On 6 & 7 June, IES professor Harri Kalimo, assisted by IES researcher Lea Mateo and Chris Yon (UPitt), gave SOLVIT experts from the Member States two days of intensive training on EU free movement of goods law. The training covered a wide range of scenarios of obstacles that companies (in particular SMEs) encounter with public authorities in the Member States when attempting to operate across the borders and market their goods. The impacts of SOLVIT’s reinforced legal expertise should improve the help they provide to companies to make the best use of the opportunities the  internal market has to offer, and hence contribute directly into a more efficient European economy. 

Organized by the Diplomatic School of Armenia and funded by the European Union, this panel workshop on 3 May 2018 is designed for students and academics in Armenian universities, and targeted officials and professors. IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove will deliver two talks: “The long past and short history of the practice of Science Diplomacy” and “European Union Science Diplomacy in review”. Other presentations will deal with: “Global Challenges, New Frontiers and the Limitations of Armed Force”, “Best Practices in Science Diplomacy: leading examples from North America, Europe and Asia.”

Senior researcher Richard Higgott is the author of the EL-CSID report titled “Towards the Private Provision of a Public Good: Exploring the Role of Higher Education as an Instrument of European Cultural and Science Diplomacy with reference to Africa”. The European Union’s (EU) universities and their provision of higher education (HE) to international students remains one of its most powerful global development and cultural assets. The EU operates a wide-ranging set of strategies to assist Africa in enhancing the quality and quantity of its HE. Yet EU’s strategy towards HE in Africa fails to understand or to engage the private sector to help grow the number of Africans undertaking tertiary study. This study identifies the benefits and opportunities of international private provision and proposes a set of next steps as part of a targeted ‘strategy of engagement’ for greater international private involvement in higher education in...

On 30 May 2018, Carlos Coria Rodríguez defended his PhD thesis entitled “The international and European environmental regulation of marine renewable energies in the EU”. His promoters were Prof. Dr. Harri Kalimo and Prof. Dr. Sebastian Oberthür. As a PhD researcher at the IES, Carlos was a member of IES’ Environment and Sustainable Development Cluster. His research interests include public international law and EU law, with special focus on marine environmental law, law of the sea, marine renewable energies, biodiversity conservation and oceans governance. The Institute for European Studies would like to congratulate Dr Soria Rodríguez for successfully defending his PhD thesis.

The arrival of GDPR, the growing EU involvement in cybersecurity, and the regulation of ‘fake news’ are but a few examples of the rapidly increasing importance of data law in society. As a frontrunner in international and European law, the Institute for European Studies now offers its LLM students the opportunity to specialise in this exciting area of law (starting in the 2018-19 academic year).

Following the University Council’s approval on 30 March 2018, the Annual Report 2017 of the IES is now available online. In its 15^th anniversary year, the IES organised 33 public events, awarded 4 PhDs (bringing the total of PhDs awarded by the institute to 32), produced 117 publications, of which 24 peer-reviewed articles, and 25 book chapters, and collected 4 academic awards. Additionally, the IES also internally published 7 policy briefs, 2 policy papers and 7 working papers. Our Institute now counts 106 people or 48.9 full-time equivalents.

Students of the University of Southern California, enrolled in the Brussels Programme on European Foreign Policy, were welcomed with a reception on Monday 28 May. They spent their first week getting to know their individual internship places at various institutions. The students will be staying in Brussels for five weeks while attending lectures on topics such as European integration and foreign policy, European security challenges, and European trade and environmental governance. The programme is organized every spring by IES. It is led by Dr. Daniel Fiott and Dr. Luis Simon.

On 25 and 26 April, Irina van der Vet and Florian Lang represented the IES-VUB in the second consortium meeting of the H2020 Mindb4act project. The meeting took place in Vienna. The Mindb4Act project aims at developing novel initiatives, trainings and policies in the field counter-radicalization and countering violent extremism. The IES is leading several tasks and one work package as well as coordinates several key activities throughout the project, like, for instance, establishing a Belgian Living Lab on Schools and Media to design innovative solutions to deradicalization.

A few years after the so called ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015, labour market integration of refugees becomes a pressing policy issue. In search for data-driven policy-making, research on this topic can deliver relevant input. Similarly so for the problem of ethnic inequalities on the labour market, beyond the group of refugees. Research in Belgium and beyond demonstrates that the offspring of immigrants, the so-called ‘second generation’, still does not participate equally to the labour market.  Ilke Adam was invited in two separate events to discuss recent research results on ethnic equality on the labour market. The first  event was organised by CEPS (MEDAM), on 19 April, and the second will take place on 18 June, at the Belgian Ministry for Employment (co-organised by Unia , the Belgian Equality Body).

IES Professor Sebastian Oberthür gave a keynote presentation on “Polycentric Climate Governance: Challenges and Opportunities for the EU” at the Final Conclusions Meeting of the COST Action INOGOV, a pan-European network of research excellence dedicated to understanding policy and governance innovation for climate change, on 15 March 2018 in the Norway House in Brussels. 

