09 Nov 2022

Oxford-Style debate with Friends of Europe on “Ukraine should join NATO"

From 19:00 till 20:00

This year, the College of Europe is establishing a partnership with Friends of Europe to organize an Oxford-style debate within the walls of the College. 

CONTEXT 

War is back in Europe since February 24th, along the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The ongoing aggression by Russia as well as the successful Ukrainian defence are leading Western officials to rethink the future of European security. With Europe and North America coming together to support Ukraine, NATO has gained on its strength and prominence as a key actor of European security in the years to come, especially since the applications of Sweden and Finland to join the Alliance. Ukraine itself applied to join NATO through its fast-track process earlier this month. While many Central and Eastern European countries support this move, a number of Western European governments appear more measured toward such an initiative from Kyiv. To incite a critical discussion on the matter, Friends of Europe in cooperation with the College of Europe will hold an Oxford-style debate on the proposition: “Ukraine should join NATO.” The debate will be a part of Friends of Europe’s annual high-level Peace, Security & Defence Summit that takes place on 17 November 2022 in Brussels.

FORMAT 

The discussion will take the shape of an Oxford-style debate and last 2 hours. During the debate, two teams - team “proposition” and team “opposition”, will debate the motion following the Oxford-style debating rules agreed upon before the debate. The audience will have a key role, as they would vote on the motion twice, before and after the debate, so it could be determined which team has succeeded in persuading the audience and thus won the debate. The winning team will be invited to participate in the Peace, Security & Defence Summit.

The teams are composed of students from the CollegeCome support your peers!

WHEN AND WHERE 

The event will take place on Wednesday, 9 November at 19.00 in Aud.1 (CET).

DISCLAIMER: This is an event only reserved to the students of the College and Friends of Europe 

* Your personal data will be processed in accordance with out privacy policy for events. Please note that during the event pictures may be taken which can be used for publication. In case you do not want to appear on such pictures, please mention this to the event organiser.