With populist parties achieving electoral victories both at the heart of the European Parliament and across the 28-member European Union, internal fragmentation and erosion of democratic values is as much of a concern to European policy-makers as are the external and international policy challenges the Union. In conversation with Future of Diplomacy Project Executive Director, Cathryn Cluver, the former Foreign Minister of Poland, Radek Sikorski, will reflect on how these developments effect the Union's role on a global stage.
Radoslaw (Radek) Sikorski is currently a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Sikorski served as a member of Poland’s Parliament from 2007 to October 2015, and as its Speaker from 2014 to October 2015. He served as Poland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2007-2014 and Minister of National Defense from 2005-2007. Together with Carl Bildt, Sikorski co-authored the European Union’s Eastern Partnership, which led to association agreements between the EU and Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. In February 2014, together with the foreign ministers of Germany and France, Sikorski initiated mediation in the Ukraine crisis, which let to the end of three months of violent protests and clashes. Also as Foreign Minister, he signed the Lisbon Treaty and the missile defense agreement with the United States and helped to negotiate the EU’s multi-annual budget for 2016-2022, which gave Poland the largest net transfer of resources in the EU’s history.
