In the 1st round of the European HouseParliaments, 1153 citizens discussed the topic of European foreign policy in more than 204 privately organized European HouseParliaments from July 13 to August 24, 2018. The first round of European HouseParliaments was designed and implemented together with our cooperation partner Democracy International e.V.. We were supported by the Institute for European Politics.
In light of the Trump administration's "America First" policy at the time, participants discussed the overarching question: "Should the EU fundamentally reshape its foreign and security policy orientation in light of the Trump administration's 'America First' policy?" Based on this question, four concrete European policy proposals were discussed. These included whether the EU needs a foreign minister, whether a European army should replace the national armed forces, whether individual EU member states should join forces in shaping European foreign policy, and whether closer ties with strategic partners such as Russia or China are advisable. The votes were cast on these questions on a scale of 1 to 10 as follows: