CER Brussels conference: Can Europe be a global power?

18 March 2026
Brussels

At a time when great power rivalry is back, and Europe is squeezed from both the east and the west, the EU must determine how to best position itself to respond to challenges, identify its strongest assets and determine how to deploy those most effectively. This has to go hand in hand with defending the values it was founded upon. The CER Brussels conference will explore these themes, assessing how the EU can use its powers to set the agenda and drive positive change in an increasingly fractured world.

For further information, including how to register, please email brussels@cer.eu.

Programme:

11:15-11:45   Registration & welcome tea/coffee

11:45-13:15   Panel 1: Asserting Europe's power as an electrostate

  • Adrian Hiel, Director, Electrification Alliance
  • Lukasz Kolinski, Director, Green Transition & Energy System Integration, Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission (invited)
  • Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Member, European Parliament
  • Frauke Thies, Executive Director, Agora Energiewende

13:15-14:00   Lunch

14:00-15:00   Keynote speech by Piotr Serafin, European Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud & Public Administration, European Commission

15:00-16:30   Panel 2: Asserting Europe's normative power

  • Cristina Gherasimov, Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration of Moldova, Government of the Republic of Moldova (invited) 
  • Maida Gorčević, Minister for European Affairs, Government of Montenegro
  • Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze, People’s Deputy of Ukraine & Chairperson, Committee on Ukraine’s Integration into the European Union, Verkhovna Rada
  • Gert Jan Koopman, Director-General for Neighbourhood & Enlargement Negotiations, European Commission

16:30-17:00   Coffee break

17:00-18:30   Panel 3: Asserting Europe's economic power

  • Hendrik Bourgeois, Senior Vice President Public Policy & Government Affairs, Mastercard
  • Maria Demertzis, Professor of Economic Policy, Florence School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute
  • Agatha Kratz, Partner, Rhodium Group
  • Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director-General for Trade & Economic Security & Chief Trade Enforcement Officer, European Commission

18:30-20:00   Reception to celebrate the CER's 28th birthday

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