Hundred Shades of EU: Mapping the Political Economy of Euro Peripheries

Online Workshop

This workshop will provide an overview of a study on the socio-economic, political and cultural dimensions of the EU periphery, designed by transform! europe in collaboration with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation. The workshop will focus on the political impact of the EU’s core-periphery divide.

 

The European Union is a diverse political and cultural space, characterised by structural unbalances that stem from power asymmetries implicit to its functioning. Such asymmetries translate into two broad and composite peripheral regions relative to the core: the so-called “old periphery”, encompassing the Southern European (SE) countries and the “new periphery”, that includes Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

By focusing on peripherality, transform! europe, in collaboration with the Rosa-Luxemburg-Foundation, has been developing a study that aims at broadening our understanding of the political economy of the EU and the way its economic and political processes affect the development of societies in the euro peripheries. The full study, addressing the socio-economic, political and cultural dimension of peripherality, will be presented in 2022.

In this workshop the major findings of this work in progress, including the economic characterisation of each region of the euro periphery, will be presented and will serve as basis for a discussion not only on the political impact of the EU on the periphery-core divide, but also on the role of peripheries in the future European integration process.

Grasping the opportunities and strengths within and between regions is essential for building bridges and establishing cooperations across the European Union. Understanding the socio-economic as well as the political conditions that underline peripherality is fundamental for the discussion on the future of Europe.

The workshop took place in the framework of the European Forum 2021.

Full Recording


Programme

Wednesday, 24 November
14.00 – 15.30 (CET)

languages: English, French

Moderation:

  • Dagmar Švendova, transform! europe
    Facilitator of transform! europe in the programme: “Central and Eastern European Strategy”.
  • Tatiana Moutinho, transform! europe
    Facilitator of transform! europe in the programme “Cooperation Strategies for Southern Europe” and the President of Cul:tra – Cooperativa Culturas de Trabalho e Socialismo (Portugal).

Speakers:

  • Giuseppe Celi, University of Foggia (Italy)
    Senior researcher responsible for the Southern Europe countries group. Italian economist, currently Associated Professor of Economics in the University of Foggia. Coordinator of the Ph.D. Programme in Economic Theory at the University of Foggia and Italian Coordinator of the MA Programme Erasmus Mundus Economics of International Trade and European Integration. Recently published, together with other authors, the book “Crisis in the European Monetary Union. A core-periphery perspective”.
  • Valentina Petrović, University of Zurich (Switzerland)
    Senior researcher responsible for the Southern Eastern countries group. PhD Candidate at the SPS Department, at the European University Institute in Florence. Postdoc at the Department of Sociology at the University of Zurich.
  • Veronika Sušová-Salminen, Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic)
    Senior researcher responsible for the Central East Europe countries group. Mgr. (MA) in comparative history, Ph.D. in Anthropology / Charles University in Prague, Specialisation: history and politics of modern Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and post-soviet space; works as researcher at the Centre of Global Studies (Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences) and as editor-in-chief of webzine !Argument.