Greece

The Conference got underway with a general discussion on a fundamental question: in the new world order, is Europe’s importance destined to wane – no matter what? Leaving aside the impact of major international trends (such as demographic changes), which have reduced the relative influence of the EU in objective terms, the participants pointed to various internal factors as constituting constraints on Europe’s potential. First and foremost of these is the difficulty of reconciling the sovereignty of the various Member States with the authority of Brussels.