Roundtable: Strategic Leadership in the EU after Brexit

Under the conditions of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis Germany established itself as the EU’s semi-hegemonial leader and has to a large extent unilaterally shaped the response to the euro crisis and the subsequent migration crisis. The German-led management of both crises has deepened the internal economic and political divisions in the EU. Since the onset of the 2015 migration crisis German leadership has become increasingly contested, especially by the Central-Eastern European countries. This is reflected by the staunch and united opposition of the Visegrád group (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) towards German chancellor Merkel’s proposals for binding refugee quotas, as well as by the lukewarm CEE support for the bilateral deal with Turkey.

 The roundtable will critically analyse Germany’s leadership in the context of the management of the recent internal and external crisis and also examine perspectives for the formation of new working partnerships in the EU after Brexit. Confirmed participants are Professor William E. Paterson (Birmingham Aston University, UK), Professor Lothar Funk (University of Applied Sciences Düsseldorf, Germany), Eamonn Butler (University of Glasgow, UK) and Christian Schweiger (Durham University, UK).