The EU budget enables the EU to deliver on its policy commitments and underpins its strategic response to unexpected events. In recent years, the EU budget has made it possible for the EU to secure coronavirus vaccines for the EU population (and beyond) and has underpinned major EU borrowing programmes like SURE, NextGenerationEU and macro-financial assistance (MFA) for Ukraine.

The growing importance of the EU budget has triggered a debate about its role in building Europe’s strategic autonomy. To build a dialogue on topics such as the EU budget’s role in facing global challenges, funding the energy and the green transitions and the financial dimension of creating a strategically autonomous Europe, the European Commission is organising a conference: Enhancing EU strategic autonomy: a budget for a geopolitical Europe. The conference will take place on 10 October 2022, between 09:40 and 16:15, physically in Brussels and online.

The event will bring together European and global policymakers, researchers, representatives of think tanks, civil society and businesses leaders. Keynote speakers include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Commissioner for Budget and Administration Johannes Hahn and Alexander Stubb, Director, School of Transnational Governance, European University Institute. The event will also benefit from the participation of Michala Marcussen, Group Chief Economist and Head of Economic and Sector Research, Société Générale, Tim Gould, Chief Energy Economist, International Energy Agency, Odile Renaud-Basso, President, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Sigrid Kaag, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Netherlands.

A full list of the participants and a detailed agenda is available online. To register, click here

We look forward to seeing you in person or online!