Day 5 – Lack of Leadership

During the last session of the summer school the topic discussed was “Lack of Leadership in EU Institutions – Looking for a better framework for common decision-making”

The EU has entered an era of transformation, facing challenges of a global scale and facing a rise in nationalism and populism and with the legitimacy of the EU’s founding institutions at stake, European leaders are struggling to find common responses to the challenges that ever more require transboundary, determined and a joint leadership.

The discussions were focused on some major challenges the EU Leaders and Institutions are currently facing:

–   The UK decision to leave the EU (BREXIT), how the European Union international presence and influence as a leading force was impacted.

–   How the EU Leadership Structures have been dealing with the refugee crisis at the Turkish border (EU-Turkey Agreement).

–   How the European Union faced the Covid-19 pandemic. The late response of the EU leaders and the fragmented decision making that made EU collapse.  

–   “European Solidarity” in times of emergency. The values and ideals of the EU leaders that seem lost.

–   Nationalism rose as a feature across Europe’s political spectrum and the recent boom in voter support for right-wing and populist parties. How the rise of Right-wing populism and nationalism in Europe can impact the future leaders of the Union and the enlargement process.

–   The new populist notion that is emerging in right-wing parties as a change of their tune when it comes to the EU, instead of talking about referendums on EU membership or ditching Europe’s common currency, they promote for a “Europe of nations”.

–   The lack of leadership in the European Union a consequence of the fragmented structures or the lack of a “grand project”? 

(by Renis)