coninsx-marie

Strategic Foresight Report 2025: "Resilience 2.0"

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 08:10:37 GMT

In September 2025, the European Commission presented its Strategic Foresight Report 2025: “Resilience 2.0,” a forward-looking and proactive approach to ensure that the EU thrives in turbulent times and uncertainty, anticipates new - global and EU specific - challenges, and creates a safe space for citizens and business.

According to the report, addressing these challenges requires a transformative, proactive and forward-looking approach to resilience,

called "resilience 2.0". The Report states that a resilient EU in 2040 would need to deliver on three fundamentals:

(1) Achieving peace through European security;
Upholding the values of democracy, rule of law and human rights;
and (3) ensuring people's well-being.

The report also identifies 8 areas of action for increased EU resilience:

(1) Developing a coherent global vision for the EU;
(2) Amplifying internal and external security;
(3) Harnessing the power of technology and research;
(4) Strengthening long-term resilience;
(5) Supporting sustainable and inclusive well-being;
(6) A new perspective on education;
(7) Strengthening democracy as a common good;
and (8) Strengthening intergenerational fairness.

Braving the cold: Europe’s polar research strides forward with new polar hub

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 15:21:55 GMT

Dieser Artikel ist im Original veröffentlicht worden in Horizon , the EU Research and Innovation Magazine, am 2 Januar 2025.

In 2025, the EU will set up a new polar research body that will operate from Sweden,
while scientists drill deep into polar ice to study the Earth’s climate history and help mitigate the effects of climate change on this fragile ecosystem.

German scientist Dr Nicole Biebow is keenly aware of how important it is to research and protect the Earth’s increasingly fragile polar regions.

The two poles are warming faster than any other area on the planet and are losing ice through increased melting. The Arctic, for example,
is warming three times as fast as the global average, according to polar scientists. This affects local communities and wildlife, but also has broad socio-economic and climate impacts that extend across the globe, like rising sea levels.

“We always say that the poles are the canary in the coal mine,” said Biebow, the project coordinator of an EU-funded project named EU-PolarNet 2, which concluded in December 2024.

Biebow is the head of the international cooperation unit at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and also a former chair of the European Polar Board (EPB). The EPB is an independent group of research institutes, funding agencies and ministries set up to advance the coordination of European polar research both in the Arctic and Antarctic.

The EPB and another key polar research body, the European Polar Coordination Office (EPCO), will be operating out of Sweden’s far north from 2025. This reflects Europe’s determination to be the leading voice in studying these high-latitude regions.

EU-PolarNet 2 carried out much of the work to establish the EPCO, which will start work in January 2025, hosted by the Arctic Centre at Umeå University, Sweden.

A sense of urgency

As global temperatures increase and the polar ice melts ever faster, unlocking the secrets of the polar regions is becoming increasingly urgent.

„The poles, like the deep ocean,
are still very, very sparsely investigated."

Dr Nicole Biebow, EU-PolarNet 2

“A lot of work being done nowadays is about understanding, mitigating or adapting to future changes,” Biebow said, noting that “we have EU Member States that have an Arctic coastline and people living in these areas”.

As the EU-PolarNet 2 team prepares to launch EPCO, the researchers have put together a list of priorities for future research, including projects on sea ice, melting glaciers and thawing permafrost.

Biebow voiced hope that EPCO will considerably help research efforts in the polar regions.

“The poles, like the deep ocean, are still very, very sparsely investigated,” she said. “It’s an area which defines how our future weather and climate will be, and that’s why it is so important.”

Working with indigenous communities

Dr Annette Scheepstra, a researcher and member of the EU-PolarNet 2 executive board, is putting the focus on working with experts from local indigenous communities who have deep knowledge of the polar regions.

Indigenous communities make up around 10% of the 4 million or so people living in the Arctic region. Until now, they have often been sidelined in polar research efforts.

“We work with rights holders – indigenous communities or organisations – as well as with indigenous scholars, indigenous people who are researchers themselves at universities or institutes,” said Scheepstra, a doctor of Arctic and Antarctic studies
at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands.

„It is really nice working with indigenous knowledge holders because they often have quite a holistic perspective on things."

Annette Scheepstra, EU PolarNet 2

“For many years, people have said it’s important to include indigenous knowledge holders or to work with them. But how? Often, that has not been addressed, and that’s my interest,”
she said.

Cooperation with indigenous people is now based on the principles of upholding their rights, respecting their culture and society, avoiding any harmful impact on their communities, and embracing their knowledge in shaping scientific ideas
about the Arctic.

Scheepstra’s work has included working with the Saami Council, an NGO representing the rights of the Saami people living in Finland, Norway, Russia and Sweden to set out
a roadmap for research.

“It is really nice working with indigenous knowledge holders because they often have quite a holistic perspective on things,” she said. It is also a good way to ensure that the projects in the region can really succeed.

Breaking the ice in the Antarctic

Out in the field, many researchers are focusing both on melting ice and threatened species. This is the case with a seven-year EU-funded project named Beyond EPICA. It builds on a previous EU-funded research project named EPICA, which used polar ice samples to reconstruct the Earth’s climate going back 800 000 years.

This time, researchers coordinated by Carlo Barbante, a professor of environmental sciences at Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, Italy, aim to extract ice in the Antarctic that is well over 1 million years old.

“That is a period of time in which the way the climate of our planet operates completely changed,” said Barbante, who is also a member of the EPB. The project he coordinates runs until June 2026 and involves teams from 10 European countries.

