Madrid – ESI at conference: "What role for the EU and for Spain?"

Photo: ESI

ESI's Gerald Knaus attended an internal panel session in Madrid titled "What role for the EU and for Spain?", organised by Casa Arabe. The focus on the debate was the relationship between Europe vis-à-vis Spain and the MENA region. Together with his fellow panellist Eva Martínez from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs he discussed what priorities there are for Spain and what policies that can be created to assess both challenges like the migration crisis and identify potential opportunities, including partners from both the region and the EU.

Gerald also participated in a public panel session titled "The geopolitics of conflicts and their effects in development" together with Kristina Kausch from the German Marshall Fund in the evening.

On the same day, Gerald further used the opportunity to meet with the minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell to discuss migration policy.

• WDR5, Politikum, "Bleibt Spanien Partner in der Migrationspolitik?" - radio interview with Gerald Knaus - ("Will Spain continue to be a partner in migration policy?") (29 April 2019)
• El País, Gerald Knaus, "Una política fronteriza humanitaria es posible en Europa" ("A humanitarian border policy is possible") (29 April 2019)
• The Wall Street Journal, Bojan Pancevski, "Steady Flow of Refugees Fuels Nationalist Gains in Europe" (30 April 2019)
• ESI paper: "Amsterdam in the Mediterranean" – How a Dutch-style asylum system can help resolve the Mediterranean refugee crisis (26 January 2018)
• ESI proposals for the refugee crises in the Central Mediterranean and the Aegean: www.esiweb.org/refugees

Josep Borrel and Gerald Knaus. Photo: ESI