Thursday 12th November 2026, 19.00 – Chapel for Europe, Brussels
Free attendance, but registration required. You can register here (both for on-site and livestreaming).
Background
The recently published Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness, a policy framework designed to ensure that current political, environmental, and economic decisions do not disadvantage future generations, while fairly balancing benefits and burdens across all age groups, has become one of the headline initiatives of the 2024-29 European Commission. The first ever Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness Glenn Micallef launched a consultative process in 2025, leading to the Strategy being adopted by the European Commission in March 2026. The Strategy is not a biding legislative document; however, it highlights the importance of long-term planning and interaction between different policy sectors, including impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, sustainable living, availability of housing and meaningful jobs and artificial intelligence, in order to guarantee fairness and justice for future generations. The Strategy highlights the importance of dialogue and ongoing consultation among institutions responsible for outline of relevant policies, as well as dialogue in society, and between civil society actors and policy decision makers. Churches and faith-based bodies are relevant partners in such a dialogue. They have been engaged in consultation leading to the Strategy, and continue to be active in implementation of the Strategy.
The event
The Strategy suggests that 16th November becomes the ‘Day of intergenerational fairness’. A public discussion around that date (on the 12th November), engaging representatives of different European institutions, representatives of youth and representatives of churches, is therefore timely and appropriate, with the following aims:
- To highlight the importance of the Strategy of Intergenerational Fairness for the future of EU policy making, especially in what regards intergenerational equity, sustainability and the care for future generations.
- To underline the relevance of a dialogue between generations, as well as between the political institutions and civil society.
- To demonstrate engagement of churches and relevant partners for such a dialogue
- To identify and propose necessary next steps in the implementation of the strategy
The speakers
The event will gather the following speakers:
- Johanna Bernsel – Deputy Head of Cabinet of Commissioner Glenn Micallef and responsible for the Intergenerational Fairness portfolio (confirmed)
- MEP – name to be confirmed
- Krzystof Balon – Vice-President of the Civil Society Organisations Group at European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and Co-rapporteur for the Opinion on the Strategy on Intergenerational Fairness (confirmed)
- Kieryn Wurts, Board member of the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and of the CEC Task Force on Intergenerational Fairness (confirmed)
- Filipe Martins sj – Director of the Jesuit European Social Centre (JESC) and co-leader of the Future Generations Initiative (FGI) (confirmed)
The program
The event will take place at the Chapel for Europe, Rue Van Maerlant 22, Brussels, on Thursday 12th November 2026, with the following schedule:
18.30 Arrivals
19.00 Welcoming and presentation of the speakers
19.05 Moderated dialogue about the new Strategy for Intergenerational Fairness, its political relevance, its means of implementation, and potential and concerns
19.45 Q&A with the public
20.15 End and networking reception
The event will also be livestreamed
Organising partners
The event is co-organized by the Conference of European Churches (CEC), the Jesuit European Social Centre (JESC) and the Chapel for Europe, with the support of the Future Generations Initiative (FGI). CEC, JESC and several members of FGI engaged in the design process of the Strategy and keep working on the topic of Intergenerational Fairness (their publications and workstreams are available respectively here, here and here).
For more information, please contact:
Peter Pavlovic, CEC, ppt@cec-kek.be
Filipe Martins sj, JESC, filipe.martins@jesc.eu
Bernd Günther sj, Chapel for Europe, bernd.guenther@chapelforeurope.eu
Free attendance, but registration required. You can register here (both for on-site and livestreaming).
