Europe Day with Armin Laschet, MdB, and Prof. Dr. Steffen Hurka

On 9 May 2026, a ceremonial event marking the 76th Europe Day took place at the Friedrichshafen Music School. The event was jointly organized by Europe Direct Friedrichshafen and the Europa-Union Bodenseekreis.

Accompanied musically by the Friedrichshafen Youth Symphony Orchestra, the ceremony began with welcoming remarks by Mayor Simon Blümcke and Wolfgang Bücherl from the European Commission. This was followed by an inspiring keynote speech by Armin Laschet, Member of the Bundestag, who emphasized the importance of Europe for peace, freedom, and prosperity and made clear that these achievements must never be taken for granted.

In his keynote address, Prof. Steffen Hurka built on these themes and presented a number of proposals on how the EU could become more resilient and capable of acting in times of crisis. First, he argued that the EU should rely more strongly on majority voting and that, if this proved impossible, a “Europe of two speeds” would still be preferable to a Europe marked by stagnation. At the same time, he called for a better political culture in which compromises are understood not as a weakness, but as the core and prerequisite of democratic politics. Furthermore, he argued that the EU must strive to become more visible again in people’s everyday lives. Just as Europeans had grown accustomed to peace, they had also become used to the enormous prosperity gains brought about by the EU single market. The EU, he suggested, should remind people on a daily basis — for example through supermarket price labels — how much more expensive life would be for them outside the EU. In this context, Hurka pointed to the United Kingdom as a cautionary example.