The event, 30 Years after Maastricht, will take place in collaboration with the UK in a Changing Europe on 8 February and forms part of the Department of European and International Studies 30^th anniversary celebrations.

Speakers will include David Davis MP, the former Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union; Stephan Wall, the former foreign policy advisor to John Major; and Anita Nneka Jones, journalist and European Studies alumna.

The Maastricht Treaty, officially known as the Treaty on European Union, laid the foundations for the European Union as we know it today.

It was the result of several years of discussions between governments and was signed in the Dutch city of Maastricht in February 1992 by 12 nations, including the United Kingdom.

It paved the way for the formation of the modern European Union, for the adoption of the European single currency, and created unprecedented co-operation among member states across all levels of policy and governance.

The event will be hosted on Bush House 8th Floor North and will run from 18.00 – 19.30. It will be followed by a reception.

Please note, for those unable to attend, the event will be streamed live via YouTube here.

SPEAKERS

David Davis

David Davis is a British politician who served as Shadow Home Secretary from 2003 to 2008 and Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union from 2016 to 2018. A member of the Conservative Party, he has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Haltemprice and Howden, formerly Boothferry, since 1987. Davis was sworn of the Privy Council in the 1997 New Year Honours, having previously been Minister of State for Europe from 1994 to 1997.

Anita Nneka Jones (chair)

Anita is a Kings College London alumna, graduating with honours in European Studies with Spanish. She has gone on to become a talented bilingual sports reporter and presenter with an impressive broadcast career, which sees her covering elite men's and women's football across Sky Sports, Premier League Productions, and DAZN. Outside of sport and broadcast, Anita is a strong and positive role model for young women, recently standing alongside Stormzy as a face of his gamechanging Merky FC partnership with adidas to increase black participation and representation across football. She is also an ambassador and active campaigner for Endometriosis, which has seen her speak in parliament as part of an all-party parliamentary group enquiry. For International Women’s Day, she co-hosted a Premier League event at Aston Villa FC for over 300 girls.

Anand Menon

Anand is Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at Kings College London. He also directs the UK in a Changing Europe. He regularly contributes to both print and broadcast media. He is co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of the European Union (OUP, 2012), and co-author of Brexit and British Politics (Polity 2018). He is a trustee of Full Fact a member of the Strategic Council of the European Policy Centre, a Council member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and an associate fellow of Chatham House.

Simona Talani

Simona Talani has been Professor of International Political Economy in the Department of European and International Studies since 2014. She became editor of the Palgrave series on the Politics of Migration and Citizenship in 2020. In 2022, she founded the Centre for Italian Politics @ EIS of which she is the director. In 2017 she was awarded a visiting Professorship at the Kennedy School of Government of the University of Harvard. She was also appointed Jean Monnet Chair of European Political Economy by the European Commission in 2012. She was previously at the European Institute of the London School of Economics and in the department of European studies of the University of Bath. From November 2000 until September 2001, she held the position of Associate Expert for the United Nations Regional Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention based in Cairo working on irregular migration from the Middle East and Northern Africa to EU countries.

Stephen Wall

Stephen chaired the European Institute’s Advisory Board between 2010 and 2014. For 35 years, he had been a member of the British Diplomatic Service. He was private secretary to five British foreign secretaries, a press officer for Prime Minister Jim Callaghan and foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister John Major. Stephen is also an activist for LGBT+ rights. For seven years, including four as chair, Stephen was a board member of the Kaleidoscope Trust, which supports activists in countries of the Commonwealth who campaign for the decriminalisation of same sex relationships and for trans rights.