Pandemic recovery spotlighted at Prague European Summit 2021

For that reason, a unique international event located in the very heart of Europe will focus on Europe being Reborn, with an aim to provide a broad platform for debate about the most pressing challenges of the post-pandemic renewal.

The 7th edition of Prague European Summit will take place 12-14 July 2021 in the Czernin Palace, Prague, and will be organized as a strategic forum about the future development of Europe from the CEE perspective.

European leaders and political representatives, journalists, members of academia and think tanks from across Europe will participate in discussions about the most relevant trends observable on the continent.

Topics

This year's international guests will focus on three main topics.

Firstly, a great focus will be dedicated to post-pandemic recovery, as it comes along with resilience plans for restarting national economies, as well as health, or social systems which were substantially affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Secondly, speakers will outline both the EU external relations ,and the autonomy of the Union. Not only the transatlantic relations will be covered during this year's Summit, but an attention will be also given to the EU's Neighbourhood Policy.

Lastly, the summit endeavours to deal with the future development of European policies. Thus, questions will be raised to find out whether the current policies can keep up with the new trends.

Speakers

Many high-level public figures, including European leaders, business and NGO representatives will be attending this year's summit.

Karel Havlíček , Czech deputy prime minister, minister of industry and trade and minister of transport, will take part in a panel devoted to a fair and sustainable recovery. The deputy prime minister stated earlier this year that "we will be very ambitious in EU climate goals."

Another representative of the Czech ministry of industry and trade – Petr Očko will take part in a debate on the "European Digital Decade", alongside Marcel Kolaja (Greens/EFA), vice-president of the European Parliament.

Lilyana Pavlova, vice-president of the European Investment Bank, will join the VIP chat on the post-pandemic green recovery. "The region will have to make a massive leap in direction of digitalisation, energy-efficiency, green, and a just transition as to stay relevant in post-covid era," she believes.

Miroslav Lajčák, EU special representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues, will take part in a panel devoted to Kosovo-Serbia Dialogue.

Roberto Montella, secretary general of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) will be one of the speakers focusing on support for democracy through the EU's external policy.

What tools should the EU be equipped with to deal with the new challenges in democracy promotion? Ana Palacio, former Spanish minister for foreign affairs, will discuss this alongside Montella.

A push for gender equality

Notably, last year women represented 46 percent of all speakers of Prague European Summit and it is an ultimate goal of this year's summit, too, to introduce an equal number of male and female speakers coming from different backgrounds and institutions.

Moreover, one of the plenary panels will be devoted to "Gender Equality in the Wake of Covid-19 Pandemic" in order to evaluate the greatest risk identified so far for gender equality.

Simultaneous events

Aside from the public panel discussions and closed expert roundtables, the summit will also welcome 30 exceptional young experts who will discuss various topics regarding pan-European issues.

The Future European Leaders Forum (FELF) will take place in a span of 12-16 July. FELF is an official part of the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Follow the summit online

In case you would like to follow the Prague European Summit, all you need to do is to register to the summit's online platform.