EU Day Symposium: Europe’s Current and Future State of the Union

On EU Day 2025, the World Affairs Council of Atlanta will host a half-day symposium exploring the historic changes facing the European Union in the wake of Russia’s three-year war in Ukraine and the second Trump Administration’s growing hostility toward Europe. Two panels will feature world-class experts discussing European energy and defense policy, followed by a fireside chat with European diplomats discussing European identity, values, and global influence.

Registration Details

Registration includes breakfast and lunch, dessert, and refreshments.

Panel Sessions

Powering Europe’s Future: Policies, Public Attitudes, and Challenges 

This panel discussion delves into Europe’s evolving energy landscape, featuring insights from leading academics. Despite sharing an energy grid, member states exhibit diverse policies and public attitudes towards renewables, nuclear energy, and international cooperation. The discussion highlights recent achievements in solar production by France, Germany, and Italy while also addressing potential disruptions from a looming trade war with the U.S. The panel explores the complexities of balancing energy prices, sustainability, and geopolitical challenges.

Arming Europe’s Defense: Adapting to New Threats and Shifting Alliances 

In this panel, experts examine Europe’s strategic shift towards increased armament in response to emerging threats and changing alliances. The discussion reflects on Germany’s Zeitenwende in 2022, which marked a significant turning point in European defense policy. The panelists analyze the continent-wide efforts to bolster defense capabilities amidst uncertainties surrounding long-standing security alliances with the U.S. The conversation underscores the urgency of adapting to new geopolitical realities and safeguarding Europe from diverse threats. 

EU Day 2025: Europe’s Vision for the Future 

This panel features European Consuls General discussing contemporary perspectives on European identity, values, and norms. Considering the evolving cultural and political landscape, the conversation explores what it means to be European today. The panelists also address Europe’s role and influence on the global stage, reflecting on the continent’s contributions to international affairs and its vision for the future. The discussion provides a comprehensive overview of the changing dynamics within Europe and its aspirations moving forward.

Distinguished Speakers

Edward C. Chow, senior associate in the Energy Security and Climate Change Program at CSIS, is an international energy expert with 40 years of industry experience. He has worked in Asia, Middle East, Africa, South America, Europe, Russia, Black Sea and Caspian regions. He has developed government policy and business strategy, while advising governments, international financial institutions, major oil companies, and leading multinational corporations. He has negotiated successfully multibillion-dollar oil and gas agreements and specializes in investments in emerging economies. Chow spent 20 years with Chevron Corporation in headquarter and overseas assignments, including head of international external relations and country manager in China. Chow is a graduate of Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in international affairs. He has published articles in leading academic and foreign policy journals on global energy developments, spoken on energy at international conferences, universities, and think tanks in the United States, Europe, Asia and South America, and appeared on major international media. He currently teaches at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Katja Weber (PhD, University of California, Los Angeles) is a Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests center around institution-building in Europe and Asia Pacific, sovereignty-related and human rights norms, non-traditional security challenges, and German foreign policy.  She is the author of Hierarchy Amidst Anarchy: Transaction Costs and Institutional Choice (SUNY Press, 2000), co-author (with Paul Kowert) of Cultures of Order: Leadership, Language, and Social Reconstruction in Germany and Japan, (SUNY Press, 2007), and co-editor (with Michael Baun and Michael Smith) of Governing Europe’s Neighborhood: Partners or Periphery? (Manchester University Press, 2007).  She has also published a number of articles in the Journal of European Integration, Journal of European Public Policy, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Politics, and International Affairs, to name but a few. During the fall of 2008, she was a Visiting Research Scholar at the Graduate School of Law & Politics at the University of Tokyo, and in fall 2010, she was a Visiting Fellow at the EU Center at the National University of Singapore/Nanyang Technological University. She also directs Georgia Tech’s Southeast Asia Summer Study Abroad Program. 

