Maastricht University, Faculty of Law (FdR), Bouillonstraat 1-3, Maastricht

Thursday 28 March 2019 18:30-20:00

Location/room: Statenzaal

Luuk van Middelaar is a political theorist and historian. He was the chief speechwriter and a close advisor to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy (2010-2014), and is currently Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions at Leiden University.

Author of the prizewinning book 'The Passage to Europe', he is now publishing 'Alarums and Excursion: Improvising Politics on the European Stage' (March 2019), a groundbreaking account of the Union’s crisis politics. In his latest work, defined “quite simply the most insightful book on Europe’s politics today” by European Council President Donald Tusk, Prof. van Middelaar provides a revealing and candid portrayal of a Europe improvising its way through a politics of events.

With his presentation “European elections in times of crises: bring on the Opposition!”, he will provide an expert account and the insider’s view of the build-up to the vote and the relevance of the upcoming elections for the future of Europe. As this year’s lecture series focuses indeed on the EP elections, and as the Maastricht Spitzenkandidaten debate is approaching, we look forward to Prof. van Middelaar’s talk and to an interesting discussion.