Another #EUIA18 conference has come to an end. From 16 to 18 May, the 6th European Union in International Affairs conference (#EUIA18) took place in the Palace des Académies in Brussels. With 392 participants, #EUIA18 broke all previous attendance records. It has been wonderful to witness once again so many stimulating debates on the EU in International Affairs. Speaking for all organisers, we hope it has been a fruitful, value-adding and pleasant experience! We would like to thank our sponsors Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek - Vlaanderen (FWO), Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS), and Embassy of the Republic of Korea to the Kingdom of Belgium. Special thanks to the Brussels Parliament for hosting an amazing EUIA dinner in an exquisite setting – and to the Korean Mission to the EU that provided the dinner. We hope to see you all at the next EUIA conference in 2020! #EUIA20

On 15 June 2018, Luk Van Langenhove and Alexander Mattelaer will be debating the position of the Benelux Union as a part of the EU, at a panel debate in Antwerp organised by Forum Benelux. Before a diverse audience of businesspeople, cultural, social and scientific organisations, politicians and journalists they will discuss a range of topics including the role of the Benelux in the EU’s quest for stability and progress, Benelux dependence on EU, consequences of Brexit, etc.

In March, Klaudia Majcher, a PhD researcher in the Economic Governance Cluster, was invited by the Law Faculty of the University of Zagreb to teach few sessions of the seminar ‘European Public Law and Global Mobility’ to a group of international students. The seminar is part of the Jean Monnet Chair called ‘Global Effects of EU Law’. The sessions discussed a range of contemporary legal issues such as Brexit, competition law enforcement in the technology sector, and protection of personal data in the age of digital globalization.

Professor Alexander Mattelaer was recently involved in two debates in the Belgian Parliament. In the first one on 17 April, he presented the report of the New Pact on Europe project (funded by the Koning Boudewijnstichting / Fondation Roi Baudouin), including his thoughts on the role of Belgium. The report contains an elaborate proposal to energise Europe and thus prepare it for future challenges. On 25 April, Alexander contributed to a debate on the replacement of Belgian F16 fighter planes.

Vrije Universiteit Brussel and University of Warwick to establish a double master’s in Politics, International Studies and European Integration

On Wednesday 28 March, Caroline Pauwels, rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and Stuart Croft, vice-chancellor of the University of Warwick in the UK, signed a collaboration agreement in the University of Warwick’s base in London’s Shard building. This is a remarkable move, as the consequences of Brexit for cooperation between European and British institutions are still not clear. The two universities are aiming to strengthen their ties – beginning with a joint master's programme in Politics, International Studies and European Integration.
 

IES Professors Sebastian Oberthür and Florian Trauner were invited to teach one course each at the College of Europe’s Natolin Campus in Warsaw in the spring of 2018. Prof. Trauner taught a course on immigration, asylum and border management in the EU (jointly with Prof. Sandra Lavenex from the University of Geneva). Sebastian Oberthür engaged with students on the topic of international climate negotiations in February/March 2018, including a role play on 18 March. The College of Europe has a unique ‘flying faculty’ consisting of selected visiting academics and practitioners from Europe and beyond.  

The Institute for European Studies (IES) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the EconPol research network co-organised a policy forum on 16 April about the future perspectives for the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), as part of the Jean Monnet Chair at IES. 

The future of the EMU is at the core of the reflection on the future of European integration; the debate about its architecture has accompanied the entire evolution of the EU and several proposals have been made in the past. The policy forum stimulated an open, broad and deep discussion on the possible options for the future of the EMU, starting from the assessment of the existing proposals. Three high level speakers, who combine an academic perspective with a direct knowledge of the political context, László Andor, Clemens Fuest, and Vesa Vihriälä, engaged in a rich discussion, chaired by Paolo Pasimeni, on the macroeconomic and political implications of the monetary union and its possible evolution.

On 26 September, IES Executive Director Anthony Antoine delivered a keynote speech on "the salient role of the universities in implementing the UN 2030 Agenda and the particular importance of societal impact of multidisciplinary research in developing sustainable and global solutions" at the Helsinki Challenge Global Impact Camp in Brussels. The Global Impact Camp in Brussels was a two-day intensive co-creation session focusing on societal impact of research, funding and collaboration with international experts and EU decision-makers. 

LLM Joonas Alaranta defended his Doctoral thesis “Chemicals and the circular economy A study on the management of substances of very high concern and the circular economy by the REACH regulation” at the University of Eastern Finland on Friday 27 April. IES professor Harri Kalimo acted as the opponent in the defence, commending the work as a very topical piece of scholarship. The work of Alaranta shows amongst other things that the requirements of REACH set administrative requirements and costs on the resource flows of a circular economy. 

Picture Taken by Oskari Korhonen

From 28 May until 1 June 2018, KF-VUB Korea Chair holder Dr. Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Dr. Tongfi Kim and Ms. Linde Desmaele participated in a series of events in Seoul (Republic of Korea) to launch the KF-VUB Korea Chair. On top of a high-level panel hosted by the EU Delegation to the Republic of Korea (ROK), they took part in several roundtable discussions with think tanks, including the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and Asan Institute, and ROK officials in which they exchanged views on achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.