Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Informace

The ambitious triple plan to transform the European Union in a fair, green, and digital fashion moves from the strategy-planning period to its first implementation phase in 2021. The Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the EU thus has a unique chance to initiate strategies which will define our next decade in the face of the current COVID-19 crisis. Besides bringing Europe back on the growth trajectory after the deep recession through the biggest 7-year budget in the EU´s history, there are two equally important ambitions: to start the continent´s path to the 2030 climate targets, and to navigate the bloc to the digital decade. How can this be done in a fair and sustainable manner?

A poster of the conference in PDF can be found here. 

An invitation in PDF can be found here.

Report from the conference is available here.

KEYNOTE AND OPENING REMARKS

Time to Deliver: A Fair, Green and Digital Recovery

Time: 13:00 – 14:10

Opening Remarks

• Luís de Almeida Sampaio – Ambassador of Portugal to the Czech Republic
• Ondřej Ditrych – Director of the Institute of International Relations Prague
• Lilyana Pavlova – Vice-President of the European Investment Bank
• Frans Timmermans – Vice-President of the European Commission

Conversation

• Richard Brabec – Minister of Environment of the Czech Republic
• João Pedro Matos Fernandes – Minister of Environment and Climate Action of Portugal

PANEL I

Making the EU Fit for the 55 %: Energy Transformation through the European Green Deal

Time: 14:10 – 15:40

The European Green Deal involves a difficult task: to find a synergy between the commitment to reduce Europe´s emissions to 55 % of their 1990 levels by 2030 and restoring economic growth. The Fit for 55 Package finds the solution in the EU´s energy transformation. This ranges from promoting renewables, energy efficiency and sustainable land use to designing productive energy taxation and emissions trading. How should this transformation be regulated, and which sort of ambition should it involve? What could be the economic incentives and productive constraints in play? How to instrumentalize the green investments and taxes so that the transformation leads to both economic and environmental sustainability?

Moderator:

• Kateřina Davidová – Researcher of Europeum, Prague

Panellists:

• Nathalie Binet – Head of the Prague Office of the European Investment Bank
• Danuše Nerudová – Rector of Mendel University in Brno
• Jorge Moreira da Silva – Director of the Development Co-operation Directorate at the OECD
• Vladislav Smrž – Deputy Minister of Environment of the Czech Republic
• Elena Višnar Malinovská – Head of Unit in the DG Clima of the European Commission

PANEL II

E-Recovery: Initiating the Digital Decade in the Post-COVID-19 Europe

Time: 15:40 – 17:10

Technological progress is the main condition of a successful green transition. At least 20% of the European Recovery Fund must be thus spent on digitalization in the biggest investment effort of the EU´s history. In 2021, this task starts with putting forward the clearly defined 2030 digital targets. The immediate programme ranges from the further digital updating of the New Industrial Strategy for Europe and the Common Agricultural Policy to securing the social rights and working conditions of digital workers. How to match then the EU´s digital targets with the concrete investment efforts to enable them to reach their highest added value? How should this digitalization be mainstreamed in the industrial and agricultural agendas? How to guarantee the socially sensitive protection of European labour against the digitally-driven precarization?

Moderator:

• Daniel Šitera – Researcher of the Institute of International Relations Prague

Panellists:

• Aleš Chmelař – Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic
• Rodrigo da Costa - Executive Director of the European GNSS Agency
• Amílcar Falcão – Rector of the University of Coimbra
• Ilona Švihlíková – Member of the National Economic Council of the Czech Government
• Petr Zahradník – Member of the Czech National Investment Council and Economist of Česká spořitelna

CONCLUDING REMARKS

Time: 17:10 – 17:30

Luís de Almeida Sampaio – Ambassador of Portugal to the Czech Republic