What Can Central and Eastern Europe Expect from the Portuguese EU Presidency?

Speakers

• H.E. Francisco Ribeiro de Menezes, Ambassador of Portugal to Germany
• H.E. Franc But, Ambassador of Slovenia to Germany
• Kai-Olaf Lang, Senior Fellow, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik
• Vladislava Gubalova, Research Fellow, Future of Europe Program, GLOBSEC Policy Institute

Moderation

• Daniel Hegedüs, Fellow for Central Europe, German Marshall Fund of the United States

The policy priorities of Southern European eurozone countries are perceived to rarely overlap with those of the EU member states from Central and Eastern Europe.

With Portugal holding the EU Council’s rotating presidency in the first half of 2021 and setting agenda items such as fighting disinformation and hybrid threats, the implementation of the rule-of-law mechanism, or energy transition as its priorities, there are convincing reasons why ties of joint policy thinking and planning should be strengthened between the Southern and Eastern European member states and the Portuguese presidency should be followed with particular interests from Central and Eastern Europe.

Which policy areas are of mutual political interests? How could a more intense policy dialogue contribute to the quality of EU policymaking? How can Portugal, a traditional member of the “friends of rule of law” group contribute to a swift and determined implementation of the rule-of-law conditionality regulation? How could Portugal and Central and Eastern European countries cooperate to give new impetus to the EU’s enlargement in the Western Balkans? And how can the Southern and Eastern Europe play a more important role in each other’s strategic thinking, especially with regard to strengthening NATO and the transatlantic partnership?  

The German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Embassy of Portugal in Berlin is pleased to invite you to an online discussion that examines the importance and perception of Portugal’s EU Council presidency through a Central and Eastern European prism.