ESC Annual Lecture
2024-25 Jeff Colgan
On June 4, 2025, the European Studies Centre welcomed Professor Jeff D. Colgan of Brown University to give the 2025 ESC Annual Lecture entitled Climate politics and global financial governance. Colgan is a Richard Holbrooke Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs, and a Visiting Fellow at the Centre.
2023-24 Ivan Krastev
The 2023/24 Annual Lecture took place on Tuesday 4 June 2024. Ivan Krastev, ESC Visiting Fellow, spoke on Democracy of the last man: The politics of demographic imagination. The lecture was chaired by the ESC Director, Othon Anastasakis.
2021-22 The Rt. Hon. Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, KT, House of Lords
The 2021/22 Annual Lecture took place on Tuesday 17 May 2022. Former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson spoke on The Future of European security after the war in Ukraine.
The event was jointly hosted by ESC Director Hartmut Mayer and SEESOX Director Othon Anastasakis.
Watch a recording of the lecture on YouTube
Read a transcript of the lecture
2019-20 Vivien A Schmidt
The 2019/20 Annual Lecture took place on Tuesday 27 October 2020, online due to the coronavirus pandemic. Vivien A Schmidt spoke on Legitimacy lost, but then regained? EU Governance during the Eurozone crisis, the migration crisis, and the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vivien is Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration, Professor of International Relations and Political Science, Frederick S Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University.
Hartmut Mayer (Director, European Studies Centre) was chaired the lecture.
2018-19 Dr Nathalie Tocci, Istituto Affari Internazionali, Italy
The 2018/19 Annual Lecture took place on Friday 17 May 2019. Dr Nathalie Tocci spoke on The global rationale for the European Project in the 21st century, post Brexit.
Hartmut Mayer (Director, European Studies Centre) was Chair.
2017-18 Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s former Foreign Minister
The 2017/18 Annual Lecture took place on Thursday 31 May 2018. Sigmar Gabriel spoke on Europe in an Increasingly Uncomfortable World.
Hartmut Mayer (Director, European Studies Centre) was Chair.
2016-17 Mark Mazower, Columbia University
The 2016/17 Annual Lecture took place on Friday 11 November 2016. Mark Mazower spoke on Revisiting the Dark Continent: Thoughts on Europe Today.
Paul Betts (St Antony’s College) was Chair.
2016 Lord Chris Patten, Chancellor, University of Oxford and Patron of the ESC
The 2016 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Thursday 26 May 2016. Chris Patten spoke on Why Britain Should Stay in the European Union
2015 Nikos Kotzias, Foreign Minister of Greece
The 2015 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Wednesday 10 June 2015. Nikos Kotzias spoke on Greek Foreign Policy at a Time of Crisis
2014 Deputy Prime Minister The Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP
The 2014 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Tuesday 20 May 2014.
The lecture transcript is available here
The video recording of the lecture is available here
2012-13 Wolfgang Schäuble, German Federal Minister of Finance
The 2012/2013 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Monday 29 October 2012.
The video recording of the lecture is available here
2012 Jean-Claude Trichet, Honorary Governor of Banque de France, Former President of European Central Bank
The 2012 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Friday 8 June 2012.
2011 Claus Offe, Professor of Political Sociology, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin
The 2011 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Friday 4 March 2011. Listen to the 2011 lecture here.
2010 Jürgen Kocka, Professor Emeritus at the Free University of Berlin and Research Professor Emeritus at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin
The 2010 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Friday 21 May 2010
2009 Joschka Fischer, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations
The 2009 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Wednesday 25 February 2009
2007-08 Jose Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission
Text of full speech [PDF]: Europe and the challenges of globalisation
2007 Massimo D’Alema, Italian Foreign Minister.
The 2007 ESC Annual Lecture took place on Tuesday 8 May 2007. D’Alema spoke on Fifty years after Rome – Lessons and Visions for European Integration
2006 Prime Minister Tony Blair
Prime Minister Tony Blair delivered the Lecture on the subject of Britain and Europe.
2005 Bernard Bot, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Netherlands
Bernard Bot spoke on Great Game or European fair play? The European Union and the world in the twenty-first century.
2004 Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey
The Lecture discussed Why the European Union needs Turkey.
2003 George Papandreou, Foreign Minister of Greece
George Papandreou spoke on The Future of Europe after Iraq.
2002 Jose Maria Aznar, Prime Minister of Spain
In the inaugural European Studies Centre Lecture Jose Maria Aznar gave his Reflections on the future of Europe.
