The Coimbra Group of universities has organized in Brussels this European forum on peace in Ukraine (23 to 25 January 2023)
This conference has taken place at the headquarters of the Representation of the Czech Republic to the European Union in Brussels. It was attended by MEPs such as Urma Paet (former Foreign Minister of Estonia) and Viola Von Cramon-Taubadell as well as Katarina Marthernova, Director General of the European Commission’s DG NEAR and head of the Ukraine support group.
Professor Susana Sanz Caballero, head researcher of our national and regional project on “Crisis of the Rule of Law in the EU. Special reference to Poland, Hungary, Croatia, Estonia, Spain and Italy and to the incidence of the Covid-19 pandemic”, has been invited to this conference.
The main topics of discussion have been peace in Ukraine and the still slim chances of it coming in the short term
Sanz wondered about the risk of the conflict spreading to the rest of Europe as well as to what extent the attention that the response to the invasion requires is not causing us to forget dangers that also lurk from other areas of the world, especially from the Global South, where there is instability, armed conflict and/or an accelerated decline of the Rule of Law in countries such as Libya, Syria, Peru, Venezuela, Mali or Burkina Faso, among others.
“The Russian narrative advocating the need to “denazify” Ukraine, as well as other narratives used in the past by the Kremlin regime – such as imperialist or socialist – denying Ukraine statehood, were counter-argued by the participants of this high-level meeting”
Susana Sanz
Speakers such as Corneliu Bjola and Mikhailo Minakov contrasted the different communication strategies employed by Ukraine and Russia, while Vasyl Filipchuk presented different scenarios for the future of the conflict, lamenting the difficulty of de-escalation in the short term.
Future collaboration with Leuven
Taking advantage of her stay in Belgium, she visited the Leuven Center for Global Governance Studies of the University of Leuven, directed by Professor Jan Wouters and whose deputy director is Professor Axel Marx. The purpose of this visit is to reach a collaboration with this center of excellence specialized in “Rule of Law” issues.
