![\"\"](\"https:\/\/idis.gr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/invitation-06-november.jpg\" "\\"invitation-06-november\\"")
\n\n\n\nA lecture by Tom\u00e1\u0161 Sedl\u00e1\u010dek<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n What makes Europe powerful\u2014and why does it so often feel powerless? In a world increasingly shaped by great-power rivalry, Europe faces a question that is political, economic and deeply philosophical: what kind of power does it need, and what should that power serve?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tom\u00e1\u0161 Sedl\u00e1\u010dek explores Europe\u2019s capacity to shape its own future. Can it overcome political fragmentation, address public debt and regain competitiveness? Can it keep pace with China while preserving the freedoms and social commitments that define its way of life? And how can democracy respond to public frustration without yielding to extremism and the appeal of authoritarian certainty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n At the heart of the lecture is V\u00e1clav Havel\u2019s The Power of the Powerless<\/em>, brought back into contemporary debate by Mark Carney\u2019s Davos address. Havel\u2019s reflections on truth, responsibility and individual courage raise an urgent question: how can citizens and societies recover their agency within systems that seem beyond their control?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bringing economics into conversation with philosophy, Sedl\u00e1\u010dek asks whether Europe\u2019s vulnerability also contains a source of renewal. Its future depends on the ability to create prosperity, defend democracy and act together. But it also depends on something harder to measure: a shared understanding of what is worth defending, what progress means, and what Europe still has to offer the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n