The Schuman Centre for European Studies is hosting a Forum on the State of Europe in Brussels on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 May. The title of the event is: “Wake up, Europe!”. As the organisers specify, the Forum has been held annually since 2011 in the capital of the country holding the EU presidency on or near 9 May, Europe Day. “On this date in 1950, just five years after the end of war in Europe, the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, surprised the world with his three-minute speech in which he laid the foundation of the European house where today almost half a billion Europeans from 27 nations live together in peace”. “This date is officially recognised as Europe Day, the birthday of the European project. Participants will reflect on Schuman’s vision for “a community of peoples deeply rooted in Christian values”, and on “Christian responsibility for Europe’s future”. “The Russian invasion of Ukraine two years ago is challenging the assumptions of the international order which emerged from the rubble of WW2”, they add. “The Schuman story about how the peace was won becomes freshly relevant. Europe’s values, identity and future are at stake in this conflict”. At this year’s Forum, “participants will be challenged in the opening plenary (Friday evening) to wake up to Europe’s core identity and the story that originally shaped it”. The second plenary on Saturday morning “will be a wake-up call to brotherhood across a polarised and fractured Europe. The third and closing plenary on Saturday afternoon will awaken us to face the future with vision, hope and action, with the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in view” (6-9 June). Both the Friday evening celebration and Saturday’s forum will be held in the historic Carmelite Church (av. de la Toison d’Or 45).