CRITICAL CONVERSATIONS ON
CONFLICT & PEACE

The New Map of Europe:
Decoding the EU-Ukraine Integration and What it Means for Us

with Sandra Melone & Diego de Ojeda

 Conversations | Sat 27th Jun | 5-7pm 

For our last session before the summer break, we talk about the tangible, current institutional relationship between the EU and Ukraine, and what that structural reality transforms for everyday Europeans. 

Right now, the relationship has moved past emergency solidarity into a highly technical, high-stakes phase: the formal opening of the first negotiation clusters for Ukraine's EU accession. Meanwhile, the massive Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC 2026) in Gdańsk takes place on June 25–26, the day before our session. 

We are no longer just talking about a neighbour in crisis, but also about the future borders, economy, and identity of the European Union itself. With Ukraine's accession negotiations moving into the rigorous "Fundamentals" phase and major recovery frameworks shifting from emergency aid to deep economic coupling, integration is actively happening.

For EU citizens, this is not a distant foreign policy file, it is a domestic reality. It challenges the Union's very architecture: how decisions are made, how agricultural and regional funds are distributed, and what it means to share a single market and a security umbrella with a nation under martial law.

This session is a space to unpack the realities of this transition. We will look past the macro-bureaucratic language to ask what an integrated EU-Ukraine actually looks like on the ground, and how it reshapes the rights, responsibilities, and future of every EU citizen.

Open to everyone | Booking required

Bar open

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ABOUT THE HOSTS

Diego de Ojeda is currently Head of Unit for Defence and Preparedness at the Secretariat General of the European Commission. He has over 20 years of experience in international relations, with a specialisation in the Common Foreign Security Policy, the Middle East, Russia and Public Communication.

Hosting the Series is Sandra Djuvara Melone, CEO of Zancora Consulting, which she founded in 2021, with a strong expertise in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, crisis management, human rights and, not last, gender. With a vast experience on the ground, she has worked across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. She knows first hand what living through civil war is like. Sandra is the Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of Search for Common Ground, Europe, one of the world’s leading international non-governmental organisations working in peacebuilding and conflict transformation, where she's been involved in various roles since 1995. Sandra is a founding member of the European Platform for Conflict Prevention and Transformation (EPCPT), of the European Peacebuilding Liaison Office (EPLO), and of the Child Soldiers Initiative (CSI). Before dedicating her career to conflict transformation, Sandra worked in human rights advocacy with Amnesty International, and in international education.

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ADDITIONAL INFO

FOOD & DRINK	EVENT SIZE	ACCESS
Bar & snacks	Small (10-20)	Available on request