What’s at stake. EU international cooperation is entering a period of significant transition. As discussions advance on the future Global Europe instrument and the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the language shaping EU external action is shifting — “win-win” partnerships, strategic interests, and private-sector engagement are increasingly central to how cooperation is framed. These shifts reflect real geopolitical pressures, but they also raise deeper questions: who defines the “win” when governments aren’t the only stakeholders? What space remains for solidarity and the needs of the most vulnerable when these don’t align with immediate European interests? And what conditions must private sector engagement meet to serve poverty reduction, not just economic interest?
This breakfast dialogue brings together Members of the European Parliament and a small group of civil society and faith-based partners to work through these tensions together — building on a constructive exchange with MEPs on humanitarian values and funding earlier this year. The aim isn’t ready-made answers, but a values-driven, evidence-grounded conversation that moves past simplistic win-win rhetoric toward the harder, necessary work of managing trade-offs.
Hosted by MEP Udo Bullmann (S&D) and MEP Geuking (EPP).
Jointly organised by ACT Alliance EU, Caritas Europa, COMECE, EU-CORD and World Vision EU.
