On 1 July 2019, the Institute for European Studies had the pleasure of welcoming Korean students at the first day of our SNU in the EU Brussels Programme.

Being the very first edition of this programme organized by the IES, this programme will further deepen the already established good relations between SNU and the IES. In the upcoming two weeks the students will participate in lectures on the history and future of EU integration, EU institutions and decision-making procedures, EU foreign and security affairs, combined with visits to the ROK Embassies, NATO and EU institutions. Organising this programme is a logical continuation of the institute’s activities related to Korea. In 2017, the Institute for European Studies launched the  KF-VUB Korea Chair, as a primary contact point in Europe on policy issues related to Korea and the Korean Peninsula.

We wish the SNU students a productive and memorable two weeks in Brussels!

On Monday 3 June the IES welcomed 18 students of the University of Southern California (USC), enrolled in the Brussels Programme on European Foreign Policy. They will spend 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. It is led by Dr. Daniel Fiott and Dr. Luis Simon.

The public defence of the PhD in Law by Max Jansson will take place on Saturday 24 August 2019 at 11:15 CET. This is a joint PhD with the University of Turku. After an internal defense at the IES, the public defense will take place in Turku. The title of the PhD manuscript is "Value Reconciliation in Trade Law in Light of Criteria on Process and Production Methods – A Comparative study on the EU, the U.S. and the WTO". The Opponent in the public defense will be Prof. Dr. Gareth Davies from Tilburg University. The promoters of the thesis are Prof. Dr. Harri Kalimo (IES-VUB) and Prof. Dr. Tuomas Mylly (University of Turku).

The IES is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Jamal Shahin as the new Director of its Advanced Master in European Integration (‘EuroMaster’) programme. Dr. Shahin works part time at the IES, as well as in the Department of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam. Jamal is trained as a political scientist, with a PhD from the University of Hull (2005). His research interests focus on global internet governance, political participation in the European Union, EU governance, and the impact of the internet on policy making. In the EuroMaster programme, he teaches the Research Methods Lab course and will be convening the core module on Policymaking and Interest Representation in the EU, as a successor to Prof. Irina Tanasescu. Jamal is looking forward to support all the students and colleagues who are part of the programme!

The PARENT project's final conference took place in Brussels on 4 and 5 June, 2019. It brought together political actors, researchers and civil society organisations concerned with energy and sustainability in Brussels. Over two days, the conference discussed the project's core themes: sustainability, collaboration and technology. This was done in a collaborative and interactive environment amongst the 90 participants, with workshops organised by various partners, information stands from seven different organisations across Brussels, and an evening session with a keynote speech from Chris Roorda. As a result of the project, several mapping initiatives have been launched, with the ambition to fill the gaps in knowledge on sustainability actions in the region. The dialogue set up amongst actors will continue in the future, as we continue to push for a more sustainable Brussels.