On Tuesday, 5 June, professor Caroline Pauwels, rector of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and professor François Germinet, rector of the French Université Paris Seine, signed a memorandum of Understanding (MoU). The same day, a previously signed MoU with the University of Warwick was ratified into a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA). In these agreements, the European universities commit to collaborate more closely with regard to research and education in the future. For the Institute for European Studies, this opens up new opportunities for collaboration both in research and education. The commitment is to be seen in light of the call made by the European Council to create a network of European Universities by 2024.

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...

The third project and stakeholder meeting of the project “COP21: Results and Implications for Pathways and Policies for Low Emissions European Societies (COP21 RIPPLES)” was held in Warsaw on 25 and 26 April. The IES is co-leading Work Package 4 on international governance aspects, which is scheduled to submit its second deliverable mapping the international governance landscape in a sectoral perspective by the end of May 2018. Sebastian Oberthür presented the IES team at the meeting and reported on progress in the governance work, which entails an innovative sectoral perspective and was well received and even praised by the advisory board and stakeholders.

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).

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

Every year, VUB awards the title of “VUB Fellow”, the highest grade of membership at the University, to a series of outstanding personalities. Throughout the year, VUB Fellows meet to discuss challenges facing Europe and education, share business tactics, and exchange ideas in order to improve society. On 21 June, several new Fellows will be inaugurated and welcomed in the VUB community at a VUB Fellowship ceremony in the Concert Noble. IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove, who acts as Faculty Fellowship Coordinator for the Faculty of Social Sciences, will present five new fellows. Amongst them is Ms. Shada Islam who receives the title of “VUB Solvay Fellow” on the proposal of the IES. 

On June 13, IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove presented a paper on “Multi-level Diplomacy in the Digital Century” at the Workshop “networks and the European Union: Threats and Opportunities if Complexity” organized by the European Joint Doctorate programme “GEM Stones” (Globalisation, Europe & Multilateralism - Sophistication of the Transnational Order, Networks, and European Strategies) at the Warwick Brussels Office.

On April 24-25, 2018, the Asan Institute for Policy Studies hosted the Asan Plenum 2018 in Seoul. The theme of this year’s Asan Plenum was “Illiberal International Order.” As in previous years, the Asan Plenum 2018 gathered leading experts from around the world, including the President of the Institute for European Studies Karel De Gucht, to engage in intensive discussions pertaining to this year’s theme. 

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.

In the framework of his MSCA research project “The role of national parliaments in the Arab transformation processes”, IES researcher Dr Jan Claudius Völkel spent two weeks for research in Egypt recently. Besides meetings and discussions with high-level observers of, and experts on, the Egyptian parliament, the main purpose of his stay, he also gave two lectures on different topics at prestigious Political Science departments.

IES Executive Director Anthony Antoine gave a keynote opening speech at the fifth series of workshops of the EU-LEAD project in Ankara, held on 1-5 May at the Middle-East Technical University (METU). The sessions hosted over 60 European and Chinese university leaders and key staff members to discuss university governance structures and university leadership. LEAD, or in full ‘Governance and Academic Leadership of Chinese and European Universities in the context of Innovation and Internationalization’ is an Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project sponsored by the European Commission. 

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.

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

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS), with which the IES has a close collaboration, cordially welcomes applications from outstanding (post)doctoral researchers looking to enhance their career development and prospects by working abroad. Located in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Bruges, close to Brussels and many institutions of the European Union, candidates at UNU-CRIS will not only find themselves embedded within the global United Nations University research network, which directly supports the broader UN system, but will also be able to take advantage of a unique partnership that UNU-CRIS has with both Ghent University and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Successful candidates will be supervised by the Director of the Institute, Professor Madeleine Hosli. They will furthermore be provided with an office, along with a computer and free access to both the UNU-CRIS library facilities and those of its partner universities.  

On Tuesday 15 May at 17:00, the day before our EUIA conference, UNU Rector and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations Prof. David Malone will give a keynote lecture entitled "The UN Security Council, at Grips with Tectonic Geo-Strategic Change". The lecture is followed by a high-level academic panel on "Shifts in Global Power Relations, the European Union and the United Nations" with panelists including UNU-CRIS Director Madeleine Hosli, International IDEA EU Director Andrew Bradley, Prof. Helen Nesadurai (Monash University), Prof. Katie Laatikainen (Adelphi Unversity), Prof. Spyros Blavoukos (Athens University of Economics and Business) and Prof. Sieglinde Gstöhl (College of Europe, Bruges Campus). 

On 28 March 2017, the IES (VUB) and the IEE (ULB) co-organised a panel debate on the reform of the EU’s asylum system in the Ravenstein Gallery in the centre of Brussels. The event was part of the VUB-ULB initiative ‘konekt.brussels’, which sought to improve the links between the Brussels-based universities and the city of Brussels. The guiding question for the event was: ‘Is the reform of the EU’s asylum system on track?’. It was debated by a high-level group of experts consisting of Prof. Philippe De Bruycker (IEE), Stefan Maier (UNHCR), Sara Silvestre (IES), Jihad Mustafa (VUB Refugee Student) and Dr. Leonhard den Hertog (Policy Advisor in the European Parliament). IES Prof. Florian Trauner moderated the discussion.

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.

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.”

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. 

The draft programme of the #EUIA18 conference is now published and available here. From May 16-18th, academics and policy-makers will discuss the international role of the EU. Around 290 academic papers will be discussed in the course of these three days. #EUIA18 will also feature a range of policy-link panels gathering senior policy-makers and EU politicians to discuss issues such as EU-UN relations, the future of European defence policy or the EU’s standing in the world.