On 15 and 16 March, we held at Castle on Water in Wojnowice the third annual meeting with experts participating in our project “Protecting European Values”. Experts from Hungary, France, Romania, Bulgaria, Poland and Italy gathered in person, while we also connected online with our colleagues from Germany/the Netherlands and Spain.
The meeting was dedicated to discussions about current problems with dismantling of rule law and democratic backsliding occurring in many EU member states, but also to project plans for this year (publications, study visits, debates). Donald Trump’s domestic and foreign policy and their negative impact on the functioning of democracy in the EU occupied a prominent place in our proceedings.
At the meeting, the experts also presented short case studies of individual European countries in terms of most relevant challenges and threats to democracy and rule of law. Florian Lippert discussed the situation in Germany and the Netherlands, Fabio Turco presented developments in Italy, Guillem Ripoll analysed Spain, while Anais Marin focused on France. Kristina Tsabala paid attention to Bulgaria, while Zsuzsana Vegh elaborated on Hungary. Finally, Andrei Macsut and Maria Wincławska discussed the example of Romania and Poland- where key presidential elections will take place in late Spring this year- respectively. The meeting was moderated by Adam Balcer who delivered evaluation of political and social processes taking place in other EU states. During the meeting, he was assisted by Gabriela Rzepka.
During the meeting, a trial workshop was also conducted, which conclusions will be used to prepare the content of focus groups which are planned to be held in Poland and the Netherlands.
Our plans for 2025 foresee the continuation of our current activities. We will research particularly the influence of Trumpism on Europe and ideological hybridization of political parties in the EU. The project will produce policy papers, reports, podcasts and articles concerning various EU states. We also discussed the timeline of study trips to France and countries where important elections from the point of view of European democracy will take place (Germany, Czechia, Romania and Poland). In addition, we also talked about agenda of our debates in East Germany and Brussels and this one which will take place during the Polish Eastern Policy conference organized regularly in Autumn every year.
