CEU FIRESIDE HOUR WITH BEATE MEINL-REISINGER

We are very honoured to welcome Beate Meinl-Reisinger MP to our next Fireside Hour!

Beate is head of the Austrian NEOS party (EU ALDE group). She will share her liberal perspective on “Why Ukraine has to win this war…”

… and why the war necessitates a new security regime for Austria. The 24th of February 2023 will mark one year of Russian aggression in Ukraine. The battles fiercely fought just a few hundred kilometers distant from Austria’s border, bear higher significance than merely war versus peace. It is the future of geopolitics, the future of strategic dominance and the future of the peace project that is the European Union which is currently being fought over in Ukraine. In this atrocious war, political neutrality is not an option. However, for a country like Austria, where neutrality is fundamentally engrained in the genesis of its second Republic, many lessons have not yet been drawn. Going forward, Austria has to decide. What role does it want to play politically, strategically and militarily?

Beate Meinl-Reisinger is the party leader of “NEOS”, the liberal party in Austria, as well as the leader of NEOS in the National Council. She was co-founder of the party in 2012 and served as a Member of the National Council from 2013 until 2015, and as a Member of the Viennese Local Council from 2015 until 2018. She was first elected party leader in 2018 and reelected in 2021. She holds a law degree from the University of Vienna and a Master in European Studies from the Danube University Krems.