Event Highlights: Challenges & Opportunities for the EU as a Global Actor
This lecture by Prof. Dr. Jan Wouters, Full Professor of International Law and International Organizations and Jean Monnet Chair Ad Personam at KU Leuven, took place at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University on Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Prof. Wouters outlined the EU’s global ambitions in terms of the values, principles, and goals set forth in the Treaty on European Union and the choices it faces in an increasingly turbulent world. He described the post-Lisbon set up for EU international relations, the tools available to it, including its economic competencies and its “soft power,” and some of the EU’s achievements to date, notably in terms of international agreements and in cooperation with the UN. Finally he turned to the long list of internal and external challenges facing the EU, not least of which is proving to the world that transnational democracy can work.
This event took place as as part of the Center for the Study of Europe’s “Europe in the World” series, an initiative of Kaija Schilde, Jean Monnet Chair in European Security and Defense. The aim of the series, supported by the European Union**, is to prompt critical reflection by a larger public on human and regional security informed by cross-national experiences and a variety of disciplinary lenses as well as to introduce or emphasize EU perspectives into ongoing debates around security integration and global challenges.
**Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Erasmus+ Programme. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.