Strategic foresight: a vision for the future of Europe

The meeting of the External Relations section of 1^st February is dedicated to Strategic Foresight, which consists in taking any given field of policy activity and identifying different possible scenarios, with their challenges and opportunities: for each scenario, a response is proposed in order to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities. This goes for geopolitics as well as for economy, technology, employment, and so on, according to the nature of the organisation that carries on SF studies. Therefore, not only countries like the United States and China are dealing with SF, but also civil society organisations like businesses and trade unions. In the last years, Strategic Foresight has become a field of activity for the European institutions as well. The European Commission has published its first yearly Strategic Foresight Report in 2020 and the second one in 2021.

The EESC has already drawn up on opinion on the first Commission's report (INT/918) and is now preparing one on the second (INT/958). Meanwhile, the REX section has taken the initiative to organise an open debate on this hot topic, focusing it on the EU as a new global actor in the current multipolar world and on the role of civil society. The event will be webstreamed (see link on the left).

The meeting will be chaired by the REX section President Mr. Dimitris Dimitriadis and opened by Ms. Christa Schweng, President of the EESC.