In our busiest MP Open Call yet, we were joined by eight parliamentarians from Austria, Belgium, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and Sweden. They discussed the ever-present dilemma of how to ensure parliamentary oversight in times of crisis, stressing the importance of maintaining effective checks and balances in their respective governments.

The Open European Dialogue’s latest monthly MP Open Call saw the lively participation of six parliamentarians from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, and Lithuania. As usual for these calls, the participants set the agenda themselves. Their conversation covered several pressing topics, like the state of the European rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine and the recent EU-China agreement on investment.

On our latest MP Open Call, which took place on 2 December 2020, five members of the Open European Dialogue from Hungary, Slovenia, France, Lithuania, and Sweden, reflected on how to keep our societies, and Europe, together.

In its latest collaboration, the Open European Dialogue (OED) offered its members an opportunity to be part of the OECD Observatory for Public Sector Innovation’s (OPSI) global dialogue on “Government after Shock”, aiming to make sense of the current crisis and formulating strategies of handling future shocks better.

Three members of the Open European Dialogue shared their perspectives on how the network enabled conversations during the pandemic in AufRuhr, the magazine of Stiftung Mercator.

The second MP Open call of the Open European Dialogue (OED) that took place on 2 November saw a return to the topic of the Covid-19 pandemic. The Open Call highlighted that this topic remains the most important item on most policymakers’ agendas, and is over time assuming more nuancing and depth.

On 19 October, 12 network members of the Open European Dialogue (OED) from Italy, Germany, Greece, Portugal, Luxembourg, and Spain, joined a call initiated by their colleague Damian Boeselager, Member of the European Parliament. The participants engaged in a discussion that was framed by the question: how can parliamentarians make sure that they are not sidelined in the process of designing, disbursing, and evaluating Europe’s answer to the Covid-19 crisis?

On 1 October, the Open European Dialogue (OED) hosted its first MP Open Call. This new call series invites members of the network to join regular informal open-agenda conversations with their peers. The participants decide what they want to talk about and how they want to use the one hour on the line together, spontaneously.

This Open European Dialogue x Advance Politics video call between six members of parliament from Portugal, Romania, and Spain took place while the EU leaders were still discussing the EU’s economic recovery plan on 20 July 2020.

The Open European Dialogue (OED) spoke to Lolita Čigāne, who joined the network in 2016 and who has served as chair of the European Affairs Committee in the parliament of Latvia (2014-2018), on her experience with the OED and why a more open and free-flowing dialogue matters in politics.