Sailing on the High Seas: Reforming and Enlarging the EU for the 21st Century

In this address to the IIEA, Pervenche Berès, Board member of Fondation Jean Jaurès, Member of the European Parliament France (1994-2019) and Dr Nicolai von Ondarza, Head of the EU/Europe Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), discuss the recently published Report of the Franco-German Working Group on EU Institutional Reform and its reception in the EU. The Report’s recommendations centre on three goals: strengthening the rule of law and the EU’s democratic legitimacy, increasing the EU’s capacity to act, and getting the EU ready for enlargement.

About the Speaker:

Pervenche Berѐs is a Board Member of Fondation Jean Jaurès, President of Association Europe-Finances-Régulation, a Member of the Ethic and Audit Committees of the ECB, and a Member of the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers) Committee on Climate and Sustainable Finance. She was previously a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2019, chairing the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and the Employment and Social Affairs Committee. Ms Berѐs also acted as Rapporteur of the Temporary Committee on the Financial, Economic, and Social Crisis, Vice-President of the European Parliament delegation to the Convention in chargeof the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and Member of the European Convention in charge of drafting a Constitution for Europe.

Dr. Nicolai von Ondarza is the head of the EU/Europe Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, SWP) in Berlin. As part of his work, he has consulted the German government, Bundestag and the EU Commission on Brexit, democracy in the EU and EU institutions. He is the co-coordinator of the Irish-German Joint Vision Forum, a yearly exchange format of the Irish DFA, the German Foreign Office, the IIEA and SWP.