The Jean Monnet and Common Market Law Review (CML Rev) Launch Conference of the CML Rev extraordinary issue 'EU values and interests in a time of geopolitical transformation' was held on 10 April 2026 at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
The conference focused on the exceptional issue of the Common Market Law Review, which has been published in open access and is here available. Among the speakers were Stefaan Van den Bogaert and Christa Tobler, who are both professors of European Law at the Europa Institute.
Stefaan van den Bogaert spoke on Hanging Together in Times of War: Europe's Budgetary Powers at the Service of Defence an article he co-authored with Vestert Borger and Christa Tobler spoke on Being European, Outside the EU: EFTA, EEA and UK an article she wrote together with Thomas Cottier.
The editorial comments explain the reason for the special issue as follows:
This exceptional issue of the Common Market Law Review is intended as a modest response to the exceptional times in which we are living. For the EU, there has been no respite from more than a decade of multiple and parallel crises. Far from it. We are now witnessing the emergence of a new and brutal power-based international order, in which not only the likes of Russia but even also the USA regard Europe as a backyard to be carved into spheres of influence, and the EU as an ideological enemy to be weakened or even torn apart.
The Editorial Board invited a group of leading legal scholars to reflect upon this deeply troubling situation. What does Europe stand for? How do we interpret the fundamental values of liberal democracy or a social market economy? What does it mean to build rules-based relationships underpinned by law and informed by broader and deeper concepts such as loyalty, trust and solidarity? What kind of wider world does Europe want to live in (in contrast with the world envisaged by Putin's Russia or Trump's America), and what global role and leadership might or should the EU provide? In particular: how do we ensure that our own fate rests in our own hands, and how do we effectively promote that international vision? What tools does Europe have at its disposal, and which resources does it lack? Especially: what are the roles, the potential and the limits of law in defining and defending the Union's basic values and interests?