His team’s working conditions are extremely challenging.

At a sparse camp in eastern Antarctica, 16 members of the Beyond EPICA research project team have settled in for several weeks of living and working in a harsh environment.

Their temporary home is just a few tents and containers set in the dazzling-white deserted landscape.

Even though it is almost summer in Antarctica in early December, at 3 200 metres above sea level, temperatures at the Little Dome C Camp average around -52°C and can drop to -60.

The team is there to drill down thousands of metres to extract and analyse samples of the Earth’s oldest ice and, with them, the vital information they contain about how our planet’s climate has evolved over time.

The climatologists’ giant drill steadily makes progress down through the ice, passing the 1.8-kilometre mark already. The drilling process is electronically monitored every step of the way, and the hole has a diameter of only 10 centimetres, so environmental impact is minimal.

But why the drilling?

“The ice can give us information about the composition of the air and the temperature of the planet in the past, and help us better understand how the climate works,” Barbante said.

Research in this article was funded by the EU’s Horizon Programme. The views of the interviewees don’t necessarily reflect those of the European Commission. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.

European Elections - June 2024

Thu, 23 May 2024 11:57:46 GMT

European Elections - June 2024

As the 2024 European Parliament elections approach, millions of Europeans from 27 different EU Member States, will play a crucial role in shaping the future of European democracy by voting.

#UseYourVote��

EU Diplomat and Alumna Marie-Anne Coninsx elected an Honorary Fellow

Wed, 03 Aug 2022 10:04:07 GMT

EU Diplomat and Alumna Marie-Anne Coninsx elected an Honorary Fellow

Wolfson College Cambridge

source: https://www.wolfson.cam.ac.uk/about/news/eu-diplomat-and-alumna-marie-anne-coninsx-elected-honorary-fellow

Wolfson College has conferred an Honorary Fellowship on alumna and former EU Ambassador at Large for the Arctic, Marie-Anne Coninsx.

Honorary Fellowships are an esteemed honour, conferred by the Governing Body on persons of distinction whom the College holds in high standing.

“I am delighted that Marie-Anne has been elected an Honorary Fellow. She is an alumna of whom the College can be inordinately proud,” says Wolfson President, Professor Jane Clarke.

“Wolfson College is committed to delivering leadership in sustainability, and conservation through innovative education, research, and invention to deliver a better, more sustainable future for all inhabitants of our shared planet.

"Through her work in the Arctic region, Marie-Anne demonstrates how Wolfson can deliver on this promise through our College community - our Fellowship, student body, and alumni. Together we can work towards a better tomorrow,” added Professor Clarke.

From Wolfson to the world stage

After her postgraduate Law studies at Wolfson in 1978, Marie-Anne Coninsx embarked on a distinguished career as an EU official and diplomat, which culminated in serving as the first EU Ambassador at Large for the Arctic. There, she championed the importance of igniting climate action through principles of international cooperation and inclusiveness.

Marie-Anne credits her time at Wolfson as an important step in her career as an EU official, which began in the European Commission at the Legal Service in 1984. After 12 years working on the staff of EU Commissioners, Marie-Anne developed her EU Diplomatic career, as Minister Counsellor at the EU Delegation to the UN in NY and Geneva. This provided her with extensive multilateral experience, and she subsequently served as EU Ambassador to Mexico (2009-2013), to Canada (2013-2017), and finally to the Arctic (2017-2019).

“I am extremely honoured and delighted being awarded Honorary Fellow. Studying at Wolfson was not only the highlight of my education, it also paved the way of a fascinating European diplomatic career. Therefore, receiving this Honorary Fellowship, while being able to contribute to the College’s leadership in sustainability, means a lot to me”.

Sustainability at Wolfson

Marie-Anne - a Belgian living in Germany who speaks Dutch, French, English, German, and Spanish - has made several significant contributions to the intellectual life of Wolfson. Her biggest contribution has been in the area of sustainability, including delivering the inaugural lecture at the launch of the College’s Green Society and contributing to roundtable discussions as part of COP26 at Wolfson . She is also involved in the College’s Sustainability and Conservation Research Hub , which brings together Fellows, students, and other partners from differing disciplines to tackle climate challenge.

Currently, Marie-Anne is Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal Institute for International Relations (Egmont Institute) in Belgium and Member of the Board of Directors of the International Polar Foundation (Belgium). She has several publications, which can be found on her website: www.marieanne-coninsx.eu .

Find out more

You can watch Marie-Anne Coninsx’s inaugural Green Society lecture via the Wolfson Media Collection

REPowerEU:

Tue, 12 Mar 2019 16:48:38 GMT

REPowerEU: Joint European action plan for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy for Europe.

The European Commission adopted on 18 May 2022 the REPowerEU, a plan for affordable, secure and sustainable energy for Europe.

The REPowerEU plan is about rapidly reducing our dependence on Russian fossil fuels by fast forwarding the green transition and joining forces to achieve a more resilient energy system and a true Energy Union. Building on the EU “Fit for 55” package of proposals and completing the actions on energy security of supply and storage, the main elements of action under the plan are saving energy by promoting energy efficiency and enhancing preparedness, diversifying energy supplies, quickly substituting fossil fuels by accelerating Europe's clean energy transition and smartly combining investments and reforms.

Reference: Communication of the European Commission of 18 May 2022.

https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2022:230:FIN