The rise and changes of populism and euroscepticism in the EU

Date

1 June 2015

Location

Egmont Palace, 8 bis Place du Petit Sablon, 1000 Bruxelles

So-called “populist” and “eurosceptic” movements and parties have been on the rise for the last decades in several EU countries. This conference will address this issue by looking at its ideological, strategic and organizational aspects. It will ask the following questions: What are the recent reconfigurations characterizing populism and euroscepticism and how can we explain their increasing influence? To what extent does

eurosceptic populism overcome the traditional left-right cleavage? What are the convergences to be observed between such movements beyond national boundaries? Are populism and euroscepticisms mere variants of nationalism and if so, how do they relate to classical political ideologies? And finally: what are the possible convincing alternatives which should be put forward to counter this phenomenon?  

Programme:

17:30 Registration

18:00 welcome address by Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime-Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Speakers :

Pavlos Eleftheriadis, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law and a Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford University

Sylvie Goulard, Member of the European Parliament (ALDE)

Andrew Duff, Honorary President of the Union of European Federalists

Tom Nuttall, EU correspondent for the Economist

Sophie Heine, Senior Research Fellow for the European affairs program at Egmont Institute.

Moderator : Ambassador Marc Otte, Director General of the Egmont Institute

Registration by 27 May is mandatory.

Main topics tackled 

Reactions from the audience

(Photo credit: Erwin F, Flickr)