12 noon - 1:15pm GMT
Thursday 28 April 2022
Roundtable Event: Europe's place in a Challenged World
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Europe has seen some of the swiftest geopolitical changes since the end of the Second World War. Some of the deepest rifts have temporarily diminished: neither London nor Brussels want to provoke a spat during a continental security crisis. So too has the spat between Warsaw and Brussels, and even relations between Turkey and the EU. Germany’s epochal defence shift appears nicely aligned with France’s plans for boosting Europe’s overall defence capabilities. And the EU has responded speedily on sanctions and defence coordination to Ukraine. But can it last? Bringing together scholars and analysts, including the former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, College of Europe Rector Federica Mogherini, this Centre for Britain and Europe Roundtable considers these vital developments in assessing the impact of the Ukraine crisis on the EU’s ability to be an effective foreign and security actor.
Free
Stag Hill Campus
University of Surrey
GUILDFORD
Surrey
GU2 7XH
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Event Report
Our guest speakers
We are delighted to be joined by two high-profile guest speakers for this event: Federica Mogherini and Barbara Serra.
Rector Federica Mogherini
Rector, College of Europe Former EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Biography
Federica Mogherini is the former Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy between 2014-19. Currently Rector of the College of Europe in Bruges, Mogherini has had a distinguished career to date in European and Foreign Policy, having also served a stint as Italian Minister in Foreign Affairs prior to joining the European Commission. More recently, she co-chaired the United Nations High Level Panel on Internal Displacement from January 2020 until September 2021.
As High Representative, she was the European Union’s top diplomat, responsible for coordinating foreign policy amongst the 28 member states. During her time at the European Commission, Rector Mogherini oversaw the implementation of the European Union Global Strategy, the Iranian Nuclear Accord (JCPOA), and the departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union.
Federica Mogherini is a Fellow of the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, Fellow of the German Marshall Fund, member of the Group of Eminent Persons of the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization, member of the European Leadership Network for Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, and member of the Board of Directors of the Italian Institute for Foreign Affairs (IAI). She has a degree in Political Science from the University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
Barbara Serra
Award-winning journalist, TV presenter, documentary- maker and author
Biography
From 2006 to 2022 she presented Al Jazeera English’s flagship NewsHour programme from the channel’s European headquarters in London. She was previously a reporter and presenter at Sky News, BBC and Channel 5, where she became the first non-native English speaker to present a prime-time news programme on British television.
In 2021 her documentary ‘Fascism in the Family’ won Gold in both the Current Affairs and History categories at the New York TV & Film Festivals Awards.
Barbara is also a high profile journalist in her native Italy. In 2019 she was awarded the Knighthood of the Order of the Star of Italy by the President of the Italian Republic for her journalism.
The Roundtable will include two high profile guest speakers, Federica Mogherini and Barbara Serra, who will be joined on the roundtable by colleagues from the Department of Politics, Professor Amelia Hadfield and Professor Theofanis Exadaktylos. The event will be chaired by Dr Alia Middleton.
The approximately 90 minute discussion will encourage stimulating and thought-provoking questions from the audience, made up of students, PGRs and the academic community here at the University of Surrey, as well as invited members of the local community.