The European Union as an actor in geopolitical times: A social democratic perspective

ABSTRACT

While in 2019, when arriving in office, the new EU Commission showed itself ambitious on becoming a truly geopolitical actor with a strengthened profile in security and defence issues, it is today confronted with internal and external challenges threatening its geopolitical capacity. Internally facing a lack of unity on foreign and defence policies, externally the EU has to deal with challenges such as a shift away from multilateralism and dense transatlantic relations. The disastrous end of the unsuccessful Afghanistan mission shows how urgently European answers both within and outside of the NATO must be found.

Against this background, the conference – organised by the FES Italy and Villa Vigoni – will bring together social democratic parliamentarians and experts from different European countries, with the aim of presenting national views and positions and discussing challenges faced by the EU in order to contribute to the development of a common European defence and security policy.