Adam Stulberg is the Sam Nunn School Chair and Professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on international security, Russia/Eurasian politics and security affairs, nuclear (non)proliferation, and energy and international security, as well as interdisciplinary courses on science, technology, and international security policy. His current research focuses on the geopolitics of oil and gas networks, energy security dilemmas and statecraft in Eurasia, Russia, and “gray zone” conflicts, new approaches to strategic stability, internationalization of the nuclear fuel cycle, and implications of emerging technologies for strategic stability and international security. Dr. Stulberg earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), as well as holds an M.A. in International Affairs from Columbia University, an M.A. in Political Science from UCLA, and a B.A. in History from the University of Michigan. He served as a Political Consultant at RAND from 1987-1997 and as a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS), Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (1997-1998). He was appointed Chair of the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs in July 2019.

Anne-Laure Desjonquères, Consul General of France in Atlanta, is a career diplomat who joined the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEFA) in 2006. Before her posting to Atlanta, she was the head of the division of European Union law and international economic law in the Legal Affairs Department of the MEFA since 2018. She served as head of the Press & Communication Office at the French Embassy in New Delhi (India) from 2015 to 2017 and as political advisor on domestic and African policy issues at the French Embassy in Pretoria (South Africa) from 2012 to 2015. She was also in charge of nuclear disarmament issues from 2010 to 2012 and a legal consultant in European Union law in the Legal Affairs Department from 2006 to 2009. A former student of the French National School of Administration (ENA) and of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm), she graduated from Sciences Po in Paris and from the University of Paris-IV Sorbonne (Master’s Degree in History of International Relations). The jurisdiction of the Consulate General of France in Atlanta covers six states: Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.​

Melanie Moltmann, Consul General of Germany, arrived in Atlanta in September 2022. She came to the Southeast U.S. from Berlin, where she served as Deputy Head of Division, Division for Immigration Law, Visa, and Immigration Policy. Moltmann also has served as Deputy Head of Mission and Counselor for Cultural and Press Affairs in the German embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Desk Officer, Division for South East Asia and the Pacific in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin; and Deputy Head of Mission, German Embassy Yerevan, Armenia. A Russian speaker, Moltmann earned an LLM degree in Moscow between her legal studies and a three-year study program at the Court of Cassation in Schleswig, Germany. The German Consulate General in Atlanta is the official representation of the German government to the southeast of the United States. The consular district includes Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.  

Katherine Raeymaekers, Consul-General at the Belgian General Consulate in Atlanta, serves 10 states in the South-East. After joining the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2008, as a career diplomat, she has served as Deputy Head of Mission at the Belgian Embassy in Sofia, Bulgaria (2009-2013) and in Budapest, Hungary (2013-2017). Prior to the USA she served as Political and Economic Counsellor at the Belgian Embassy in Rabat (2020-2024). Between 2017 and 2020, she served as counsellor at the Department for European Coordination within the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for matters related to transport, telecom/digital and energy/green deal. She holds a Master degree in Political Sciences – International Relations from the University of Ghent (2000), Belgium, and followed post-graduates courses in Regional cooperation – Mercosur at the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina (2001-2003). She is fluent in 6 languages: Dutch, French, English, Spanish, Italian and German. She also has some notions of Bulgarian and Hungarian.

Jacob Veerman, Consul General of the Netherlands in Atlanta, is an internationally experienced diplomat specializing in economic diplomacy, business development, change, and project management. He has broad knowledge and experience in the field of water management, agriculture, horticulture, life sciences and health, infrastructure and logistics. Jaap completed his master’s degree in social economic history at Amsterdam University and has a bachelor’s degree in education. He started his career as a high school geography teacher in Hoorn, the Netherlands. For the past 30 years, he has held various positions at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, most recently as the Dutch representative to the Asian Development Bank in Manila, Philippines. He worked as a senior policy advisor at the Dutch Embassy in Paramaribo (Surinam), was the Dutch Deputy Consul General in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Deputy Ambassador at the Dutch Embassy in Mexico City, and Director of the Documentary Information Systems Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is the senior Dutch government representative in Atlanta and is responsible for relations between the Netherlands and Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.

Konstantinos Adamopoulos, Consul General of Greece in Atlanta.