I was talking with the other speakers just before the start, and we were delighted to see that there are so many of you joining us online today. We shall do our best to provide you with fresh perspectives on the matters at hand. Feel free to join the discussion in the chat section at any time during the event.
Although we may all have Europe’s geopolitical tensions and Russia’s power politics uppermost in our minds, it is also always worth looking periodically at the state of European integration and the outlook for it. New Year’s Day marked the 20th anniversary of the moment when some 300 million Europeans got their hands on the new currency, the euro.