30 March 2021| 09:30 – 12:00 (CET) |​  Zoom

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Looking at the current state of the EU, one cannot help but realise that we are living in a multi-speed Europe. Starting from older ones like the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, the Eurozone and the Schengen Area and looking at the news ones in the form of PESCO, Frontex or the Banking Union, the EU member states already seem to be moving at different speeds and this is not a bad thing. If we start from this position, we can move past the current unproductive debates about the existence of this a multi-speed Europe, and we can focus on how we can help member states catch up faster. Can we create fast lanes for socioeconomic development beyond the existing mechanisms? How can we help them become more effective and efficient so that they can integrate faster and better?

As the EU motto goes “United in diversity” we should embrace our differences and our different speeds and try to create a better European project through them not against them. Be it North / South or East / West there will always be some member states that will prefer (for one reason or another) to move at different speeds. We will come together to understand the driving factors of and the necessary tools to steer the integration process both top-down and bottom-up.

ELF hopes to stimulate the debate on multi-speed Europe through two roundtables, and subsequently produce a policy paper which will address the main open questions and issues that will predominate these events whilst also providing policy recommendations on how to tackle these issues and ensure a smoother integration process for all EU member states.

Panel 1 – The Eurozone
What role has differentiated integration played on the development of the Eurozone? Should we reduce the variable geometry in this field? How can this process influence / encourage more integration and enlargement of the EU? How has the Eurozone affected the socio-economic development of the member states? Has its own development been affected by socio-economic factors?

Panel 2 – The Schengen Area
Can this issue be advanced with differentiated integration? Can the EU use this topic to re-ignite enlargement discussions and create a few “steps of membership”? Can this area encourage further enlargement waves? How has the Schengen area affected the socio-economic development of the member states? Has its own development been affected by socio-economic factors?

Moderated by Diane Fromage, PhD, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellow, Sciences Po Paris

Panel 1 speaker:
Billy Kelleher, Member of the European Parliament, Renew Europe Group
Sandra Parthie, Head of Brussels Office / Head of European Affairs, German Economic Institute (IW) and member of the European Economic and Social Committee
Lucas Guttenberg, Deputy Director, Jacques Delors Centre

Panel 2 speakers:
Funda Tekin, PhD, Director, Institute for European Politics (Berlin) & External Senior Research Fellow, Centre of Turkey and European Union Studies (CETEUS), University of Cologne
Natascha Zaun, PhD, Assistant Professor in Migration Studies, European Institute, LSE
Raphael Bossong, PhD, Researcher, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, German Institute for International and Security Affairs