Hamburg European Conference 2022: Sovereignty and Identity

24 February 2022

The first European conference of the Hamburg-Vigoni Forum, on 24 and 25 February 2022 in Hamburg, was intended to pick up on the theme of the kick-off workshop at Villa Vigoni in October 2021: the importance of sovereignty and identity for European integration in general and current integration policy in particular. Given the major challenges currently facing the European Union, the format aimed to explore the continued relevance of the terms, also and especially for a "Europe of citizens".

However, due to the outbreak of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine at the day of the event, the planned first "Hamburg Speech on Europe" by the President of the Republic of Latvia and alumnus of the University of Hamburg, Egils Levits, on the future of Europe as a community of law and values could not take place at short notice. It is planned that President Levits' speech will take place at a later date.

After an initial assessment of the current situation by Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the panellists invited to the event discussed the resulting challenges and conclusions for European sovereignty and identity, ways of integrating the perspectives of European citizens into current European policy decision-making processes and the contribution of science to the handling of current peace and security policy issues.

Further impressions of the event can be found here: