This is precipitated by the EU’s response to Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. Major obstacles, including how the EU should continue to support Ukraine’s fight for a European future, how it should alleviate the cost-of-living crisis hitting European citizens, and more, remain at the top of the agenda, exacerbated by Russia’s war. Amongst these issues, ongoing challenges remain: the climate crisis and impact of Russia’s war on the energy transition, the future of Europe in the context of rebuilding Ukraine after the war, and the ongoing impact of post-truth politics on democratic processes.

To scrutinize the priorities and challenges of the Presidency, TEPSA and its Swedish Member Institute, the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, will host the Swedish Pre-Presidency Conference on 1 and 2 December 2022 in Stockholm and livestreamed online.

On the occasion of the Swedish Pre-Presidency Conference, TEPSA will also present to Swedish officials the Recommendations from the members of the TEPSA network to the Swedish Presidency. The TEPSA Recommendations are an institution of TEPSA Pre-Presidency Conference, with a long history. You can learn more about the TEPSA Recommendations here.

The conference will bring together academics, policy-makers, media and civil society in order to discuss the agenda and challenges of the upcoming Presidency. More specifically, the conference will address the impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the future of European security, but it also explored a number of other key issues, such as the energy transition in the context of soaring energy prices linked to the war, the future of the EU’s fundamental values in a context of post-truth politics, as well as the need for a humanitarian approach to migration and asylum policy.

This Pre-Presidency Conference is organized by the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) and the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. The event is supported by the Government Offices of Sweden, the European Commission Office in Sweden, as well as via TEPSA’s CERV Operating Grant. The DiCE project (under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 870789), and the RECLAIM project (under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 101061330) are also supporting the PPC, through the organisation of parallel sessions. Learn more about the RECLAIM-supported parallel session here, and about the DiCE-supported parallel session here.

15:15-16:30 CET

• Simone Bunse, PhD, Researcher, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
• Karina Barquet, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)
• Aleksandra Palkova, Researcher, Latvian Institute of International Affairs (LIIA), Riga
• Moderator: Niklas Bremberg, Associate Professor, Senior Research Fellow, Europe Programme, The Swedish Institute of International Affairs