17 December 2025Hamburg Speech on the Future of Europewith former Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni

17 December 2025

Photo: UHH/Engels

On February 16, 2026, at 6:00 PM, in the Main Building of the University of Hamburg (Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, 20146 Hamburg), the Hamburg Speech on the Future of Europe will be delivered by former Italian Prime Minister and European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni.

He will address the challenges the EU is facing in the wake of geopolitical and geoeconomic upheavals, discussing possible courses of action for a strategically autonomous Europe. This will be followed by a panel discussion featuring experts from politics and academia, who will reflect on and respond to these insights.

This event marks the second edition of the Hamburg Speech on the Future of Europe. The first took place on April 28, 2023, and was delivered by Egils Levits, former President of Latvia and alumnus of the University of Hamburg.

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Paolo Gentiloni served as European Commissioner for Economy from 2019 to 2024. He previously held the positions of Prime Minister of Italy (2016-2018), Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (2014–2016), and Minister of Communications (2006-2008).

He serves as Chair of the European Investment Bank Global Advisory Council since September 2025 and as Co-Chair of the UN Group of Experts on the Debt Crisis since December 2024. He is also a Nonresident Distinguished Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS Europe and at Università Cattolica in Milan.