Future events

‘The war in Ukraine and the future of the EU’ with Pat Cox

12 February, 6-7pm

Online via Zoom (register to attend at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qsfcHX7TTLWoZ2LgBOi1Gw)

Former President of the European Parliament, Pat Cox, will join the series to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine and the future of the EU from an Irish perspective. He will be in discussion with Professor Julie Smith (Professor of European Politics, University of Cambridge). 

 ‘For as long as it takes’ has been the message to Ukraine from its allies, as long as the political centre holds in both Europe and the USA, a centre that is under rising populist pressure in the one and MAGA radicalism in the other. ‘As much as it takes’ to restore Ukrainian control over its sovereign territory has not been on offer, with support described by one observer as always a dollar short and a day late. 

For European security in particular Ukraine is the pivot point on the fulcrum about which future strategic security or insecurity is delicately balanced. Supporting Ukraine is an investment in our wider security interests.

Inside Ukraine, almost two years into an exhausting war, there is a combination of enormous resilience and unsurprising fatigue. The EU, the IMF, the Venice Commission and others have set out multiple policy and legislative objectives to be achieved by the Ukrainian government and parliament as part of the country’s Euro Atlantic policy aspirations. There are signs of domestic political and institutional tensions that can be resolved but should not be ignored.

The Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950 began as follows: ‘World peace cannot be safeguarded without the making of creative efforts proportionate to the dangers which threaten it.’ 

It falls to successive generations to respond to this challenge in creative ways fit for their times and circumstances. In Europe today Ukraine is our testing ground.

This event is organised in collaboration with the Centre for Geopolitics.

Please direct any queries to islandofireland@caths.cam.ac.uk

About the speaker

Pat Cox is an Irish politician, journalist, presenter, and former President of the European Parliament (2002–04). His political career has seen him serve as both an MEP for Munster and a TD for Cork South-Central (Progressive Democrats). In the EU Parliament, Cox also served as President of the ELDR group 1998–2001, becoming the first Irish politician to lead a political group in the Parliament. In 2004 he was awarded Germany’s prestigious Charlemagne Prize for his achievements with regard to the enlargement of the EU and his work on promoting greater EU democratisation. He is currently involved in various European institutions, including the IIEA, the Jean Monnet Foundation for European and the European Investment Bank. 

For more information about the Cambridge Future of the Island of Ireland series, visit https://www.caths.cam.ac.uk/future-island-of-ireland