resilient Europe in an uncertain world

The coronavirus pandemic is having a profound impact on societies and economies, and it is clear that many long-held assumptions about how we live, work and relate to each other are being challenged as never before.

In the course of this two-day conference, we will consider how to build a more resilient Europe in an uncertain world, and explore how Europe can navigate existing and emerging global trends in order to chart a course for 2030.

The conference will consider how the coronavirus has affected our understanding of key global trends and what this might mean for our common future, exploring the implications for Europe and other regions around the world. The question of how the Union can increase its capacity to handle future shocks - by better identifying risks, capabilities and opportunities - will also feature prominently in the discussion.

The conference will begin with a presentation of the European Commission’s recently- published, first annual Strategic Foresight Report - Charting the course towards a more resilient Europe - by Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič. In parallel, the event will look at how the conclusions of the 2019 ESPAS Report, Global Trends to 2030: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe, now look in the light of the pandemic.

Building on the success of ESPAS in identifying global trends in recent years, together with the impetus the project has given to the development of foresight across the European institutions, the conference will explore how to strengthen the link between global trends analysis and the practical needs of EU policy-making.

The purpose of the ESPAS annual conference is to engage in a broad-ranging conversation with policy analysts and foresight experts in governments, think tanks, universities and many other organisations on what matters in this fast-moving field. The current crisis has underlined the importance of foresight in effective policy-making and we hope that the conference can contribute to that process.

Building a more resilient Europe in an uncertain world

14.30 - 14.45

Welcome and introduction

David Maria Sassoli, MEP, President of the European Parliament.

Introduced by:

Anthony Teasdale, Director General, European parliament Research Service (EPRS).

14.50 - 15.05

After the European Commission’s first Annual Strategic Foresight Report - Building the future of EU strategic foresight

Keynote address:

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Inter-institutional Relations and Foresight, European Commission.

15.05 Embedding strategic foresight into policy-making - Best practice:

Jyrki Katainen, former Prime Minister of Finland and former Vice-President of the European Commission.

15.15 Messages of support for the EU foresight network:

Pedro Sánchez, Prime Minister, Spain (video message);

Peter Altmaier, Federal Minister of Economy and Energy, Germany (video message);

Ana Paula Zacarias, Secretary of State for European Affairs, Portugal (video message);

Karoline Edtstadler, Federal Minister for the EU and Constitution, Austria (live);

Angel Gurria, Secretary-General, OECD (video message).

15.35 In conversation:

Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Inter-institutional Relations and Foresight, European Commission.

Moderator:

Michael Peel, EU Diplomatic Correspondent, Financial Times.