Václav Havel European Dialogues is an annual conference that aims to initiate and stimulate a discussion about issues determining the direction of contemporary Europe while referring to the legacy of Václav Havel.

This year, the Czech Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium Pavel Klucký and the Permanent Representative to the EU Jakub Dürr gave the opening speech of the event. The two-panel conference entitled “Europe 1989-2019: How to sustain the path towards Europe Whole and Free?“ was moderated by Michael Žantovský, Czech diplomat and politician. The debate aimed to summarise and analyse the transformation of Europe thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. The conference participants were guests from various EU and international institutions. Frans Timmermans, first vice-president of the European Commission, Marek Belka, Polish MEP, Michal Šimečka, Slovakian MEP, Jamie Fly, President of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Nathalie Loiseau, French MEP and Alexandr Vondra, Czech MEP.

The debate raised many important questions about the transformation of Europe in the last 30 years. The panelists also discussed if the dream of Europe as “whole and free” is fading away. Furthermore, whether Europe can survive all the internal and external challenges that it is facing nowadays. Transatlantic partnership and the European neighborhood were the subject of the talks as well.  All participants overall agreed that despite all possible issues at stake, the European project still has a future and is worth fighting for. In addition, as Frans Timmermans pointed out, there is definitely hope for the European Union. “The population of Central and Eastern Europe are showing that we have the Ever Closer Union. It is not a political thing but more of a cultural and societal matter. We are growing closer together. Today I am optimistic,” he stated.