The ongoing review of the EU’s Crisis Management Procedures warrants attention. What passes as an update of an arcane and technical document masks a profoundly political debate concerning what the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) should be about. This policy brief summarises the main proposals and formulates a set of critical reflections. It calls for replacing the bureaucratic scheming with a more forthright political debate, and warns against sacrificing incompatible organisational cultures on the altar of the comprehensive approach.

The European Council meeting on 7 and 8 February 2013 attracted an unusual level of attention from media and citizens. For a couple of days, Europe played a more important role in national politics and news. Sensation-frenzied media and excited politicians spouted notions of ‘a battle’, ‘winners’, ‘losers’ or ‘striking deals’, as if Europe had gone back to the time when its military powers still conflicted.

The aim of the “Diplomacy in Action” Round Table Series is to identify and examine the wide-ranging definitions, standards, concepts, norms and organising principles at the heart of EU foreign policy (e.g. rule of law, democracy, good governance, etc.).

In order to explore both the conceptual and operational nature of the norms that currently define EU foreign policy, the Webinar Series (under the aegis of the Jean Monnet Chair Project ‘Springboard Brussels 2015) proposes to bring together a variety of specialists from various academic and policy-making centres who are willing to share their understanding and expertise as to how core norms operate to fashion contemporary EU foreign policy.

The Multilevel Governance of Migration and Immigrant Integration

This year’s IES Spring Lecture Series focuses on the multi-level governance of migration and migrant integration. It is organised in association with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), under the umbrella of the organization’s 20th Anniversary. Although international migration is per definition a transnational phenomenon, immigration and immigration integration policies are mostly associated with national policies. However, in recent years, several aspects of immigration and immigrant integration policies have been shifted upwards, to the international level (EU and international organizations), downwards, to the sub-state level (regional and local authorities) and outwards, to emigration states and private actors. This lecture series intends to provide a comprehensive overview of how migration and migrant integration are governed from the global to the local level, why policy output is the way it is, what...

On 23 October 2012, Dr. Ilke Adam, Senior Researcher, was officially awarded the Charles Ullens Prize for research on migration and immigrant integration for her PhD thesis Beyond national models? Immigrant integration policies of the Belgian Regions. She defended her thesis in 2010 at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Vesalius College and the Institute for European Studies of the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and the Global Governance Institute (GGI) are now accepting applications for the Executive Course / Advanced Certificate in Global Risk Analysis and Crisis Management 2013/2014.

The course (taught at 10 weekends from September 2013 - June 2014) has been devised -and will be taught- in cooperation with senior officials from the European Union, NATO, United Nations as well as international practitioners, scholars and members of the humanitarian NGO community.

IES' Jean Monnet Chair Project Springboard Brussels 2015 focuses on teaching the modes of EU foreign policy to a wide cross-section of students. The project includes the production of 8 x 15 minutes podcasts on breaking EU foreign policy issues.

The IES is delighted to annouce that Dr Amelia Hadfield’s bid under the Jean Monnet Chair project has been successful. The project entitled 'Springboard Brussels 2015' ensures firstly that students positively benefit from high quality teaching on EU foreign policy and secondly that academics, students and civil society are beneficially influenced via innovative blended learning format.

IES has also been successful in its application for Jean Monnet funding for its Autumn lecture series:'EU Energy Policy: on the Road to Decarbonisation', which will run from October until December. More information coming soon!

The IES is delighted to announce that Marie Lamensch, PhD Researcher, has won the TEI Award 2012 (“TEI Award for the best short publication on European and/or International Tax Law 2012”) which was awarded by the Institute for Austrian and International Tax Law (WU Vienna) and the Tax Executive Institute, as a joint effort. Marie won the award for her article on "Unsuitable EU VAT Place of Supply Rules for Electronic Services - Proposal for an Alternative Approach", which was published in the World Tax Journal in February 2012.

Between 2012-2013, there will be four special and free webinars added to the IES Wednesday Webinar Series. Featuring topics on institutions, decision-making and key foreign policy issues and areas, the ‘Quo Vadis EU’ Webinars will form the interactive and online component of the IES’ graduate Jean Monnet module, entitled ‘Quo Vadis EU’.

The broad objective of the ‘Quo Vadis EU’ Module is essentially to examine the foreign policy direction of the EU, locally, regionally and globally. As a key module within the IES EuroMaster curriculum, the ‘Quo Vadis EU’ module will run for three years, and is designed to stimulate the teaching and research of the IES in the area of EU foreign policy, while contributing to the quality of learning on EU issues in both mainstream graduate academia, and the non-academic community, in Brussels and beyond.