A ROAD TO EUROPE
How crises have reshaped the politics of the Union
2-3 December 2025
Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
Milan, Viale Pasubio 5
Over the past fifteen years, the European Union has experienced an unprecedented series of crises: from the debt crisis to the migration crisis, from Brexit to the pandemic, to war, energy challenges, and climate change. Each of these trials has called into question not only Europe’s ability to act collectively, but its very existence as a shared political project, threatened by the rise of populism and growing mistrust among citizens. At the same time, however, it has opened up spaces for new forms of cooperation, leadership, and political legitimacy.
The final conference of the SOLID project – Policy Crisis and Crisis Politics, Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the Eu post 2008 proposes a collective reflection on how Europe, in living with uncertainty, has redefined its way of governing, building consensus, and doing politics. It is an opportunity to look back at the transformations that the crises have wrought on the European project – and to ask ourselves what their legacy will be for the future of the Union.
After six years of research, on December 2nd and 3rd at the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation, the project will conclude with a series of closed-door working groups over the two days and an event open to the public.
During its development, SOLID – whose partners include the European University Institute, the London School of Economics, the University of Milan and the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli – has produced a vast body of scientific contributions, including monographs, peer-reviewed papers, comparative analyses, and original surveys at the European level. Together, these outputs provide a detailed mapping of public expectations and the institutional and political dynamics that have shaped the EU’s ability to respond to the various crises currently underway.
Coordinated by Principal Investigators Maurizio Ferrera, Waltraud Schelkle, and Hanspeter Kriesi, SOLID has analyzed the political and institutional mechanisms that have enabled the European Union not only to navigate the era of polycrisis, but in some cases, to strengthen its capacity to intervene, consolidating innovative tools and new forms of democratic legitimacy.
The conference will also include a public event – Global (dis)order: can Europe resist itself? – devoted to the future of Europe in an increasingly unstable international order. The discussion will address how the EU is navigating geopolitical fracture, democratic erosion and social insecurity, and whether the European project can sustain itself as a space for cooperation, solidarity and political imagination in a more conflictual world.
Global (dis)order: can Europe resist itself?
Over the past fifteen years, the EU has gone through a turbulent phase marked by multiple, overlapping crises: from the euro crisis to migration, from COVID-19 to the war in Ukraine, as well as latent crises that have just as profoundly shaped the relationship between European institutions and citizens.
It is within this context that SOLID – Policy Crisis and Crisis Politics. Sovereignty, Solidarity and Identity in the EU post-2008 took shape.
Today, after six years of research and an extensive body of analyses and surveys, the project presents its main findings at the final conference on 2–3 December, combining closed-door sessions with a public event.
The meeting offers an opportunity to reflect on the future trajectories of the European project together with some of the most authoritative voices in the international debate.
Opening remarks
Maurizio Ferrera University of Milan, Solid Principal Investigator
Keynote speakers
Sylvie Goulard Economist, former Member of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2017 and Deputy Governor of the Banque de France from 2018 to 2022
Erik Jones Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute
Giovanni Capoccia Professor of Comparative Politics and Fellow, Corpus Christi College, Oxford University
Chair
Angela Mauro HuffPost correspondent in Brussels
The conference is also streamed in English on the website and on the Facebook page of Fondazione Feltrinelli.