Virtual Event: Between crisis management and reconstructionThe German EU Council Presidency in review

6 May 2021

Four months have passed since the end of Germany's EU Council Presidency, enough time to take a retrospective look at the rotation. The Council Presidency was undoubtedly overshadowed by the dominant issue of combating the COVID-19 pandemic. But did it succeed in providing a common and coordinated response to the pandemic? In line with its guiding question "What holds Europe together?", the Hamburg-Vigoni Forum organized a joint reflection from a German and Italian perspective on 6 May 2021.

The historian Prof. em. Dr. Gabriele Clemens from the University of Hamburg, the economist Prof. Gabriel Felbermayr, Ph.D., Professor of Economics at Kiel University and President of the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, and Dr. Christiane Liermann Traniello, Secretary General of Villa Vigoni, the German-Italian Center for European Dialogue, took part in the discussion. Prof. Dr. Armin Hatje, who holds a professorship for Public Law and European Law at the University of Hamburg, moderated the event.

Two opening statements formed the starting point for the discussion. A video statement recorded for this purpose by Michael Roth, Member of Parliament for the SPD parliamentary group and Minister of State for Europe, highlighted the German perspective on the rotation. The Italian perspective was illustrated by Giorgio Taborri, Consul General of Italy in Hanover, in a live résumé.