The Europe Forum of Turku, held for the seventh time between 28 and 30 August 2024, brought together decision-makers, experts and citizens to discuss the geopolitical, sustainable and economic future of Europe from a security perspective. 920 people attended the debates on site and 4400 participated online. The Forum witnessed 42 high-quality programme contributions by 45 programme organisers and 170 speakers. Next year, the Europe Forum will be held from 27 to 29 August 2025.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo opened the discussion by outlining Finland’s future European policy, and former Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta shed light on the prospects of EU’s industrial and state aid policy. The former Prime Minister of Finland, Paavo Lipponen, assessed the current state and future of Europe, the EU and Finland.
Other speakers included Polish State Secretary for European Affairs Agnieszka Bartol-Saurel, Director of the European Centre for International Political Economy Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, UN Ambassador of Finland Elina Kalkku, Commander of the Finnish Defence Forces Janne Jaakkola, European Commission’s Director General for Research and Innovation Marc Lemaitre, Ambassador of Finland to NATO Klaus Korhonen, Chief Executive of the European Investment Fund Marjut Falkstedt and Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn. The views of newly elected MEPs Li Andersson, Maria Ohisalo, Mika Aaltola, Anna-Maija Henriksson, Eero Heinäluoma, Pekka Toveri and Sebastian Tynkkynen were also heard at this year’s forum.
– It was a pleasure to see a record crowd at the European Forum. The events fitted in well with the theme of the year and the international contributions in particular brought a breath of fresh air to the debate. It is good to build on the work of the Forum towards next year, when we celebrate the 30th anniversary of Finland’s EU membership,” says Matti Niemi, President of the Europe Forum Turku Association.
The discussions highlighted the sustainability of critical infrastructure, military security, security of supply, cultural resilience, competitiveness, the future of investments and innovations, as well as security aspects related to democracy and climate change. Other hot topics included EU support for Ukraine, the dismantling of strategic dependencies, power relations within the European Parliament and the main objectives of the new Commission.
All Forum programme recordings available online
During the Forum, participants actively discussed on site, on the event chat and on social media. All event programmes can later be viewed as video recordings on the Europe Forum’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCftVOOZXbNdIoClVo5HXU8w. Live stream recordings are already available as recordings grouped by day, on the event live page: https://rajucast.tv/fi/eurooppa-foorumi/.
