Join our upcoming ValEUs Civil Society Debate event “Reflections on ‘EU Values’: A Civil Society Perspective – The European Union and Civil Society Actors: Dialogue and Critical Perspectives” hosted by Al Akhawayn University.
The full programme is available below and features two ValEUs Civil Society Debates, alongside a keynote speech on “The Value-Form of European Values: Civil Society and the Politics of Movement.”
Parts of the programme will be conducted in French and Arabic.
Date & time: 23/10/2026 | 3:00 – 7:00 PM (Rabat local time & UTC) | 5:00 – 9:00 PM (CEST)
Venue: Hotel Dawliz, Salé
Livestream: via Microsoft Teams
Full Programme (Livestream):
15:30 | Opening Remarks
Safae Akodad (Rabat Social Studies Institute – RSSI)
Presentation of the Project and Framing
Driss Maghraoui (Al Akhawayn University)
15:45 | Keynote Speech: “The Value-Form of European Values: Civil Society and the Politics of Movement”
Asma Abbas (Simon’s Rock at Bard College; Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University)
16:15 | ValEUs Civil Society Debate I: Thinking European Values: Between Universality and the Stability Paradigm
Moderator: Saloua Zerhouni (Mohammed V University in Rabat)
“Values, the Lateral Universal and Us”
Nizar Messari (Al Akhawayn University)
“European Support for Civil Society and the Stability Paradigm: An Inherent Contradiction”
Driss Maghraoui (Al Akhawayn University)
“Gramsci and Religious Activism: Reflections on Jamaʿat al-ʿAdl wa-l-Ihsane in Morocco”
Massimo Ramaioli (Al Akhawayn University)
17:30 | ValEUs Civil Society Debate II: From Values to Practice: Advocacy, Energy and Cooperation
Moderator: Saloua Zerhouni (Mohammed V University in Rabat)
« Société civile, possibilités et limites de l’action et du plaidoyer dans un environnement non démocratique et hostile aux droits humains »
Azeddine Akesbi (Professor of Higher Education)
« La transition énergétique de l’UE : comment concilier les valeurs universelles et les impératifs de sécurité énergétique ? »
Imane Nya (Rabat Social Studies Institute – RSSI)
“Lessons from the Field: Practices, Successes and Limits”
Federica Siddi (COSPE – Cooperation for the Development of Emerging Countries)
ValEUs Civil Society Debates
The ValEUs Project has organised a series of panel discussions with civil society organisations discussing European values and EU foreign policy, engaging a global audience (live stream) and local participants in the US, Poland, Mexico, Morocco and Ukraine. NGO’s, social movements, citizen organisations and activists are invited to share their thoughts about climate change, democracy, trade agreements, colonialism, and conflict. In these debates, contestations and ambivalences of European foreign policy are exposed, allowing for the exploration of new avenues to counteract these contestations and ambivalences.
