What is EGF?

The European Geopolitical Forum (EGF) is a unique new instrument designed to enhance European policy makers’ appreciation of geopolitical issues in regions neighbouring the European Union (EU). In order to achieve this objective, visitors to the EGF website should note the following:

  • EGF stages discussions on geopolitics through a series of round tables, panel debates and other events which primarily involve experts and decision makers from the regions of the EU’s geopolitical rim. It is intended that the engagement of experts from the states neighbouring the EU — rather than purely European or Western experts — will provide EU policy implementers and other interested stakeholders with access to the actual intellectual capital going into the formation of decision making processes in EU neighbouring countries.
  • To achieve this task, EGF relies on a unique network of experts and decision makers from these regions, which has emerged after many years of integrated participation in conferences and round table debates on a diversity of viewpoints concerning the geopolitics of greater-Europe.
  • EGF’s roundtables and panel debates will primarily be conducted in the virtual world of the internet. Ability to log on to EGF’s virtual panel sessions will provide EU policy implementers with unhindered and unrestricted access to policy oriented discussions in Europe’s neighbour countries.
  • While EGF does not believe that online seminars will provide a basis for the replacement of traditional face-to-face public meetings, we are of the belief that busy people are not always able to engage in multiple commitments in different and far away locations. They do want to remain involved in a continuous flow of dialogue on geopolitical debates relevant to Europe’s current well being and future prospects. In an attempt to bridge this gap, EGF provides a virtual platform for experts to meet and exchange views about geopolitics, and remain in tune to the latest debates, without necessarily engaging themselves in further travels commitments and whilst continuing on with their ongoing professional activities.

The thematic orientation of EGF’s debates primarily focus on the following discussion points:

  • External relations
  • Markets
  • Security
  • Energy

EGF’s geographic area of coverage will initially apply to Europe’s neighbouring and nearby regions of the former-Soviet Union, the Baltic and the Arctic, Turkey and the wider-Black Sea basin. In due course, EGF’s geographic coverage will expand into the Euro-Med zone and the inter-connected Middle East.

EGF’s virtual debates are likewise supported by a range of online expert publications, commentaries and other documents and in due course the Forum aspires to become both an intellectual hub and leading resource for all stakeholders in the wider-European geopolitical discussion.

EGF was founded by a network of experts and policy makers who believe that it is for the most part pointless to discuss European geopolitics without the conscientious participation of stakeholders from outside of the EU. While Brussels, as a centre of European decision making, benefits from the presence of no shortage of experts on EU-neighour regions, we believe that Brussels (and many other capitals of EU member states) lacks a continuous flow of dialogue and healthy debate on European geopolitics inclusive of non-EU expert opinions.