CoFoE: Korcok: EU Not Flawless, But Europe's Problems Can't Be Solved Without It
Florence, November 23 (TASR) – Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok on Monday delivered a lecture at the European University Institute (EUI) in Fiesole, Florence, Italy, as part of the Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE).
The focal point of the lecture was the future of the EU through the lenses of Central Europe.
“The EU isn’t flawless, nor is it perfect. However, I cannot imagine that any fundamental problem in Europe could be solved outside of the EU,” stressed Korcok.
In his opinion, there are many unresolved issues from the past on the European table, including “the completion of monetary union and the internal market, but also how to deal with migration. At the same time, the discussion on the future of the EU must also include a self-critical view of the Union’s low influence in the field of foreign policy,” said Korcok.
The minister remarked that the EU can’t solve many problems for Slovakia, pointing specifically to reforms in the health-care sector and education.
According to the Slovak Foreign Affairs Ministry, the aim of Korcok’s lecture was to familiarise the audience with the views of Slovakia and Central Europe on the future of the EU and to discuss key issues concerning Europe with young people.
The lecture was followed by a discussion involving the minister, the students present, researchers from both the EUI and the University of Florence, and representatives of the academic, professional and general Italian public. They were joined via teleconference by Slovak students from Comenius University in Bratislava, the University of Economics in Bratislava, Pavol Jozef Safarik University in Kosice and Matej Bel University in Banska Bystrica.
The EUI is an international organisation and a leading research university in the social sciences. It was founded in 1972 and officially opened four years later. Slovakia has been part of the EUI since late 2019, and currently there are two Slovak researchers working at the institute. The EUI is engaged in the CoFoE via the participation of leading Italian and European political representatives.
The CoFoE will garner comments and ideas that could result in specific recommendations on reforms of the EU until the spring of 2022. Anyone can register and express their opinions or comments on the functioning of the EU on the official website of the conference – futureu.europa.eu, which is jointly sponsored by the European Parliament, the European Council and the European Commission. The participants in the four citizens’ panels of the conference come from all 27 EU-member states, reflecting the demographic and social diversity of the Union. At least one third of the participants in each panel are younger than 25.
