CIR Members at the Event on Addressing Euroscepticism and Illiberalism in the EU

An event on addressing Euroscepticism and Illiberalism in the European Union (EU) took place on Friday, 6 May 2022, at the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia (FDV UL) as part of the Europe Week.

After an introductory presentation of the 'Tackling Illiberalism and Euroscepticism from Below' project by Dimitar Nikolovski (executive director at Eurothink) and the conceptual framework by assoc. prof. dr. Marko Lovec (a CIR member), students, visiting international experts and other attendees participated in a workshop where they identified (regional) Eurosceptic and illiberal narratives and tried to develop counter narratives.

In the second part of the event, dr. Benedetta Carlotti (Scuola Normale Superiore-SNS) introduced more detailed findings of focus groups among ‘users’ of Eurosceptic and illiberal narratives in Italy. The students then presented the results from previous workshops.

A panel about the state of Euroscepticism and illiberalism in Europe after the war in Ukraine and the latest elections in countries in the region followed. Prof. dr. Manuela Caiani (SNS), Adam Balcer (East European Colleague-Wroclaw), Ljupčo Petkovski (Eurothink) and assist. dr. Faris Kočan (a CIR member) addressed the audience at the panel.

Dr. Marko Hočevar (FDV UL), who is currently working on several projects in the field of political radicalism, presented his views on the topic of the event as a commentator. The event ended with an open discussion.

About 20 researchers from Slovenia and abroad and around 20 students from Slovenia attended the event, which was organised as part of the 'Tackling Illiberalism and Euroscepticism from Below' project supported by the EU program Europe for Citizens and in cooperation with FDV UL. From FDV UL assoc. prof. dr. Marko Lovec and assist. dr. Faris Kočan are cooperating in the project (both are CIR members).