French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel joined forces in proposing a 500 billion euro EU recovery fund to help respond to the corona virus crisis. If other EU member states agree to the plan, it would be an important step forward for a more unified Europe – and it might bring the bloc closer together rather than fracturing it. But, the proposal is not without controversy. On Friday, May 29, the ACG hosted a webinar with Bundestag member Metin Hakverdi (SPD) who discussed the plans to help the EU recovery from COVID-19.
For the fifth session of Resilience and Adaption, on May 26, the ACG and 1014 hosted a discussion with Nina Lemmens and Daniela Kaisth on the ways in which civil society is coping with the current crisis and how the philanthropic community is responding.
Seemingly over night, education changed as restrictions related to COVID-19 went into effect. On May 22, the ACG hosted a webinar how the coronavirus has changed schooling on both sides of the Atlantic. Speakers included Susana O’Daniel, Director of Public Affairs for the Arkansas Education Association; Daniela Schneckenburger, Commissioner of the Department for School, Youth, and Family for the City of Dortmund; and Laura Ward, Vice President of Talent Development, Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.
As part of the virtual 2020 German-American Conference, on May 21, the ACG and Atlantik-Bruecke hosted a discussion with Ambassador Boris Ruge, Vice-Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, and Gregory F. Treverton, Professor of the Practice of International Relations and Spatial Sciences at the University of Southern California and former Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, discussed whether or not we could have anticipated this pandemic with Dr. Constanze Stelzenmüller, Kissinger Chair on Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress and a Senior Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.
In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, many businesses have closed. Many people are working from home – but not everyone is able to do so. An almost complete lock-down has magnified existing social inequalities and the digital divide. On May 19, the ACG hosted a discussion with thought leaders in the fields of digitalization and AI Gesche Joost, Professor for Design Research at the Berlin University of the Arts, and Mona Sloane of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University, discussed the benefits and barriers created through digitalization in this unprecedented time. This event was held in partnership with 1014.