his year’s conference centres on the idea that the European Union is at a crossroads in the context of the changes and challenges of the current and previous years. The European Union is largely viewed as a success story and as a cornerstone of European stability and prosperity.

Currently, however, the EU faces a range of political, economic and social pressures, including slow growth and persistently high unemployment in many EU countries, as well as social unrest across several EU countries. Such factors are complicating the EU’s ability to deal with a multitude of unprecedented internal and external challenges like the refugee crisis, the Greek financial crisis, the Brexit challenge, the Russia – Ukraine conflicts, the EU-USA trade agreement and other such events.