The European Union in an Illiberal World
June 3th, 2025
CONFERENCE AGENDA
Programme
8:45 Zoom Webinar connection
Session 1 - International cooperation and the changing international order (Chair Eugenia Baroncelli)
9:00 Can the European Union Save the International Legal Order?, Jan Wouters, Full Professor, Director, Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, KU Leuven
9:15 The European Union and the BRICS in an Evolving Global Order: Rethinking Governance Beyond Liberal Hegemony, Francesco Petrone, Associate Professor, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
9:30 The European Union and the Erosion of Liberal Peace: Navigating Peace Processes in an Illiberal World, Elena Conde, Professor, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
9:45 Discussion
10:00 In the Shadow of Peace: What Trump's Ukraine Strategy Means for European Security?, Harjeet Singh, MSc student, Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation, and Neeraj Singh Manhas, Special Advisor for South Asia at Parley Policy Initiative, Republic of Korea
10:15 The European Union in a post-liberal world: strategies for a resilient multilateralism, Eimys Ortiz-Hernandez, Lecturer, University of Lleida, Spain
10:30 The EU and the challenge of competitiveness in the era of geo-politicised interdependence, Eugenia Baroncelli, Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna
10:45 Discussion
11:00 – 11:15 am break
Session 2 - The European Union in specific issues of its foreign policy (Chair Elena Conde)
11:15 The European Union's challenges in human rights promotion in an illiberal world, Hanna Tuominen, Jean Monnet Professor, Centre for European Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Helsinki
11:30 Outcome Potential Dilemma: EU Foreign Policy vis-à-vis Israel's encroachment on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Bruno Jäntti, Doctoral Researcher, University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Sciences, Finland.
11:45 Resurrection, Reckoning and Rise of the EU: Some Take-aways from the Indian Experience, Dr. Shreya Pandey, Assistant Professor Department of Political Science, and Dr. Dhiraj Mani Pathak, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, St. Xavier's College, Ranchi, India
12:00 Discussion
12:15 In-between the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Enlargement Policy: The Transformative Role of the EU in a Fragmented World, Jing Syuan Wong, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Doctoral Fellow in the GEM-DIAMOND Project (ULB, LUISS)
12:30 Upholding the right of refugees: can the EU align security with its core values?, Nuria Hernández – Garcia, Associate Professor of Political Science, Universidad Cardenal Herrera – CEU Universities
12: 45 Discussion
13:00 to 14:00 break
Session 3 - Political challenges within the European Union (Chair Maria Latorre)
14:00 pm Trustbreakers: How Political Discrimination Shapes Trust and Civic Engagement in the European Union, Ana María Montoya is the Director of Research at the World Justice Project (WJP)
14:15 Domestic illiberal challengers within the European Parliament: the case of EU-China relations, Unai GómezHernández, PhD candidate, University of Edinburgh and KU Leuven
14:30 The European Union in the Face of Hybrid Threats: Conspiracy Theories and Democratic Erosion, Carlos González-Tormo, Universidad Cardenal Herrera, València, Spain
14:45 Discussion
15:00 A new era for the global information sphere, Naja Bentzen, policy analyst in the European Parliamentary Research Service
15:15 Rule of law decline through disinformation and foreign propaganda. The legal landscape of hybrid threats in the information domain in the EU and the U.S., Susana Sanz Caballero, Full Professor of Public International Law at University Cardenal Herrera
15:30 Monitoring Transparency: EU's Platform Governance in the Time of Information Disorders, Madalina Botan, National University of Political Science and Public Administration, Bucharest/EDMO Hub BROD and Minna Aslama Horowitz, University of Helsinki/DECA Research Consortium/EDMO Hub NORDIS
15:45 Discussion
16:00 to 16:15 break
Session 3 – Economic Challenges in a Turbulent World (Chair Michał Dulak)
16:15 A New Era for Trade: The Economic Benefits of the EU-Mercosur Agreement, María C. Latorre, Full Professor of Applied Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Carlos Javier González-Cabrera, Trade expert at DG Trade (European Commission), and David Suárez-Cuesta, Lecturer at the Department of Economic Analysis and quantitative Economics, Universidad Complutense de Madrid
16:30 Is Industrial Policy a Game Changer in the Global Climate-Trade Nexus?, Dr Qingxiu Bu, Reader in Global Law, Chair, Programme on Global Law and Policy, University of Sussex
16:45 Using the electric vehicles trade as a case study to explore the potentials and limits of the 'assertive' EU trade policy, Sébastien Noël, Doctoral student at the Center for Climate Change, Energy, and Environmental Law (CCEEL), UEF Law School, Joensuu, Finland
17:00 Discussion
17:15 The Monetary and Financial Challenges for the European Union from "Trumpism", Nicholas Sowels, Senior Lecturer, Université Paris 1
17:30 The promotion of the green agenda in a Trump era: perspectives on Europe's role in the agenda setting with Brazil, Dr. Ana Paula Tostes, Full Professor at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and Jean Monnet Chair of the European Union (JMC-UERJ), and Yasmin Renni, PhD student, University of Lisbon
17:45 Discussion
18:00 End of conference and webinar