On the 5th of November 2016, student organisation Maastricht Students for Liberty hosted their third regional conference, with the title: “The Future of Europe”. This conference was held alongside many other Students for Liberty regional conferences across all of Europe, and was held with the support of the Municipality of Maastricht under the ‘Europe Calling’ campaign , celebrating the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Maastricht Treaty.
Attracting over 140 visitors from Maastricht and beyond, and receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback after the event, the conference can definitely be considered a resounding success! Some highlights of the day included heated panel discussions on the nature of immigration and European integration, an inspirational speech on the Nature of Heroism by the Ayn Rand Institute’s Andrew Bernstein, a lecture on the history of federalism in Europe by the Prometheus Institute’s Clemens Schneider, and topped off with a sobering keynote speech on the troubling future of the European economy by the Cato Institute’s Dan Mitchell.All of these great speeches and discussions were met with nothing but enthusiasm, sincere interest, and good spirited debate from the audience.