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 explored these themes, assessing how the EU can use its powers to set the agenda and drive positive change in an increasingly fractured world. The conference was followed by a reception to celebrate the CER's 28th birthday.

Programme:

Panel 1: Asserting Europe's power as an electrostate

  • Adrian Hiel, Director, Electrification Alliance
  • Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, Member, European Parliament
  • Paula Rey Garcia, Head of Unit, Renewables & Energy System Integration Policy, Directorate-General for Energy, European Commission
  • Frauke Thies, Co-Director Europe, Agora Energiewende

Chair: Elisabetta Cornago, Assistant Director, Centre for European Reform

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

Chair: Charles Grant, Director, Centre for European Reform

Panel 2: Asserting Europe's normative power

  • Mathieu Bousquet, Director, Enlargement Coordination, Strategy & Investments, Directorate-General for Enlargement & Eastern Neighbourhood, European Commission
  • 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 of Ukraine
  • Tonino Picula, Member, European Parliament

Chair: Paul Adamson, Founder, Encompass & Board Member, Centre of European Reform

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
  • Francesca Ghiretti, Director, Economic Security & Resilience Initiative, Co-Director, RAND Europe China Initiative & Research Leader, RAND Europe
  • Denis Redonnet, Deputy Director-General for Trade & Economic Security & Chief Trade Enforcement Officer, European Commission

Chair: Sander Tordoir, Chief Economist, Centre of European Reform

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