The EU is at a moment of its historical development that is far from insignificant. Exhausted by a decade of crisis (banking, euro, austerity, refugee and pandemic), the EU’s narrative of a 70-year ‘peace & prosperity’ legend is cracking under increasing social unrest, the rise of populism and obvious fractures in the democratic systems of all EU member states. While a broad and encouraging exercise of discursive democracy is taking place, with the #CoFoE (Conference on the Future of Europe) questioning European citizens about the future of the EU, public support of the EU is declining. Furthermore, political developments during the pandemic situation have increased the EU’s struggle for geostrategic and geoeconomics autonomy, if not for its very survival. So how can it succeed in a relaunch of Europe, which gets the EU back into power and assures the adherence of citizens to the European project, as the triptych of the French EU Presidency suggests?

This year’s Schuman Lecture will argue that to do this, it is necessary to detail and fix the notion of European sovereignty and relink it to an emancipatory momentum of, and for European citizens.

Ulrike Guérot is Professor at the Institute of Political Science and Sociology and holds the Chair for European Politics at the CERC (Centre Ernst Robert Curtius) of the University of Bonn. She is the founder of the European Democracy Lab, Berlin, and was previously head of the Department for European Policy and the Study of Democracy at Danube University Krems, Austria. She has worked in various European think-tanks as well as at universities in Paris, Brussels, London, Washington and Berlin. In 2019, she was awarded the Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honor as well as the Salzburg Award for Research on the Future. In 2020, she published her most recent book Nichts wird so bleiben wie es war? (Molden).

Schuman Lecture - Every year, Maastricht University and the City of Maastricht jointly organise this lecture in commemoration of Robert Schuman and the Treaties of Rome (1957) and Maastricht (1992). Robert Schuman (1886-1963) was the French Minister of Foreign Affairs and co-founder of the European Union.

Tip! Eerder op de dag, van 16:00 tot ca. 17:00 uur, organiseert Studio Europa Maastricht een publieksevenement met vicepremier en minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Wopke Hoekstra. In de Muziekgieterij spreekt Hoekstra onder meer over hoe burgerdialogen een waardevolle bijdrage kunnen leveren aan de vorming van het Nederlandse EU-beleid. De minister zal ook in gesprek gaan met de zaal. Aanmelden is gratis en kan vanaf medio april via de website van Studio Europa Maastricht.