The special online edition of the annual The State of the Union conference took place in unprecedented times, during the COVID-19 pandemic, which in just a short time drastically changed the lives of billions of people around the world. The entirely online event, held on 8 May 2020, was organised in little over a month with the purpose of bringing expert voices together to discuss the implications of COVID-19 for key policy sectors, and to deliver their perspectives to a global and virtual audience.

The conference theme “Europe: Managing the COVID-19 Crisis” encouraged high-level reflection on three key policy areas profoundly impacted by the pandemic: public health, the economy and global cooperation. Over 550 experts participated in the specialised audience while over 9000 people around the world live-streamed the three sessions of the conference.

The programme featured 23 prominent speakers, including Luigi Di Maio, Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Charles Michel, President, European Council (EC), Christine Lagarde, President, European Central Bank (ECB), Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Roula Khalaf, Editor, Financial Times, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Former President, Eurogroup, Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director, International Monetary Fund (IMF), Mari E. Pangestu, Managing Director, Development Policy & Partnerships, The World Bank, Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, Columbia University, Alexander Stubb, Director, School of Transnational Governance, EUI, and Former Prime Minister of Finland and Giuseppe Conte, Prime Minister of Italy.

Interest was strong among local, national and international press and ANSA, Financial Times (FT), and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) served as Knowledge Partners of the conference. The State of the Union’s partnership with YouGov was renewed for a third year in a row, giving the audience an exclusive first look at global public opinion surveys conducted relating to COVID-19. In addition, the conference continued its commitment towards achieving gender balance among both the speakers and the audience and as a result, this year women accounted for 43,5% of speakers and 44,1% of the registered audience.

Social media promotion of the conference took place across multiple channels with particular focus on Twitter and Facebook. The @EuropeanUni and @EUISoU Twitter accounts featured 425.5K impressions whilst the paid and organic Facebook campaigns combined reached over 835 000 people, resulting in over 32 000 clicks to The State of the Union homepage.

Read the report

https://stateoftheunion.eui.eu/final-report/