The Egmont Institute is pleased and honoured to welcome as its guest speaker Part-time Professor Gaby Umbach (Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies/European University Institute, Florence, Italy), whose keynote presentation will centre around the activities of the “Berlin Futures” strategic foresight strategy group.

Recently initiated by Professor Umbach and established by the Institut für Europaïsche Politik (IEP) with the support of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Berlin Futures strategy group, which comprises representatives of the German Federal Government, Bundestag, academia, and civil society, engages in strategic reflections concerning the future of German EU policy. Specifically, the Berlin Futures exercise considers the role of strategic foresight as part of (emergency) policymaking processes taking place against the backdrop of the current ‘Zeitenwende’ and the emergence of a more fragmented and transformed transnational governance terrain.

The Berlin Futures strategy group, which started its activities in late 2020, is currently in its second cycle. The first cycle (2020-2021) focused on the future role of the European Union in global governance. The current second cycle, which will conclude in June 2023, revolves around the future of EU enlargement policy. In addition, the Berlin Futures strategy group considers the applicability of strategic foresight in relation to different policy domains and explores the way in which the outcomes of foresight exercises can best be channelled to political decision-makers at both the national and European levels of governance.

The webinar will be an online-only event and will be moderated by Jim Cloos (Secretary General, TEPSA).