Thursday 1 and Friday 2 June 2023. Venue: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation (Calle del General Pardiñas, 53).
On 1 July 2023, Spain took over the reins of the Council of the European Union, holding the Rotating Presidency for the fifth time since its accession to the then-European Community back in 1986.
To discuss the aims and priorities of the incoming Spanish Presidency, the Elcano Royal Institute and the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) hosted policymakers to meet with key stakeholders and the wider public in a Pre-Presidency Conference (PPC) that took place on 1-2 June 2023 in Madrid. The conference featured high level discussions between researchers from the TEPSA Network, members of the public including students and civil society representatives, and key policymakers from the Spanish government.
The discussions concerned key European policy issues, including (in a context of Ukraine and Moldova’s newfound status as EU candidate countries) the state of play of the enlargement file, how to build a competitive economy for Europe, how can the EU accelerate its climate action to achieve the goal of making Europe the world’s first climate-neutral continent, and the impact of post-truth politics on the EU, among others.
Hashtag: #SpanishPPC
Meet the speakers
Videos of the plennary sessions
Plenary session: The Spanish EU Presidency: challenges and priorities
Plenary session: Priorities of the upcoming Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU – Concluding remarks
Recommendations from members of the TEPSA network to the Spanish Presidency
At the Spanish Pre-Presidency Conference, TEPSA presented key recommendations to the incoming Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. These recommendations are formulated by experts from the TEPSA network, without necessarily representing the views of TEPSA or its Member Institutes.
Prior to the regular TEPSA Pre-Presidency Conferences, TEPSA has a tradition of formulating recommendations to present to the incoming Council Presidency. The Recommendations from Members of the TEPSA Network to the Incoming Spanish Presidency form part of a long history of interaction between TEPSA and the Council Presidencies, starting with the first Pre-Presidency Conference in 1974.
Photo gallery
Agenda
Public plennary sessions.
Parallel sesions by invitation only.
Thursday, 1 June
14:30 – 15:00 Welcome and opening remarks
- José Juan Ruiz, Chairman, Elcano Royal Institute | @ElcanoJjRuiz
- Carme Colomina, Senior Research Fellow, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) | @carmecolomina
- Lucia Mokrá, Chairperson of the Board, TEPSA
- Juan González Mellizo, Head of Communication of the Representation in Spain, European Commission | @JuanECRepMadrid
- María Lledó, Secretary General for the European Union, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain
15:00 – 16: 30 Plenary session: The Spanish EU Presidency: challenges and priorities in the aftermath of the pandemic and Russia’s aggression on Ukraine
Moderator: Raquel García, Analyst, Elcano Royal Institute | @RaquelGarciaLl2
Speakers:
- Pau Marí Klose, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Congress of Deputies of Spain | @pmklose
- Alexander Stubb, Director of the School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute (EUI), Florence. Former Prime Minister of Finland | @alexstubb (Online)
- Richard Youngs, Senior Associate, Carnegie Europe, Brussels (member of the TEPSA Recommendations team) | @YoungsRichard
17:00 – 18:15 Parallel session: Reclaiming public debate as an EU response to post-truth challenges: deliberation, quality information and citizen education
Moderator: Taru Haapala, Research Fellow, Autonomous University of Madrid, and member of the RECLAIM project | @HaapalaTaru
Speakers:
- Maximilian Conrad, Professor, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, and RECLAIM Principal Investigator
- Luis Bouza, Associate Professor, Autonomous University of Madrid, and member of the RECLAIM project | @luisbouzagarcia
- Nicoletta Pirozzi, Head of EU Politics and Institutions Programme, Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), Rome, and member of the RECLAIM project | @NicolePirozzi
17:00 – 18:15 Parallel session: The role of the presidency of the European Union Council 15 years after the Lisbon Treaty
Moderator: Johannes Greubel, Senior Policy Analyst, European Policy Centre (EPC), Brussels | @J_Greubel
Speakers:
- Ana Mar Fernández Pasarín, Jean Monnet Chair, Associate Professor in Politics, Autonomous University of Barcelona
- André Gillissen, Policy Coordinator at General and Institutional Policy, General Secretariat of the Council of the EU
- Jakob Lewander, Researcher, Swedish Institute for European Policy Studies (SIEPS), Stockholm | @Lewander
18:30 – 19:45 Parallel session: European Union facing industrial policies in other parts of the world: new ways of maintaining a competitive economy and the single market
Moderator: Rem Korteweg, Senior Research Fellow, Clingendael, The Hague | @remkorteweg
Speakers:
- Michele Chang, Professor, College of Europe in Bruges | @michelemchang
- Erik Jones, Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute (EUI), Florence | @Ej_Europe (TBC)
- Juan Moscoso del Prado, Head of the Department of Technical Assistance to the General Secretariat and International Relations, Economic and Social Council of Spain | @JuanMoscosodelP
- Miguel Otero-Iglesias, Senior Analyst, Elcano Royal Institute | @miotei
18:30 – 19:45 Parallel session: The enlargement and reform of the European Union
Moderator: Camino Mortera, Head of the Brussels’ office, Centre for European Reform | @CaminoMortera
Speakers:
- Alice Cunha, Assistant Professor and Research Fellow, IPRI, NOVA University of Lisbon
- Héctor Sánchez, Researcher, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) | @sanchezmargalef
- Frank Schimmelfennig, Professor, ETH Zurich
- Andreja Stojkovski, Executive Director and Senior Researcher-Analyst, PRESPA Institute, Skopje | @andrejas_mkd
Friday, 2 June
10:30 – 11:45 Parallel session: Climate change and the future of Europe
Moderator: Paul Schmidt, Secretary General, Austrian Society for European Politics (ÖGfE) | @_PaulSchmidt
Speakers:
- Lara Lázaro, Senior Analyst, Elcano Royal Institute | @lazarotouza
- Marco Siddi, Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA), Helsinki | @MarcoSiddix
- Donald Wertlen, Lecturer, Institute of European Studies and International Relations (IESIR), Comenius University, Bratislava
10:30 – 11:45 Parallel session: European diplomacy 15 years after the Lisbon Treaty
Moderator: Paula Lamoso, Assistant Professor, Loyola University, Sevilla | @PauLamGon
Speakers:
- Jakob Hallgren, Director, Swedish Institute of International Affairs (UI), Stockholm | @HallgrenJakob
- Sabina Lange, Senior Lecturer, European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), Maastricht | @SabinaKLange
- Karolina Pomorska, Jean Monnet Chair and Associate Professor, Leiden University | @Karolka55
- Ignacio Sánchez Amor, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, European Parliament | @NachoSAmor
12:15 – 13:00 Plenary session: Priorities of the upcoming Spanish presidency of the Council of the EU – Concluding remarks
Moderator: Charles Powell, Director, Elcano Royal Institute | @CharlesTPowell
Keynote: José Manuel Albares, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation | @jmalbares (video)
Speakers:
- Carme Colomina, Senior Research Fellow, Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB) | @carmecolomina
- Paul Schmidt, Board member, TEPSA | @_PaulSchmidt
This Pre-Presidency Conference is organised by the Elcano Royal Institute and the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA). The event is supported by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs (CIDOB), as well as via TEPSA’s CERV Operating Grant. In the context of one parallel session, it has received funding from the Horizon project ‘Reclaiming Liberal Democracy in the Postfactual Age’ (RECLAIM project under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101061330).
