Future Leaders Europe Evening Talks

Applications to our pilot edition of FLEET are now opened!

We are proud to announce our pilot edition of the Future Leaders Europe Evening Talks, a series of 10 talks aimed to bring 10 European experts to discuss this year's edition 'Europe in transition: Exploring EU's futures' with young professionals (applicants should either be university students or recent graduates).

General project information:

A series of ten evening sessions throughout the spring semester of 2018 will bring experts from high-ranking (current or former) Brussels officials, Ambassadors, Czech and European experts, journalists and commentators. The sessions will take place every Wednesday at EUROPEUM’s conference room from 19:00 to 20:40, with two sessions held in Brno. The talks will be structured into a short introductory lecture on the given topic by the expert (40 minutes maximum) and an open discussion of 60 minutes with strong emphasis on the Q & A structure for the participants. Unless specified otherwise, the talks will be held under the Chatham House Rule.

The outcome of the course will be a briefing paper (2000 - 3000 words) on a topic chosen by the participant. The assessment will be carried out jointly by the lecturer of the given topic and one EUROPEUM fellow. Papers will not be graded, but detailed feedback will be given. There will also be a possibility for the best pieces to be published as a EUROPEUM Policy paper, Brussels / Eastern monitor, or as a blog post (shortened version); in both cases the pieces will be peer-reviewed by EUROPEUM’s Head of Research.

Every participant will obtain a certificate of attendance of the course and selected participants/authors will be invited to the international conference Prague European Summit otherwise closed to the general public. Authors of accepted papers will be also offered a place at the European Summer School for free. Additionally, a research internship at EUROPEUM with prospects for further cooperation may be offered to the best participants. The one-time participation fee is 1980 CZK per selected applicant.

This semester topics:

• Europe and Brexit
• Euroscepticism as a force for right-wing parties with focus on the current ‘mood’ across the Union and factors that result in the division of society;
• the future of European integration and EU institutions following Juncker’s suggested scenarios and multi-speed Europe;
• Visegrad sessions on the constitutional changes, anti-immigration tendencies, extremism and populism in the politics;
• disinformation and destabilization campaigns with regards to possible third-party interference;
• the future of EU enlargement with focus on the Western Balkans and the future of Eurozone with a focus on Greece

Also, the theme of the 100th anniversary of the emergence of independent states in Central Europe will offer a retrospective look into the future in order to explore possible scenarios of the Union and its member states.

Project calendar outline (to be updated internally):

• Wednesday, April 11th: Lecture 1
• Wednesday, April 18th: Lecture 2
• Wednesday, April 25th: Lecture 3
• Wednesday, May 2nd: Lecture 4
• Wednesday, May 9th: Lecture 5
• Wednesday, May 16th: Lecture 6
• Wednesday, May 23th: Lecture 7
• Wednesday, May 30th: Lecture 8
• Wednesday, June 6th: Lecture 9
• Wednesday, June 13th: Lecture 10

The project is organized by EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy in cooperation with Heinrich Böll Stiftung. The participation fee per selected applicant is 1980 CZK.

Alexandr Lagazzi
Associate Research Fellow

Expertise: Diplomacy, EU foreign policy, Italy, China, International security, Terrorism, Behavioural Economics

Anita Culíková
Project Assistant, FLEET