Ukraine, Europe and the Return of Geopolitics

This academic year's Maurice Fraser Lecture features Klaus Welle, who has served as Secretary General of the European Parliament, a key administrative post in the EU system, for the last 13 years, retiring in December 2022. He will explore the origins and significance of Russia's war on Ukraine, its implications for and impacts on the European Union political system and Transatlantic relations, and how recent events fit into wider geo-political shifts and shocks that pose important choices for Europe.

More about our speaker and chair

Klaus Welle was Secretary General of the European Parliament from 2009 to 2022. His previous roles in Brussels include serving as chief of staff to the President of the European Parliament, as Director General for EU Internal Policies in the Parliament's administration, and as Secretary General successively of the European People's Party (EPP) transnational political party and of the EPP political group in the European Parliament.

Kevin Featherstone is a Professorial Research Fellow and Director of the Hellenic Observatory at the LSE European Institute at LSE.

More about this event

The European Institute (@LSEEI) is a centre for research and graduate teaching on the processes of integration and fragmentation within Europe.

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LSE holds a wide range of events, covering many of the most controversial issues of the day, and speakers at our events may express views that cause offence. The views expressed by speakers at LSE events do not reflect the position or views of the London School of Economics and Political Science.