Krakow, 21st September 2012
Herbewo Conference Room, Lubelska 29 (6th floor)
11.00-18.00

The speakers will be leading Polish and Czech EU policy analysts.

Issue / Research Questions:

1. The struggle against the political and financial EU crisis

-         What do we learn about EU’s formal and informal decision-making mechanisms when we analyze its fight against the crisis?

-         What are the results of the coordination of the struggle against the financial crisis on the international level?

-         Are the political interests of the individual EU member states prevailing over the economic dimension of the fight against the crisis?

-         Will the actual financial crisis bring a limitation of government’s role in economy or will it increase the state control of the economy? How these tendencies influence the EU legislation and policies of the individual EU states?

-         Does anyone in EU know how to bring together the necessity of economic reforms (the reduction of expenditure and the increase of competitiveness vis-à-vis non-European operators) and the social costs of the required changes?

-         What and whose interests will be decisive in the new EU budget negotiations? Who will be the winners and losers of this process?

1. The Future of EU

-          What model of European integration and the EU evolution will be dominant in the coming years? What can its implementation cause concerning the effectiveness – political and economic – of the Union, the role of the national states, and so on?

-         What division of authority between nation states and the EU institutions?

-         What should be done about the social legitimization of European institutions? How to answer to the problem of deficiency of democracy in the non-elective EU bodies and the democratic control of the individual EU member states policies on the national and EU level concerning the legislation and political decisions of the EU?

-         Is an idea of strengthening the EU’s role in the international affairs realistic under the current circumstances? Can the attempts to achieve this goal weaken the position of national states?

-         Should we seriously think of the scenario that EU will collapse? What would be the costs and the benefits of such situation, analyzed from Polish and Czech perspective?

Registration: http://www.facebook.com/events/277807045657770/