At the beginning of the Conference, the chairpersons of the foreign affairs committees and defence and security committees of EU member states and EU candidate states were addressed by the President of the Italian Senate Pietro Grasso and the President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini.

The Conference is dedicated to the crisis at the borders of the European Union, regional and global challenges, from the Middle East to Ukraine. High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini will be talking about EU priorities and strategy within the common foreign and security policy and common security and defence policy.

One of the topics of the Conference on Friday, 7 November, will be regional stability and EU enlargement to the Western Balkans,