Sebastian Schäffer and Sophia Beiter at Cafe Kyiv in Berlin

On 23 February, Sebastian Schäffer and Sophia Beiter attended Cafe Kyiv, a one day conference on the future of Ukraine, organised by the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS). German Chancellor Friedrich Merz opened the conference that brought together 170 partner organisations for the fourth time.  

IDM was again represented, this time with the panel “When Ukraine and Moldova Are Ready but Europe Is Not: Why Enlargement Needs EU Citizens” in cooperation with KAS Moldova. Schäffer moderated the discussion with Cristina Cerevate (Head of Cabinet of the Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration in Moldova), Tilman Kuban, (Member of the German Bundestag) and Viktoria Siumar (Member of Parliament of Ukraine); Beiter presented her research on EU enlargement and citizen engagement.  

On the following two days, Schäffer and Beiter also exchanged with representatives of different think tanks and government bodies. They met with researchers of the Institute for European Politics (IEP) (York Albrecht, Jakob Burger, Laura Christoph, Sabine Hoscislawski) as well as the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) (Niklas Balbon, Julia Friedrich). Furthermore, they exchanged with Stefan Meister at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and with Kai-Olaf Lang at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and had a meeting with Felix Bok, responsible for Hungary and Austria at the Federal Foreign Office. They also exchanged with Gwendolyn Sasse (Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS)) and David Preisendanz (Member of the German Bundestag).  

We would like to thank everyone for their time and interest in an exchange with us, a Special thanks goes to Brigitta Triebl, Head of KAS Moldova, for the excellent cooperation!