Stories from the MED network

The Mercator European Dialogue’s latest monthly MP Open Call saw the lively participation of six parliamentarians from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Lithuania. As usual for these calls, the participants set the agenda themselves. Their conversation covered several pressing topics, like the state of the European rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and the recent EU-China agreement on investment.

On our latest MP Open Call, which took place on 2 December 2020, five members of the Mercator European Dialogue from Hungary, Slovenia, France, Lithuania, and Sweden, reflected on how to keep our societies, and Europe, together.

In its latest collaboration, the Mercator European Dialogue (MED) offered its members an opportunity to be part of the OECD Observatory for Public Sector Innovation’s (OPSI) global dialogue on “Government after Shock”, aiming to make sense of the current crisis and formulating strategies of handling future shocks better.

Three members of the Mercator European Dialogue shared their perspectives on how the network enabled conversations during the pandemic in AufRuhr, the magazine of Stiftung Mercator.

The second MP Open call of the Mercator European Dialogue (MED) that took place on 2 November saw a return to the topic of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Open Call highlighted that this topic remains the most important item on most policymakers’ agendas, and is over time assuming more nuancing and depth.

On 19 October, 12 network members of the Mercator European Dialogue (MED) from Italy, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Spain, joined a call initiated by their colleague Damian Boeselager, Member of the European Parliament. The participants engaged in a discussion that was framed by the question: how can parliamentarians make sure that they are not sidelined in the process of designing, disbursing, and evaluating Europe’s answer to the Covid-19 crisis?

On 1 October, the Mercator European Dialogue (MED) hosted its first MP Open Call. This new call series invites members of the network to join regular informal open-agenda conversations with their peers. The participants decide what they want to talk about and how they want to use the one hour on the line together, spontaneously.

This Mercator European Dialogue x Advance Politics video call between six members of parliament from Portugal, Romania, and Spain took place while the EU leaders were still discussing the EU’s economic recovery plan on 20. July 2020.

The Mercator European Dialogue spoke to Lolita Čigāne, who joined the network in 2016 and who has served as chair of the European Affairs Committee in the parliament of Latvia (2014-2018), on her experience with the MED and why a more open and free-flowing dialogue matters in politics.

Our recently launched MED 120 workshop series provides parliamentarians from across Europe the opportunity to engage in 120 minutes of online dialogue to explore core implications of the Covid-19 crisis and discuss crucial policy responses with specialized experts. On 5. May 2020, ten parliamentarians from seven EU member states convened to exchange perspectives on European initiatives in response to the pandemic.