Following Ireland's "no" vote to the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has resorted to the old strategy of trying to gain time and carry on with the ratification process, which has now been approved by 20 of the 27 Member States. The last country to join was Spain. Once the obstacle of the United Kingdom's ratification has been surmounted, the French presidency will have to overcome the setback represented by the negative reaction of Poland’s President Kaczynski, and to hope that the Czech Republic's uncertainty dissipates. Meanwhile, the shadow looms of an institutional paralysis that could obstruct any future enlargement.

The paradox of societies that are mainly Europeist, but who do not feel that the project of European construction is actually “theirs”, opens up a whole series of unknown factors with respect to the future of the European Union. The causes that lay behind the distancing of Europe's citizens from Brussels, the design of the institutional building and its democratic legitimacy, as well as the necessary reforms of the European Union in order to face the challenges of globalisation are all subjects that will be tackled at a round table organised by the CIDOB Foundation and comprised of three experts in European issues.

Ignasi Guardans, member of the Liberal-Democrat Group in the European Parliament, Ignacio Torreblanca, Director of the Madrid delegation of the European Council on Foreign Relations and Juan Díez de Medrano, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Barcelona, and in coordination with the Research Programme of the Barcelona Institute for International Studies.

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