>
Events
>
European Conference 2024: Are we ready for the EU of 30+?

European Conference 2024: Are we ready for the EU of 30+?

A yearly European conference in Slovakia each year focuses on different topics, based on what is currently the most relevant within the EU affairs. In 2022, Conference on the Future of Europe was addressed, while in 2023, the focus shifted towards the Russian aggression against Ukraine. In 2024, the issue of further enlargement of the EU will set the agenda, as there is a variety of very topical questions to discuss. The conference will consist of four panel discussions, combining expertise from across Europe.
Miroslava Pisklová Tomáš Strážay
Date: 13.05.2024, 09:00
Place: Hall of Mirrors, Primate´s Palace

8:30 – 9:00
Registration
9:00 – 9:20
Opening remarks
Tomáš Strážay, Director, Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA)
Christopher Forst, Director of the FES Office “Dialogue Eastern Europe” 
9:20 – 9:35
Keynote speech and Q&A session
Peter Kmec, Deputy Prime Minister for the Recovery and Resilience Plan and the use of EU funds
9:35 – 10:50
Panel 1: Ramifications of the war on Ukraine on the EU enlargement – “when” and “how” for the Ukrainian accession?
PANELISTS
Ivan Nagornyak, Advisor to the Center for Economic Recovery (Ukraine), former Deputy Director General of the Government Office for Coordination for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration of Ukraine
Alexander Duleba, Senior Research Fellow, Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA)
Christos Katsioulis, Director, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Regional Office for International Cooperation, Vienna
Marie Krpata, Research Fellow, French Institute of International Relations (IFRI)

HOST
Eva Mihočková, zahranicnapolitika.sk
10:50 – 11:10
Coffee break
11:10 – 12:25
Panel 2: Internal reform of the EU as a prerequisite to future enlargement?
PANELISTS
Vladimír Šimoňák, 2nd State Secretary, Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic
Maryna Yaroshevych, Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian Prism”, Deputy Director Europe
Sandra Dias Fernandes, Director of the Research Centre in Political Science (CICP), University of Minho, Portugal
Matej Navrátil, Researcher, Institute of European Studies and International Relations, Comenius University Bratislava

HOST
Barbara Zmušková, Euractiv.sk
12:25 – 13:30
Lunch
13:30 – 14:45
Panel 3: Where are our ambitions for enlargement in the Western Balkans?
PANELISTS
Jana Juzová, Research Fellow, EUROPEUM, Czechia
Florent Marciacq, Deputy Secretary General, Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe (AFC)
Simonida Kacarska, Director, European Policy Institute, Skopje
Vedran Džihić, Senior Researcher, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (OIIP)

HOST
Pavol Demeš, former Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs and co-founder of SFPA
14:50 – 16:05
Panel 4: 20 years since the “big bang” enlargement – lessons learned, challenges and opportunities
PANELISTS
Barbara Wolf, German Ambassador to Slovakia
Adam Balcer, Programme Director, Kolegium of Eastern Europe (KEW), Poland
Gergely Romsics, Senior Research Fellow, Research Center for the Humanities, Institute of History, Hungary

HOST
Andrej Matišák, Pravda Daily
16:05 – 16:20
Closing remarks
Tomáš Strážay, Director, Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA)
16:20 – 17:00
Glass of wine

The conference is organized by the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA) in cooperation and with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Further partners of the conference are the Austro-French Centre for Rapprochement in Europe and a consorcium of international partners including IFRI, BIGS, CIDOB, EGMONT, IEP, KEW and OIIP.