On 12 September 2018, the IES hosted an international workshop for the Horizon 2020 project “COP21: Results and Implications for Pathways and Policies for Low Emissions European Societies (COP21 RIPPLES)”. The workshop was dedicated to the nextsteps of the project work on international climate governance of which the IES is co-coordinator. IES participants included Sebastian Oberthür, Tomas Wyns and Gauri Khandekar.  The workshop gathered consortium colleagues from University College London, the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), Climate Analytics, and Wuppertal Institutefor Climate, Environment, and Energy to discuss future work that will analyse international  decarbonization clubs and zoom in on international cooperation on low-carbon technologies and innovation, and on transformative climate finance.

On Friday 29 September the IES celebrated its 15th anniversary. Our institute started off as an initiative by our former President Prof. Dr. Em. Bart De Schutter with a handful of people involved. Today, we are an established player in the area of European studies, involved in dozens of prestigious research projects and with 121 people directly associated. 

On 5 September 2018, KF-VUB Korea Chair Senior Researcher Tongfi Kim presented "Fundamental strategic problems in nuclear disarmament of North Korea: How Europe can help ameliorate them" at the Seventh Consultative Meeting of the EU Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Consortium. Dr. Kim discussed strategic problems of North Korea’s nuclear disarmament and why we have not seen much progress after the US-DPRK summit in June this year. 

The “Industrial Value Chain: A Bridge towards a Carbon Neutral Europe” report was conducted by the Institute for European Studies (IES-VUB) on the behalf of the EU’s Energy Intensive Industries (EIIs) to the EU Commission’s Strategy for long-term EU greenhouse gas emissions reductions. The report identifies common opportunities and challenges faced by European EIIs in meeting ambitious climate targets, highlights the constructive and solutions-oriented role that the EIIs have been playing, determines a combination of key solutions that will help EIIs to significantly reduce their emissions, as well as addresses the necessary conditions for ensuring that Europe is at the forefront of the energy and industrial transformation. 

Authors: Tomas Wyns, Gauri Khandekar, Isobel Robson

On 6 September 2018, Serena D’Agostino defended her PhD thesis entitled “Romani Women in European Politics. Exploring Multi-Layered Political Spaces for Intersectional Policies and Mobilizations”. Her promoters were Prof. Dr. Ilke Adam and Prof. Dr. Karen Celis. The Institute for European Studies would like to congratulate Dr Serena D’Agostino for successfully defending her PhD thesis.

The IES is proud to announce the launch of a new report by researchers Matilda Axelson (lead author), Isobel Robson, Gauri Khandekar and Tomas Wyns (Project coordinator): 'Breaking Through – Industrial Low-CO2 Technologies on the Horizon’. This report assesses the latest state of play of 70 low-CO2 process technologies currently under development in Europe for the Iron and Steel, Chemicals, Cement and Concrete, Pulp and Paper, and Ceramics industries. It provides a snapshot of the current situation by assessing current industrial process innovations based on their CO2-emission reduction potential, energy demand, costs and technological readiness. 

From October 2018 through May 2019 UPV organises a series of lectures on various aspects of the EU’s past, present and future. Four lectures will be delivered by speakers from the Institute for European Studies: Ilke Adam will discuss the EU’s migration policy (24 October), Tomas Wyns will take a look at the EU’s climate policy in the context of climate change (28 November), Alexander Mattelaer will tackle the topic of Brexit and its implications on daily life of EU citizens (20 March), and IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove will provide an overview of possible scenarios for the future of Europe (3 April).

Immigrant integration policy-making has long been considered a prerogative of the nation state. Yet, in recent years, elements of these policy areas 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 countries of origin, transit and private actors). This dispersal of policy-making power increases the need for coordination. 

Ilke Adam and Eve Hepburn (Edinburgh University & Policy Scribe,) edited a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies inquiring into how and why governments in multi-level states coordinate on immigrant integration. Through a comparison of four case studies (Belgium, Canada, Italy and Spain) – which includes within-case comparisons over time, across regions and across sub-policy areas –  the authors aimed to identify the features of intergovernmental relations and the nature and dynamics that shape these.