The international conference ‘The European Identity: on what heritage, values or missions can we found this identity?‘ aims to consider the concept of European identity one month ahead of the Treaties of Rome 60th anniversary celebrations. Organized by the Institut d’Etudes européenne (IEE) – Chair in European Values of the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), the conference will host many high-class researchers, including Prof. Dariusz STOLA, director of the Museum of the History of Jews in Poland POLIN.

+++ Practical information 
+++ Registration online (before 13 February)

PROGRAMME
10:30 – welcome 
11:00 – Introduction by Dana SAMSON (Pro-Rector for International Affairs of the UCLouvain) and Luuk VAN MIDDELAAR (Chair holder at the UCLouvain)
11:20 – FIRST PANEL : The roots and values of Europe
– Chantal DELSOL (member of the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques, leader writer of the Figaro newspaper), Qu’est-ce qui définit l’esprit européen ?
– Bernard COULIE (specialist of Byzantine, Armenian and Georgian studies, Honorary Rector of the UCLouvain), Qu’est-ce que l’identité européenne ?
– Dariusz STOLA (member of the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and Director Polin Museum, Warsaw), A Central European way of becoming European 
– Discussion
12:45 – Lunch 
14:00 – Keynote : sir Larry SIEDENTOP (Emeritus Fellow of Keble College), The Christian sources of liberal thought in Europe 
14:45 – SECOND PANEL : Henry VIII’s Brexit, Pope Francis’ Europe, Angel a Merkel’s values – Evolution of Catholic and Protestant positions with regard to the European project 
– Stephen WALL (former UK Permanent Representative to the European Union), The roots of the British euro-scepticism 
– Jan DE VOLDER (Cusanus Chair “Religions, Conflicts and Peace” at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Sant’Egidio Community), Europe’s mission in the world as seen by Pope Francis 
– Matthias KRUPA (Europe editor and former Brussels correspondent of Die Zeit in Hamburg), Angela Merkel as the bulwark of European values, the Lutheran vicar’s daughter or the child of «1989»? 
– Discussion
16:15 – Break
16:30 – Keynote : Philippe HERZOG (former Member of the European Parliament, founding chairman of Confrontations Europe), Une refondation de l’identité européenne
17h – Conclusions, by Baron Bernard SNOY, coordinator of the Paul-Henri Spaak seminars, Institute of European studies, International President of the European League for Economic Cooperation

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Dariusz STOLA is a historian, professor at the Institute for Political Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, fellow at the Center for Migration Research, Warsaw University. Since March 2014 he has been the director of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews. He has authored six and co-edited four books, and published more than a hundred scholarly articles on the political and social history of Poland in the 20th century, the Holocaust, international migrations and the communist regime. 

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
>>> Université catholique de Louvain, auditorium Montesquieu 4 (rue Montesquieu 32, Louvain-la-Neuve) – see map
>>> Wednesday 15 February 2017 – 10:30 > 17:30 
>>> Free of charge – registration (before 13 February)