Support for Euroscepticism in the EU is stimulated by a wide scope of social, economic, political, and cultural factors. They often shape Eurosceptic moods differently in each EU member state. Still, all over Europe, Eurosceptic forces – both from the right and the left spectrum – have long made the European institutions one of their favourite scapegoats. Criticisms are numerous and diverse: bureaucracy and elitism, lack of transparency and unaccountability, financial burden, non-democratic processes, etc. Accusing EU institutions of all evils would be unfair but it cannot be ignored that institutional deficits have generally fuelled negative perceptions among many European citizens.
It seems that there is today a large consensus about the need to improve the functioning of our institutions. The debate has been ongoing all over Europe for two years within the framework of the Conference on the Future of Europe (2020-2022). The war in Ukraine additionally strengthened calls for the reforms of the EU institutions in order to make it more efficient.
In order to comprehend the complex expressions of Euroscepticism concerning institutional framework of the EU and to debate possible solutions WiseEUROPA together with the University of Toruń organizes a public debate “The Future of EU Institutions and Euroscepticism” which will begin with a short lecture on a possible impact of war in Ukraine on the institutional reforms of the EU and reactions of Eurosceptical political forces.
The debate will be conducted within the framework of the project “EUscepticOBS: analysing Euroscepticism, informing citizens and encouraging debates” co-funded by the European Commission and implemented in cooperation with partners from France, Hungary and Sweden. The debate will be accompanied by a presentation of the webpage EUscepticOBS which will serve as a data base of Eurosceptic political parties. It will describe their history, relations between them, and their Eurosceptic ideology and top priorities. During the event we will also present conclusions of workshop with citizens of Toruń. They will discuss weak and strong points of the EU institutions and the relationship between their deficits and Euroscepticism.
Place: Toruń, Collegium Maximum
Date: 19.10.2022, 4:00 PM
