Debate: How Will EU Policies Help Maintain Peace in Europe?

No Europe’s strength without democracy was the focal point of deliberations at Visegrad Insight’s public debate in Budapest

On 30 October, we organised a debate How Will EU Policies Help Maintain Peace in Europe? with Goran Buldioski (senior fellow at the Hertie School), Peter Heil ( Adviser at the European Parliament), Márta Pardavi (Hungarian Helsinki Committee), Wojciech Przybylski (Visegrad Insight), moderated by Magda Jakubowska (Visegrad Insight).

The event was organised around the topic of Visegrad Insight’s new report: War on Democracies. Democracies at War – EU Values Foresight for the Next Five Years.

We need political will, capability & people-centred governance. But how to achieve it if member states perceive threats and opportunities differently across Europe – resilience must be nationally tailored, but grounded in shared democratic values to avoid it’s exploitation by illiberal forces or malign foreign actors.

This debate was a part of the European Commission’s Citizens, Equality, Rights, and Values (CERV) programmes, and involved a Visegrad Insight-led 3-year engagement across Central and Eastern Europe: https://visegradinsight.eu/eu-values-foresight/

Photos by Mariusz Bodnar: