Henry Grattan Lecture - The End of the European Project?
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Speakers: Joschka Fischer, former German Vice-Chancellor, Paul Gillespie, columnist at The Irish Times, and David O'Sullivan, Chief Operating Officer of the European External Action Service
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Date: Monday 23 January from 7.15 to 8.45pm
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Venue: Trinity College Dublin
European integration has been described as riding a bicycle – if you stop, you fall off. Many claim that the only solution to the eurozone crisis is greater European integration, but it is clear that there is little popular appetite for this. Is compulsory austerity ending all hope of a distinctive European social model? Are European institutions such as the Commission and the European Parliament now sidelined by negotiations between national governments? Is Europe now condemned to internecine squabbling and global irrelevance? Has the European project now reached its end?
This lecture is part of the 2011-2012 Henry Grattan Lecture Series which will address the theme of The Debt Crisis: Causes, Consequences, Controls.
The lecture, which was opened by TCD's Provost Patrick Prendergast, was chaired by Elaine Byrne, journalist and Lecturer in Trinity's Political Science Department.
- Podcast
- Speaker Biographies
Podcast
Speaker Biographies
Joschka Fischer
The former Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister ofthe Federal Republic of Germany (1998 - 2005) led the Green Party in their first participation in government, both at state level (Hesse) and at federal level. From 2006 to 2007, Joschka Fischer held a professorship at the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton University (USA). He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group and of the Executive Board of the European Council on Foreign Relations. Joschka Fischer is a founding partner of Joschka Fischer and Company.
Paul Gillespie
Paul Gillespie is a columnist and leader writer on international affairs for The Irish Times (from which he retired in 2009 as foreign policy editor), an author and a university lecturer in politics. He specialises in European politics and political identities, British-Irish relations, Middle East affairs and comparative global regionalism. He lectures at the School of Politics and International Relations at University College Dublin, from where he was awarded his PhD in 2006 for a thesis on "Multiple Political Identity and European Integration", on which he is currently writing a book. He was a visiting fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute in Florence in 2010. His recent writing includes a paper and articles examining how Ireland has responded to the debt and euro zone crises and the effect of these on its policies towards, and positioning in, the European Union.
David O'Sullivan is currently the Chief Operating Officer of the European External Action Service. The EEAS supports the High Representative/Vice President of the Commission, Cathy Ashton in fulfilling her mandate to ensure the consistency of the Union's external action. The EEAS also assists the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission in the area of external relations.
David was Director General for Trade from 2005 to 2010. Previously he was Secretary General of the European Commission from June 2000 to November 2005, Head of Cabinet of Commission President Romano Prodi and Director General for Education and Training. He also has extensive experience in EU social and employment policy. David has a background in economics, graduating from Trinity College, Dublin and having completed post graduate studies at the College of Europe, Bruges. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the Dublin Institute of Technology. He is also a Member of the Consultative Board of the Institute for International Integration Studies at Trinity College, Dublin.