Speakers:
Daniela Schwarzer, Member of the Executive Board of the Bertelsmann Stiftung
Péter Krekó, Director of the Budapest-Based Think Tank Political Capital
Silke Wettach, Brussels Correspondent for WirtschaftsWoche
Chair: Jan Stöckmann, Head of the Directors’ Office, DGAP
Every Thursday morning at 8:30, DGAP’s Research Institute brings together experts and high-level guests to discuss the latest developments in geopolitics. This week, we will focus on the pressing agenda items at the EU Summit on December 14 and 15. The next steps that must be decided there on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova are tangled up with other issues. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has signaled his opposition – while also blocking financial support for Ukraine – and is expected to bargain for a deal for his country, putting pressure on the Commission to unfreeze a large part of the EU funding earmarked for Hungary. We will also examine the decisions that EU leaders will have to make on the midterm revision of the EU budget and assess the situation in the Middle East, progress on EU defense, and the question of institutional reforms.
This will be our last Morning Briefing of 2023. The series will resume on Thursday, January 11, 2024.