An Empire of Europe or a Europe of Nations? Hermann Tertsch, Lorenzo Bernasconi, Jean Messiha, and Jerzy Kwaśniewski discuss the planned reform of the EU treaties

Adobe Stock

A European discussion panel conducted by the Ordo Iuris Institute as part of a conference on the future of Europe organized by TVMN in Warsaw on May 20. The 50-minute-long discussion was centered on the project of reform of the EU treaties adopted by the European Parliament last November and then approved by the Council of the EU in December.

It was moderated by Ordo Iuris Communication Director Olivier Bault and it gathered four participants from four different countries:

- Hermann Tertsch from Spain, who has been an MEP for Vox since 2019 and is vice-chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group. Hermann Tertsch is a journalist by profession, now a member of the editorial board of La Gaceta de la Iberosfera, which is a right-wing website centered on Spain and Latin America. In the past, Hermann Tertsch has been a correspondent in Central Europe for major Spanish media outlets, where he has also occupied top positions, such as that of deputy editor-in-chief of El País.

- Lorenzo Bernasconi from Italy, who is a research fellow at the Machiavelli Center, a major conservative think tank in Italy. Lorenzo Bernasconi is also an advisor to the Minister for Economy and Finance in the government of Giorgia Meloni and he is a former civil servant in the European Parliament.

- Jean Messiha from France, who is a candidate in the elections to the European Parliament on behalf of Eric Zemmour’s Reconquest party. Jean Messiha is a former civil servant at the Ministry of Defense in France, a former member of the political bureau of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, Eric Zemmour’s spokesman during the last presidential election in France, and a well-known commentator and columnist.

- Jerzy Kwaśniewski from Poland, who is the president of the board of the Ordo Iuris Institute, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Collegium Intermarium, a private Polish university, and a lecturer of public international law as well as an attorney and managing partner at the Parchimowicz & Kwaśniewski law firm. Jerzy Kwaśniewski is often listed as one of Europe’s most influential lawyers. In the past decade, he was appointed to advisory councils of four consecutive ministers of justice, both liberal and conservative. Jerzy Kwaśniewski is also the editor and one of the authors of the “Why do we need sovereignty?” report on EU reforms published by the Ordo Iuris Institute.

The Ordo Iuris Insitute is Poland’s and Europe’s most active legal think-tank on the conservative side. It is active not only within Poland’s borders but also at the international level, in particular in the European Union and Council of Europe institutions as well as at the UN.