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25th International WDR Europaforum 2023

Programme

Supporting Ukraine against Russia’s aggression is just one of the new challenges Europe is facing. The ‘Zeitenwende’, or turn of the times, has thoroughly changed framework conditions for all major tasks of the EU.

10.00 Welcome

Tom Buhrow | Director General of Westdeutscher Rundfunk
Georg Pfeifer | Head of the Representation of the European Parliament in Germany
Dr. Jörg Wojahn | Head of the Representation of the European Commission in Germany

10.10 Video welcoming message

Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier | Federal President

10.20 Shortfilm

Best-of WDR Europaforum

10.35 Interview

Europe‘s hour or powerless on the sidelines?
The EU in a major geopolitical crisis

Dr. Ursula von der Leyen | President of the European Commission
Interview: Markus Preiß, Head of ARD-Europastudio Brussels

11.00 Interview

Leadership in times of change
German peace policy in a different environment
Olaf Scholz | Federal Chancellor
Interview: Ellen Ehni, Editor-in-Chief Politics and Current Affairs, WDR & Tina Hassel, Head of the ARD Capital Studio Berlin
Followed by an exchange with the audience

11.30 Short interviews

Beyond the defensive mode
What’s left of the European project?

Voices of young MEPs

11.40 Discussion

Partnerships and rivalries
How much strategic independence does the EU need

Dr. Dietmar Bartsch | Co-Chairman of the parliamentary group DIE LINKE in the German Bundestag
Dr. Othmar Karas | First Vice-President of the European Parliament, EPP
Dr. Anna Lührmann | Minister of State for Europe and Climate at the Federal Foreign Office, Alliance 90/The Greens
Dr. Angela Stanzel | Sinologist, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (German Institute for International and Security Affairs)
Moderation: Ute Brucker, Head of the Department for Foreign Affairs/Europe, Südwestrundfunk

12.35 Interview

Europe, our hope
Perspectives of an invaded country

Nataliya Pryhornytska | Political scientist, host of the „UkraineMEMO“ podcast, Co-Founder of the
Alliance of Ukrainian Organisations
Interview: Sabine Scholt, Head of Domestic and International Affairs, WDR

12.45 Break

13.30 Short interviews

Beyond the defensive mode
What’s left of the European project?

Voices of young MEPs

13.35 Discussion

„This is not our conflict“
Dealing with different views
Prof. Dr. Belachew Gebrewold | Professor of International Relations at the Management Center Innsbruck
Susanne Koelbl | Foreign correspondent DER SPIEGEL
Prof. Dr. Shubha Kamala Prasad | Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Hertie School Berlin
Dr. Linn Selle | President of the European Movement Germany
Moderation: Andreas Cichowicz, Editor-in-Chief Norddeutscher Rundfunk

14.20 Interview

With all its might
Vanishing democratic spaces in Russia

Sergey Lukashevsky | Director of the Moscow Sakharov Centre for Human Rights
Interview: Sabine Scholt, Head of Domestic and International Affairs, WDR

14.30 Discussion

Values and Truths
Europe against fake news and breach of law
Dr. Bijan Moini | Head of Legal of the Society for Civil Rights, Author
Thomas Haldenwang | Director General of the German domestic intelligence services
Prof. Dr. Dres. h.c. Juliane Kokott | Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union
Aydan Özoğuz | Vice-President of the German Bundestag, SPD
Moderation: Eva Lindenau, Programme Director phoenix

15.20 Short interviews

Beyond the defensive mode
What’s left of the European project?

Voices of young MEPs

15.30 End

Young Members of the European Parliament in the short interviews
Manon Aubry
| The Left Group in the European Parliament – GUE/NGL, MEP
Alexander Bernhuber | Group of the European People‘s Party (Christian Democrats) – EPP, MEP
Delara Burkhardt | Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament – S&D, MEP
Johan Nissinen | Group of European Conservatives and Reformers – ECR, MEP
Kira Marie Peter-Hansen | Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance – EFA, MEP
Emma Wiesner | Renew Europe Group, MEP

Studio expert
P
rof. Dr. Daniela Schwarzer | Member of the Executive Board of the Bertelsmann Foundation

Presenter
Sabine Scholt
| Head of Domestic and International Affairs, WDR

Concept | Realisation
Ferdos Forudastan
| Head of WDR Europaforum, chief editorial office Politics and Current Affairs, WDR
Heribert Roth | Editor WDR Programme Group Current Affairs, Europe and Abroad