In this address to the IIEA, Nicolai von Ondarza, Head of the EU/Europe Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), and Pervenche Berès, Board Member of Fondation Jean Jaurès, and former Member of the European Parliament for France (1994-2019), discusses the recently published Report of the Franco-German Working Group on EU Institutional Reform. The Report’s recommendations centre on three goals: strengthening the rule of law and the EU’s democratic legitimacy, increasing the EU’s capacity to act, and getting the EU ready for enlargement.

About the Speakers:

Pervenche Berѐs is a Board Member of Fondation Jean Jaurès, President of Association Europe-Finances-Régulation, a Member of the Ethic and Audit Committees of the ECB, and a Member of the AMF (Autorité des marchés financiers) Committee on Climate and Sustainable Finance. She was previously a Member of the European Parliament from 1994 to 2019, chairing the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, and the Employment and Social Affairs Committee. Ms Berѐs also acted as Rapporteur of the Temporary Committee on the Financial, Economic, and Social Crisis, Vice-President of the European Parliament delegation to the Convention in charge of the European Union Charter of Fundamental Rights and Member of the European Convention in charge of drafting a Constitution for Europe.


Dr Nicolai von Ondarza is Head of the EU/Europe Research Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), a position he has held since 2020. From 2016 to 2020, he served as Deputy Head of the EU/Europe Research Division, and has worked in various positions at the SWP since 2010. Since 2013, Dr von Ondarza has been Organiser of the British-German Outlook Group, a yearly exchange between the SWP, Chatham House, the German Federal Foreign Office and the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). From 2012 to 2015, he was a Lecturer at Europa-Universität Viadrina.