The EU Green Deal

This is an online event.

The European Green Deal is the von der Leyen Commission’s flagship initiative to meet the existential threat of climate change and environmental degradation by transforming the EU into a modern, resource-efficient economy, ensuring no net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, economic growth decoupled from resource use, and no person and place left behind. In a new Visions of Europe lecture Tony Agotha will speak about the need for a green transition for the health and well-being of all, the trailblazing role of the European Green Deal, and the challenge of the Climate Summit in Glasgow. 

About the speakers

Tony Agotha is a Dutch diplomat since 1996 who served amongst others as deputy director of European Integration in the Foreign Ministry, spokesman in the Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels, national expert in the Turkey Team of the European Commission, deputy ambassador in Ljubljana, first secretary in the Permanent Representation to the EU, and member of the Office of the Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is currently senior diplomatic advisor to the Executive Vice President of the European Green Deal Mr. Frans Timmermans at the European Commission in Brussels. He studied Public Administration/Political Science at the University of Twente (1995).

Jonathan Zeitlin (moderator) is Distinguished Faculty Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the UvA and ACES Academic Director. His current research focuses on new forms of “experimentalist” governance within and beyond the European Union, with particular emphasis on market regulation, environmental protection, and social policy. He has (co)authored or edited 17 books and more than 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. His most recent book (co-edited with Francesco Nicoli) is The European Union Beyond the Polycrisis? Integration and Politicization in an Age of Shifting Cleavages (Routledge 2020).

This event is co funded by the Erasmus Plus Programme of the European Commission

Background Virtual Visions of Europe

The current Covid-19 pandemic confronts the European Union and its member states with unprecedented challenges. Public health ‘competition’ between countries instead of cooperation, leading to the closing of borders even in the Schengen zone. An economic slump unfolding on a scale not seen since the 1930s. Ever-increasing north-south and east-west divides in Europe. These challenges come on top of the ‘polycrisis’ experienced by the EU and its member states over the past decade: first the financial and euro crises, then the refugee and migration crises, followed by Brexit, alongside rising euroskepticism and attacks on the rule of law in a growing number of member states.  At the same time, the global order within which the EU operates is increasingly challenged by the hostility of nationalist leaders such as Putin and Trump, but also the re-positioning of China in global affairs.

How will the European Union emerge from this crisis? Will the Union come out stronger, with a larger budget, more powers to coordinate public health measures, and reinforced solidarity within the Eurozone? Or will the EU’s inability to reach agreement and take the lead on critical issues in fighting Covid-19 result in a long-term weakening of its internal authority and external influence, or even a full-scale collapse of the European project, as Emmanuel Macron has warned?