History

The Center for European Renewal was founded in November 2007 by a group of European conservatives who were concerned about the future of European civilization and dedicated to working for a renewal of the European ideals of a civilised, humane and free society.

In July 2006 a group of thirty philosophers, journalists and academics from across Europe met at the Vanenburg Castle in the Dutch village of Putten. The meeting took place at the initiative of the Dutch Edmund Burke Stichting in cooperation with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. Since then, a growing group of conservatives have met annually in what has become known as the Vanenburg Meeting. The Center for European Renewal is the umbrella organisation and sponsor of this meeting, and other events that have following in its wake.

The second Vanenburg Meeting was held in Gumpoldskirchen, near Vienna. The meeting contained heated discussions on questions such as the relationship between conservatism and liberalism, the possiblities of political conservatism, conservatism and modernity, and aesthetics. The third conference themed "The Cultural Revolution of 1968: Forty years Later" was held in Madrid in 2008. In 2009, the meeting took place in Budapest, on "What's Left of Our Culture? Surveying the Ruins and Preparing for Renewal." The next meeting will be held in 2010. For more information, please e-mail us.

Read reports on the Vanenburg conferences and summer schools here:
- 1st Annual Meeting, “Towards the Restoration of the Western Tradition in Europe: possibilities and strategies”, the Netherlands, 2006.
- 3rd Annual Meeting, “Forty Years of the Spirit of '68: Is Europe in Crisis?”, Spain, 2008.
- 4th Annual Meeting, “What’s Left of Our Culture? Surveying the Ruins and Preparing for Renewal”, Hungary, 2009.
- 5th Annual Meeting, “Conservative Perspectives on European Liberalism, Old and New”, Poland, 2010.
- 1st Annual Summer School, Poland, 2010.