The Chief Executive of External Action and President of the Executive Committee at the European Academy of Yuste Foundation, Rosa Balas, said this morning in Yuste that “Brexit has meant security and defence can advance more quickly in less than twelve months than in decades”, although she also demonstrated her scepticism about how some member states are confronting the refugee and migratory crisis in spite of measures taken by the Commission and Parliament. These statements were made during the opening of the course ‘Prospects, strategies and challenges of the European Union: the European dream in the new global context and challenges of a well-structured Europe’ organised by the European Academy of Yuste Foundation together with the University of Extremadura as part of the international summer course academic programme Campus Yuste.
Attending the opening ceremony were course director, Juan Manuel Rodríguez Barrigón, Senior Lecturer in International Public Law and International Relations at the University of Extremadura; Vice-Chancellor of the Digital University, Carmen García González; and the Director of the European Academy of Yuste Foundation, Juan Carlos Moreno Piñero.
The Extremaduran head of Exterior Action explained how over the three days of the course attendees will be learning, debating, and reflecting with the speakers, on themes from “recent measures adopted this year such as the creation of a European Defence Fund, to the ‘Reflection paper on the future of European defence’ and the three scenarios it offers, to geo-strategy”.
Lastly Balas outlined how the course would look at key themes such as “in spite of Brexit, the United Kingdom is key to protecting and guaranteeing peace for European citizens; the necessary combining of security and defence with diplomacy and cooperation to development to define the future, the necessary integration of European defence – and the cost of not doing so, and new threats stemming from technological change and cyberterrorism”.
During the course, which will finish on Friday, there will be an analysis of the European dream and the transformation of the European Union in light of the new global context; policies of migration and integration and potential solutions, and whether the exterior relations Europe has could lead to opportunity in the new world setting. Speakers include Nicolás Pascual de la Parte, Spanish Ambassador Representative on the European Union Political and Security Committee (PSC); Tomás Calvo Buezas, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology at Madrid Complutense University; María Angustias Caracuel, President of ADESyD, the Spanish Association of Graduates in Security and Defence, and Director of SWIIS (Spanish Women in International Security); Jonás Fernández, MEP; and Francisco José Dacoba, General Chief of the XI Extremadura Brigade, among others.
