On Tuesday, 17^th of June 2025, the International House of the University of Cologne hosted an event called “The Changing International Order and the Renewed Momentum to Unite Europe”.

The event featured:
- Prof. Dr. Julie Smith, Professor of European Politics at the University of Cambridge and member of the House of Lords
- Dr. Birgid Bujard, expert in UK - EU relations and EU integration
- Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wessels, Emeritus Professor of the University of Cologne

The event was opened by a speech of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Wessels emphasizing the profound current international level changes influencing the EU.

Prof. Dr. Julie Smith continued with a speech concerning her view on the Brexit and the UK's view on the European Union as a “third party”, the Russian invasion in Ukraine and incidents such as the re-election of Donald Trump.
She concluded in arguing that those incidents stabilize the unification of the Western, democratic countries and leave space for re-involvement of the UK.

Afterwards Dr. Birgit Bujard moderated the discussion with the engaged academic audience featuring questions with regards to the EU - USA relations, differentiated integration, Euroscepticism and dthe “defensive future” of the EU.

The final report by Zisis Veloukas can be found here.