Panel discussion "Future-Proofing Policies: How Foresight Shapes European Union Governance" (04/02)

On 4 February 2025, the Department of EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies and the European General Studies programme organised a panel discussion on ‘Future-Proofing Policies: How Foresight Shapes European Union Governance’ to launch a recently published special issue of the European Law Journal. See also the recent EU Diplomacy Paper “Lessons for the European Union from the Permacrisis: Taking Anticipatory Governance to the Next Level” by Ricardo BORGES DE CASTRO.

Foresight, a ‘knowledge practice of assessing the future in a public policy context [… and] an approach to assist policy and decision-making in the face of uncertainty’, has been growing in importance in the European Union (EU) during the legislative term 2019-2024, but has to date only sparked limited interest among scholars of EU law and policymaking. This event aimed to shed light on the significance of foresight in contemporary EU governance and to reflect on the future role(s) that foresight is likely to play within an EU context. 

Programme

Chair: Didier GEORGAKAKIS, Academic Coordinator, European General Studies Programme, College of Europe, Bruges

Introduction: Foresight and European Union Governance 
Robin GADBLED, Associate Research Fellow, KU Leuven, Leuven, and Policy Officer, European Commission, Brussels
 
The Relevance of Studying the Role of Foresight in the EU
Karine CAUNES, Editor-in-Chief, European Law Journal, and Executive Director, Centre for AI & Digital Humanism (Digihumanism), Paris

Foresight in the EU in the 2024-2029 Legislative Term
Ricardo BORGES DE CASTRO, Former Visiting Scholar, EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies Department, College of Europe, Bruges
 
Q&A and discussion

Photos