{"id":9950,"date":"2025-12-02T14:19:27","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:19:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/?p=9950"},"modified":"2025-12-02T14:19:27","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:19:27","slug":"event-report-new-koenigswinter-and-the-kensington-treaty-27-november-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/2025\/12\/02\/event-report-new-koenigswinter-and-the-kensington-treaty-27-november-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Event report: New K\u00f6nigswinter and the Kensington Treaty, 27 November 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

On 27 November, around 30 alumni of the Jung K\u00f6nigswinter Conference and the British-German Forum gathered at the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and Industry to develop proposals for implementing people-to-people contacts, town twinning and youth exchanges within the framework of the Kensington Treaty. This is planned as the first in a series of discussions to be continued in 2026. The event was organised by the German-British Society with the support of the Federal Foreign Office, the British Embassy in Berlin and bo.<\/p>\n

The event opened with brief introductions to the Kensington Treaty by Nick Pickard, UK FCDO, and Franziska Hagedorn, Federal Foreign Office. Annette Dittert, Ard, moderated the event.<\/p>\n

Five working groups were formed. Here are some brief conclusions from their initial discussions:<\/p>\n

1) Youth exchange<\/strong>
\nThis is an area of considerable potential. For many young people taking part, it is their first time abroad, and the first time in the other country, enabling them to develop life-long ties. It is important to create compelling narratives around such exchanges. It was noted that this will become easier now that some of the travel hurdles have been lifted.<\/p>\n

Diversity was mentioned as an important factor \u2013 it is important to ensure that the young people enjoying the opportunity will come not just from more comfortable backgrounds and from bigger cities, and to make a point of including those from less privileged and less urban situations. A geographic range is essential. It was also considered important to develop digital formats, to enable the contacts to develop online after the first trip.<\/p>\n

2) Student exchanges<\/strong>
\nSuccessful strategic bilateral partnerships between UK and Germany are already established (such as Oxford\/Berlin, Cambridge\/LMU Munich, Imperial College, Munich TU). However, more work needs to be done to enhance multilateral cooperation, particularly given that Britain no longer participates in Erasmus and Erasmus+ and the Turing scheme has not had much impact on the German relationship. It was suggested that discussions take place with DAAD about helping foster further partnerships.<\/p>\n

Given the big difference in fee\/funding structure, it was suggested that courses that offer the greatest potential for corporate and other sponsorship are in new technologies \u2013 from AI, all forms of STEM, defence and green technology. It was also emphasised that more should be done to promote links with technical colleges, taking advantage of<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s more developed dual system. It was also stressed that language teaching (especially Brits learning German) would benefit the experience not just of students but of younger people entering the workplace. Internships should be facilitated through work-travel programmes, as visas for internships are currently difficult to obtain.<\/p>\n

3) Town twinning<\/strong>
\nIt was suggested that the loss of momentum was mainly a product of weaknesses on the UK side. The loss of international relations officers in local authorities, after a long period of spending cuts, has allowed twinning to atrophy. (There are some exceptions such as County Durham). In their place, work should be done to develop links with council officers responsible for culture, sports and education. Some of the existing links are becoming a little staid (ribbon-cutting etc), with the people who are active getting older. Other avenues, such a sport and culture to link towns across countries should be explored to attract a younger audience.<\/p>\n

Where they continue to be strong, existing town twinning should be encouraged. Alongside that, new models should be created. One option might be to hold some kind of spotlight event in the margins of next summer\u2019s KW conference to foster ideas and potential pilot projects. If it takes place in Manchester, perhaps local authorities across the UK North and Midlands should be invited to take part alongside existing and potential German partners. The UK-based British German Association, which is doing work on this, should be involved. Larger regional partnerships are potentially a fruitful route. The relationship between the Greater Manchester Authority and Regionalverband Ruhr is a good model to develop on. Also, the digital element in city and regional partnerships needs to be pushed, to facilitate ongoing contacts.<\/p>\n

4) Academia<\/strong>
\nIn several areas, exchange seems to be progressing well, but with considerable scope for expansion. Participants noted the following: quantum\/AI; renewable energy, batteries, hydrogen; space and fusion energy, and global health. On these STEM-related subjects, the work is quite specific. Another area was discussed: democratic resilience. Work is already taking place in that area at Oxford, led by a German with German participants. More such partnerships should be considered. As regards the consequences of Brexit, obstacles are identified from time to time. The changes the UK graduate visa scheme has the potential to make the UK less attractive to academics. One participant spoke of the movement of scientific samples, although that appears now to have been allayed. The 180-day period that allows one to stay in the Schengen area is an impediment to scientists on research leave, as the 180 days don\u2019t differentiate between travel for holiday or business; therefore, participants might run out of time.<\/p>\n

One area of considerable collaboration \u2013 between UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) \u2013 should be further expanded. It was also suggested that on the British side a single individual, a figurehead, could be found to promote bilateral academic links more specifically.<\/p>\n

5) Civil society<\/strong>
\nIt was noted that this was the most amorphous area of discussion, and the term requires further definition. A mapping exercise would be useful to see what is being done, where and by whom \u2013 not just in a UK-German context but in the context of both countries\u2019 civil society links with others. Obvious areas are those already covered, plus sport, culture, environment\/nature, culinary\/hospitality\/other pastimes.<\/p>\n

The type of activities lends itself to informality, which is positive. At the same time, anchor institutions are useful in some cases, such as universities, to help coordinate. More work should be done to spread the message to as wide a demographic as possible. It was also mentioned that embassies and consulates in both countries should offer themselves as \u2018light touch\u2019 points of contact (one specific individual perhaps) for groups wanting assistance in developing ties.<\/p>\n

John Kampfner, 1 December 2025<\/p>\n

Photos by Lukas Schramm<\/p>\n

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On 27 November, around 30 alumni of the Jung K\u00f6nigswinter Conference and the British-German Forum gathered at the Berlin Chamber of Commerce and\u2026 Weiterlesen<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[183,192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.debrige.de\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/LS251127-111.jpg?fit=2500%2C1667&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9sXiX-2Au","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9953,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9950\/revisions\/9953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debrige.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}