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The Churchill
Europe
Lectures
Let Europe
Arise!
Upcoming Churchill Lecture
Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Alain Berset became Secretary General of the Council of Europe on 18 September 2024.
Between 2012 and 2023, he was an elected Minister in the Swiss government (Federal Council). He headed the Federal Department of Home Affairs, with responsibility for health, social affairs, culture, equality and anti-discrimination, and led Switzerland’s public health response during the Covid-19 pandemic. He served as President of the Swiss Confederation in 2018 and 2023. In 2003, he was elected to the Council of States and served as its President from 2008 to 2009. From 2005 to 2011, he was Vice-Chair of the Socialist Group in the Federal Parliament.
He holds an MSc in political science and a PhD in economics.
Churchill Symposia & Lectures
The annual Churchill Symposium was launched in 1996 on the fiftieth anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s speech in Zurich. It is organized annually by the Europa Institut at the University of Zurich with the generous support of Julius Baer and in cooperation with the Swiss Institute for Foreign Studies and the British Embassy in Bern. Renowned guests from international politics and business are invited to give lectures and discuss current topics of European integration at this exclusive event. Since 2005, the symposium has been supplemented by the annual public «Churchill Special Lectures», at which high-ranking representatives of international politics address European policy topics.
Previous Churchill Events
During previous Churchill Symposia and Lectures, the Europa Institut has already been able to welcome some of the most prominent representatives of international politics and business, including for example, Romano Prodi, Henry Kissinger, Micheline Calmy-Rey, Viktor Yushchenko, Helmut Kohl, Josef Ackermann, Wolfgang Schäuble, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, Doris Leuthard, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, José Manuel Barroso, Fürst Hans-Adam II. von und zu Liechtenstein, Petro Poroschenko, Jean-Claude Junker, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing und Mark Rutte.
Churchill in Zurich 1946
In 1946 Winston Churchill laid out his vision for how Europe could rise from the devastation of World War II and rebuild itself as a peaceful, secure, and prosperous continent. Churchill concluded his famous speech with the exhortation, «Let Europe Arise!» The speech was of visionary power and is often seen as initiating the process of European integration. Sir Winston Churchill emphasized the importance of overcoming Franco-German antagonism to create a peaceful Europe, and he called for a kind of «United States of Europe».
About Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, born on November 30, 1874 in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, is considered to be the most important British statesman of the 20th century. He was prime minister twice – from 1940 to 1945 and from 1951 to 1955 – and led Great Britain through World War II. He had previously held several government posts, including Home Secretary, First Lord of the Admiralty and Chancellor of the Exchequer. He also emerged as an author of political and historical works and received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1953.
Supported by Julius Bär
Julius Baer is proud to be the partner of the EIZ for the Churchill events. It is an excellent platform to address and discuss the position, development and future of Europe and build on the visionary power of Sir Winston Churchill. In today’s open and interconnected world, continuous dialogue is ever more important.