European Lab Brussels presents:
Voices for Europe
With the European elections coming up in May 2024, the European Lab debates platform is partnering with Reset starting from April 2023 for a series of conversations on European issues.
free of charge
Reset Brussels
Rue De Ligne 8, 1000, Brussels
Edito
With the European elections coming up in May 2024, the European Lab debates platform is partnering with Reset starting from April 2023 for a series of conversations on European issues: “European Lab Brussels presents: Voices for Europe”. Once a month, the auditorium of the Brussels venue is transformed into an alternative European Parliament and hosts different personalities from the European public sphere.
To lead these discussions, this conference series adopts a pluralistic programmatic approach by inviting local and European personalities to each event. The plurality of viewpoints will allow the cycle’s listeners to better understand the issues discussed and their context.
With its “alternative” approach, this parliament also aims to break down the barriers of the debate on European issues, which is usually confined to the hemicycle or institutions. Here, it is about giving a voice to ground-breaking political activists, cultural actors, and representatives from the civil society who propose counter-narratives to the major challenges of our time. It is a crossroads for youth, to renew interest in public debate and European issues.
Conversation #1
Desire for Europe:
does the future of the EU lie in its enlargement?
Recent waves of demonstrations in Georgia against a pro-Russian law on “foreign agents” and the ongoing war in Ukraine have renewed debates on the EU’s enlargement policy.
What can we learn from the youth in Tbilisi who waved EU flags in the face of Georgian police water cannons last March? How can we support Ukrainians who see rapprochement with the European Union as a hope for a better future?
How can we rethink our relations with our neighbours and question this desire for Europe carried by a new generation living on the borders of the European Union?
With:
Sanja Mitrovié (Theatre director and artist I Stand Up Tall Productions)
Georg Ziegler (Advisor Ukraine I European Commission)
Conversation #2
Monopoly, concentration, independence:
what future for the European cultural sector?
The phenomenon of concentration that has been observed in the media landscape for years (9 billionaires own more than 80% of the media in France according to the French researcher Julia Cagé) has now also penetrated the cultural sector, particularly in the music, edition and events sector.
Large groups are buying up venues, ticketing services, booking agencies, etc., to the point of controlling the entire market value chain. This “360-degree strategy” can be observed in Belgium in particular. Following a workshop on this issue organised last March in Brussels within the framework of Reset!, a network supported by Creative Europe which brings together and supports cultural structures and independent media, this discussion aims to question the future of the cultural sector in Europe, between threats to independent ecosystems and increasingly perceptible monopolies.
