Five evenings worth writing down.

An Evening on EU Enlargement

The Future of the Western Balkans in the European Union

Speakers The debate

Twenty-three years after the EU promised the Western Balkans a future within the Union, that promise remains unfulfilled. Two senior diplomats came together to ask a live and pressing question: has the EU kept its word, and does it still have the will to act? The conversation moved from the mechanics of accession to the politics behind it, tackling the proposed “gradual integration” framework, the security case for enlargement, and the gap between Brussels' rhetoric and reality.

Key takeaways

• The EU made a promise to these countries, and it must now deliver.
• Candidate countries cannot be left waiting indefinitely without a clear path.
• A tiered, gradual-integration system risks signalling that the EU has lost confidence in its own process.
• Slovakia stands firmly behind Western Balkans accession as a strategic priority.
• Security concerns have created the strongest window for enlargement in years.

“The EU made a promise to these countries. It must now deliver.”

European Agriculture, Trade & Strategic Resilience

Evidence, Trade-Offs, and the Politics of Food

Speakers The debate

A candid conversation on European agricultural policy, trade, and strategic resilience. The discussion ranged from how the EU builds its evidence base, to the realities of the EU–Mercosur agreement, to the geopolitics of fertilizer supply. It was a session about the institutions Europe needs to weigh risk and opportunity effectively.

Key takeaways

• Better policy needs more than one source of data. OECD analysis is valuable, but robust policymaking must combine it with national statistics, industry expertise, academic research, and stakeholder perspectives.
• Benchmarking could sharpen outcomes. Comparing policy performance and productivity across member states and sectors gives clearer evidence of what works.
• Mercosur reflects the reality of political trade-offs. On balance a positive outcome for the EU, even if benefits and costs fall unevenly. Managing those impacts is the real task.
• Fertilizer supply risks remain manageable, for now. No strategic reserve is currently under consideration; supply is adequate, though tensions around the Strait of Hormuz warrant monitoring.

The Great Decoupling

Rethinking the Future of European Education

Speakers The debate

Educators and thinkers gathered to debate a radical restructuring of the European educational landscape. The central charge: that the modern university has become a bloated, hyper-specialised “ideological echo chamber,” and that it is time to decouple technical training from the deeper purpose of education. A provocative, ideas-rich evening on what universities are actually for.

Key takeaways

• A return to liberal arts. Decouple the “nuts and bolts” of professional training from the university, and revive a master–apprentice model for many vocations.
• Education for the whole person. Beyond mere “qualification” (job training) lie “socialization” and “personification”: learning to live in community and to discover one's own values.
• AI as co-pilot, not pilot. For a digitally native generation, the human role shifts from the automated how toward the philosophical why, cultivating epistemic humility.
• Education as “seduction.” A cycle of building up a theory the student falls in love with, then tearing it down to foster genuine critical thinking.

EU Foreign Policy: A Strategic Reassessment

Europe's Place in a Changing International Order

Speakers The debate

An evening of sharp exchanges on the EU's role in the world and its inner life. What values still bind Europeans together? Are today's leaders capable of steering through turbulence? Have we entered a “new century of humiliation”? A debate that revealed just how urgently people are rethinking Europe's direction.

Key takeaways

• Reclaiming civilisational identity. Engels argued for a sovereign Europe anchored in a millennium of shared culture: defending borders, coordinating on security, and pursuing interests over ideology.
• A failure of execution, not ideals. Sismondini located the EU's weakness in scattered priorities and a Commission President unable to command loyalty from national capitals.
• Sovereignty first. Both speakers pressed for a Europe beholden neither to Washington, Beijing, nor Moscow. That included a pragmatic, interest-driven reading of the war in Ukraine.
• A return to founding vision. A call to revisit the ideals of Schuman and De Gasperi and Europe's cultural roots.

“Once again, we proved that a genuine, respectful, and interesting debate is possible, even in a cancel-culture-dominated city.”

The European Economy: Reforms or Collapse

Innovation and Reform, or Bureaucratic Decline

Speakers The debate

With the European economy at a crossroads, this Salon examined the root causes of its stagnation and worked with the audience toward solutions. From the Draghi report to the Green Deal, the conversation asked whether Brussels is genuinely ready to reform, or still more focused on new procedures and regulations than on the underlying causes of decline.

Key takeaways

• The cost of the Emissions Trading System. Cleppe argued the ETS has helped push European gas prices to four times US levels, hitting industry hard, and cited BASF's pivot to investing in China.
• The ideology behind the decline. Siegert pointed to degrowth thinking and overregulation as key drivers of the crisis, calling for systemic EU reform and better ECB monetary and fiscal policy.
• A genuine clash on GDPR. Against the view that GDPR is merely a burden, both an audience member and Siegert defended it as one of the few real protections of consumer data in the 21st century.
• Wide-ranging debate. From the Groningen gas field to sanctions on Russia to the role of AI and robotics in industry.