Conference Agenda

In a world characterised by the return of war to the European continent since February 2022 and Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, Franco-German military cooperation has been put to the test more than ever. Indeed, the classic image of France and Germany as the driving force behind European defence and military cooperation that has emerged regularly since the end of the Cold War seems to have become more than just a recurring source of discussion. The latest developments around the SCAF project or the European Air Shield Initiative (ESSI) launched by Germany without consultation between the two states in October 2022 have tended to fuel the idea that Franco-German military cooperation is far from being as fluid as the political rhetoric has tried for several decades to make out.
Yet these tensions between France and Germany, the original driving force behind European reconciliation, are nothing new. This paper will therefore draw on discursive institutionalism to analyse the strategic discourses developed by French and German governmental actors since February 2022 in order to understand how the rapid and far-reaching changes in German defence policy under the Zeitenwende are producing effects of dissonance between the strategic discourses and the operational means implemented by the two states, both in the military aid provided to Ukraine and in their way of conceiving European defence, between strategic autonomy and de facto dependence on NATO. This paper is empirically based on a field survey of around twenty-five qualitative interviews conducted in 2022-2023, nesides the content analysis of French and German strategic discourses and how they frame European defence in the context of the war in Ukraine.

This paper focuses on the creation of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly (FGPA). This unprecedented form of bilateral parliamentary cooperation between the two biggest EU member states was established in 2019. It is to institutionalize the cooperation between the German Bundestag and the Assemblée nationale and consists of a total of 100 members. This young assembly puts the bilateral relationship on a more integrated level. Before, the relationship consisted mainly of the close institutionalized ties between the governments. This paper asks: Why did the founding actors create the bilateral assembly at this point in time?

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to demonstrate the reasons and motives for the creation of the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly in March 2019. The study traces the negotiations of the Franco-German founding group as they were experienced by 20 members of the German Bundestag and the French Assemblée and recorded in the official protocols in order to grasp the creation process. This study is situated in the research field of interparliamentary cooperation and its theoretical framework is based on historical institutionalism. Methodologically, the study applies a process-tracing approach and qualitative data analysis.

This study examines the complicated relationship between social networks and liberal ideologies, focusing on Hungary, Poland and Romania. It assumes that social networks are essential in political formation and narratives. This research investigates the effects of these platforms on the presence of liberal ideologies in these nations.

The research examines social media use in these countries during the 2024 European Parliament election campaign. It explores how Facebook has been used to promote anti-liberal sentiment, gather support and influence public opinion. The study examines the nature of content, communication tactics and user engagement on these platforms, assessing their potential as tools for political propaganda.

A crucial part of this study is examining populist and Eurosceptic rhetoric. It assesses how these narratives shape public opinion about liberal values and European institutions and their influence on civic engagement and the democratic process.

In conclusion, the study reflects on how these findings might influence the trajectory of liberal ideologies in Europe. Integrating Social Network Analysis (SNA) with theoretical exploration provides an interpretative view of the interaction between technology, politics and ideology, particularly in discussions about the future of democracy and liberal thought in Europe.

The EU faced several crises in recent decades, including the Eurozone crisis, the refugee crisis, and Brexit. Given other challenges, such as the rise of Eurosceptic populism, European integration has increasingly been equated with the term 'crisis'. As such, the European question is also framed as a potential threat to the unity of national political parties in Member States.

Yet how did parties treat European integration as a party management issue before? In an attempt to answer this question, this paper focuses on two main cases: the British Labour Party under Tony Blair's leadership (1994-2007) and the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) during Gerhard Schröder's chancellery (1998-2005). The main argument of this paper is that even before the 'negativities' affiliated with EU-level crises, Europe marked a thorny intra-party issue despite the progress of integration with 'positive' steps, such as the euro. This was caused by a mix of internal and external factors, including the greater domestic salience of the EU, the "executive bias" encouraged by the integration, and the governmental position of parties.

The management of the EU issue by the Blair and Schröder leaderships is examined based on Katz and Mair's "three faces of party organisation" thesis. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were made with 32 former senior political elites from Labour and the SPD (16 participants each). In addition, several physical and digital archives on Labour and the SPD’s European vocations were covered. To analyse the collected data, the reflexive thematic analysis method was used.

Located on the borderland of Western civilization, East-Central Europe as a whole and Poland, in particular, has been subject to a unique historical reality of being surrounded by powerful neighbors, aspiring to establish exclusive supremacy in an area perceived as an essential bulwark against each other. Existing at the outer fringes of great powers the Polish state with its various past embodiments had to adapt its behavior to the interests of powerful neighbors along the line of East-West dichotomy. However, unlike most other ECE countries, Poland represents a unique case in the sense that regardless of being included in one dominant power’s sphere of influence or constituting an isthmus-like territory of great power contestation it has always aspired to form its own regional power center. This aspiration is rooted in the post-World War I idea of Intermarium as a federation of East-Central European countries, while the Three Seas Initiative, launched in 2015, serves as its modified extension. Furthermore, Poland’s active role in formulating the EU’s Eastern Partnership policy back in 2009 illustrates another important dimension of regional leadership ambition. The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to examine the historical roots, evolution, and contemporary manifestations of Poland’s quest for regional hegemony, and (2) to apply the multiple hierarchy model, a revised variation of power transition theory within regional sub-systems, to assess Poland’s potential and constraints in establishing regional leadership via policy initiatives designed to bring East-Central European countries together.