On 5 December Silviu was invited to speak at the NORTIA Practitioner-Academic Roundtable ‘EU Foreign Policy Cooperation: Quo Vadis EU Diplomacy in the EaP?’ event held at Kent’s Brussels School of International Studies. The roundtable brought together practitioners and academics to discuss the role and practice of EU diplomacy in achieving the goals of the EU Global Strategy in building state and societal resilience in the neighbourhood, of engagement in a practical and principled way of peacebuilding and supporting global governance around the world. 

In its energy vision of 19 May 2017 the Flemish government indicated that it supports the European long-term goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by at least 80% to 95%. The role that the industry will play in this transition towards a low carbon economy is of course vital in this respect.

This is why at the end of 2017 the Flemish government asked the Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel to develop an exploratory research report that looks at the conditions that have to be met for the future realisation of an industrial transition framework for Flanders. This study report has just been published on the Flemish government’s website.

On November 28, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation) hosted a speech by IES President Karel De Gucht on the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement and the future of the liberal international order. Keidanren Chairman, Mr. Shimizu, held the opening address with about thirty Keidanren members attending. As the former EU Commissioner for trade, Mr. De Gucht gave a key speech, in 2013, at Keidanren formally announcing the start of negotiations of the Japan-EU EPA later that year.

Photo by Keidanren

The prevention of violent radicalisation as part of counter-terrorism measures is a top priority of the European Union and national security agendas. In 2015 Belgium introduced promising reforms in countering radicalisation and terrorism that aimed at connecting not only intelligence, security and police services across different policy levels but also the multitude of other stakeholders representing the government and civil society. However, the implementation and further development of the Belgian approach to prevention of radicalisation remain contested in political and public debate. 

On 15 October, IES researchers Medlir Mema and Mathias Holvoet organized a policy forum addressing the potential implications of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, KSC, in Kosovo. The event was held at the University of Business and Technology, UBT, in Prishtina. Participants of the policy forum echoed a general sentiment that the political nature of the court has hurt its legitimacy before indictments have even begun.  

The VUB educational services organize regular Get Inspired! -sessions to VUB staff, where peers present perspectives in educational and research practices to inspire one another. On Tuesday 4 December the session zoomed in on sharing practices on benchmarking of educational programmes; invited to speak in the session was IES professor Harri Kalimo.

On 10 October, IES Prof. Dr. Marie Lamensch presented her study on VAT fraud written at the request of the European Parliament’s TAX3 Committee, a special committeeon financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidancethat was set up in March 2018 after Luxleaks, the Panama papers, and other tax related scandals. TAX3 aims to build on the work of its predecessors and investigate new issues, such as digital taxation, national citizenship programmes and VAT fraud.

On Tuesday 27.11. the European Parliament organized the 10^th European Innovation Summit. These summits address hot topics on the EU’s policy agenda, highlighting developments in areas crucial for the Union’s competitiveness and sustainable development. The 10thSummit kicked off with a session “Tackling Microplastics with Sustainable Solutions”. Microplastics refer to the very small pieces of plastics that are either intentionally added to products (such as make-up, cleaners and toothpaste) or detach from larger plastic objects as they wear down (e.g. car tyres, textiles) or fragment over a longer period of time (e.g. plastic bottles). An interdisciplinary group of top scientists elaborated on the current state knowledge on microplastics in the 10^th Summit. 

IES Research Professor Jamal Shahin gave a keynote speech at the Conference Finland 3.0 of the ALL-YOUTH project, held on 22-23 November at the University of Helsinki. Jamal’s presentation, entitled ‘Youth Participation in Internet Governance’, addressed the role of youth organizations in the global multistakeholderism dynamics of Internet governance. The session used interactive tools to engage the audience in a debate around how is the Internet governed, and why is it politically, economically and socially relevant. Jamal pointed at youth as an actor with a strong voice that has had a key role in the different fora with which the Internet has opened up to stakeholder participation. The session displayed several video testimonies of young people involved in the Internet governance through platforms such as the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) or the No Hate Speech Movement of the Council of Europe. In addition to Jamal’s intervention, the Conference...

Trisha Meyer (Assistant Professor at Vesalius College and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for European Studies) recently concluded a study on the use of artificial intelligence to combat disinformation online. The study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s STOA (Future of Science and Technology) panel and focuses on the consequences of automated content moderation for freedom of expression and media pluralism. On 13 December 2018, she presented the study with her co-author Chris Marsden (Professor of Internet Law at the University of Sussex) in Strasbourg.

IES researcher Jan Claudius Völkel organised an international conference on 15-16 December 2018 in Tunis with ca. 30 participants from different Arab countries, who were invited to discuss aspects of “Parliamentary work and scientific counselling” (so the conference theme) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The conference was one of the main deliverables of his EU-funded Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship “The role of national parliaments in the Arab transformation processes”, that Jan is currently conducting at the IES [grant number 706113].