Decision-makers, Experts and Citizens Discussed Changing Europe at Europe Forum
The Europe Forum was organised for the sixth time in Turku from 30 August to 1 September 2023. This time, the theme of the prime scene of the EU debate was “Changing Europe”, which brought together nearly 800 decision-makers, experts and citizens. For three days, the focus was on security policy and the economy, as well as the green transition and its tools.
The Forum witnessed 38 high-quality programme contributions by over 40 programme organisers and 170 speakers. During the event, 2500 unique guests watched the live broadcasts. In 2024, the Europe Forum will be held 28–30 August 2024.
− Europe Forum is the start of the national political season’s discussions, as well as the direction of the European Union, its future development, and Finland’s place in the EU’, says Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo.
− This year, one of the insightfully selected main themes of the Europe Forum in Turku was “Europe in the World”. The EU is a key tool for Finland in international politics. However, it is vital that we do not turn our backs on the rest of the world as geopolitical competition becomes fiercer, but that we strengthen our international partnerships’, says Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen.
− Europe has always succeeded in toughening itself through crises. Recently, there have been many kinds of crises. I believe that this will fortify Europe further in the future, but not without effort. We need to work on the good things, on all the important things that make Europe an endless source of freedom, security and opportunities,’ says Minna Arve, Mayor of Turku.
The speakers of the Europe Forum included Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen, Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Anders Adlercreutz, Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen, Minister of Science and Culture Sari Multala, Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Sari Essayah, Professor Alexander Stubb, Governor of the Bank of Finland Olli Rehn, and the Mayor of Turku Minna Arve.
In addition, participants included European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski, Swedish Minister for European Union Affairs Jessika Roswall and the Head of the Crimea Platform Department Maria Tomak. Out of Members of the European Parliament, the Forum included Ville Niinistö, Sirpa Pietikäinen, Elsi Katainen, Nils Torvalds, Henna Virkkunen, Petri Sarvamaa and Alviina Alametsä.
All Forum programme recordings available online
During the Forum, participants actively discussed on location, on the event platform and in social media. The Forum’s arrangements emphasised the European Year of Skills theme year, pluralism and the opportunity for all citizens to participate in and influence the EU debate.
All event programmes can later be viewed as video recordings on the website of the Europe Forum at www.europeforum.fi and on the Forum’s YouTube channel. The recordings of the live streams are already available as recordings grouped by day on the Europe Forum event platform.