Panel XIa was chaired by Ambassador Gheorghe MAGHERU, member of the Scientific Council of New Strategy Center, Romania, and hosted the following speakers: Mr. Charles POWELL, Director of the Elcano Royal Institute, Spain, Mr. Leonard ORBAN, Member of the Scientific Council of New Strategy Center, former Presidential Advisor on European Affairs, former EU Commissioner, Romania, Mr. François HEISBOURG, Special Advisor, Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), France and Mr. Carsten OVENS, CEO, European Leadership Network (ELNET), Germany.

In the next institutional cycle, we must address the question of how Europe can become more innovative in the technology arena. In this context, the single market remains our biggest asset, but it remains incomplete in key areas such as energy, banking, financial services and telecoms. At the same time, the green transition and the digital transition remain our systemic goals, but we must remain aware of the way these transitions will generate winners and losers on the global scale.

In terms of electoral tendencies, we witness a significant shift to the right, notably in four out of the six founding members of the EU. The Russian Federation remains an unquestionable threat. If we allow Russia to obtain a victory in Ukraine, we will no longer be able to talk about ”security” in Europe. At the same time, we have to be wary of interdependencies with China that can prove to be problematic in the future.
The US pivot to Asia, obvious from its allocation of its budget, shows that Europe must assume more responsibilities in the military domain. We must prepare for a future in which the EU becomes more militarized and NATO more European. This process is going to unfold under two parameters: the permanency of the Franco-German relations, and the Russian challenge.