The IES has been selected to assist the Flemish government with the development of an exploratory study for the development of industrial low-carbon roadmaps. 
This research will analyse emissions and economic performance of Flemish energy intensive industries and will asses existing sectoral low-carbon roadmaps (at EU level), including their relevance for Flanders. The IES will next, with the input of stakeholders, outline how one or more industrial low-carbon roadmaps can be developed  and implemented for Flanders. 
 

On 23 January the PARENT project team met with a diverse set of stakeholders, all active in their own way to help transform energy-related attitudes in Brussels. Project participants, social workers, representatives from citizen associations, local governments and Bruxelles Environnement sat around the table to map energy reduction and sustainability initiatives and categorize them by actor and focus. We also assessed how these measures are communicated and offered to citizens.

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. 

On 21 February 2018 the EU Commission issued a new report with strategic recommendations to maximise the impact of the future EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP9, successor to Horizon 2020) through mission-oriented policy. The report, entitled "Mission-Oriented Research & Innovation in the European Union", was written by Professor Mariana Mazzucato and is likely to have a significant influence on future EU R&I programmes. With a contribution from IES Project Researcher Tomas Wyns, the Institute for European Studies was one of the European research institutes that were consulted for input.

The German Bertelsmann Stiftung has today released its updated Transformation Index (BTI 2018). Every second year, the BTI measures political and economic progress in 129 transformation countries around the world and belongs to the most detailed comparative country analyses.

IES researcher Jan Claudius Völkel serves as the BTI’s Regional Coordinator Middle East & North Africa, and is hence responsible for the detailed assessment of 19 MENA countries, which stretch from Morocco in the West to Iran in the East, and from Turkey in the North to Sudan in the South. For this, he has organised and supervised the conduct of independent analyses by two renowned experts per country. The findings are worrying: overall, democracy has reached its lowest level ever in the MENA region, only Tunisia has stabilised its achievements since the 2011 revolution.

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.  

Curious to learn more about sustainability from an interdisciplinary perspective? The Sustainability Bootcamp combines lectures from both academic and operational experts from different disciplines, and will bring you in 4 days (from 9 - 12 April 2018) at the state-of-the-art in sustainability. Getting inspired for innovation and meeting peers in an open atmosphere at our green campus in Brussels is the ultimate goal of this bootcamp. The combination of academic lectures pointing out the latest knowledge in the field together with professionals sharing their experiences is a unique and enriching concept.

The IES Doctoral researcher Matilda Axelson has been involved in the development of a recently launched report by IISD (International Institute for Sustainable Development) and the i24C (the Industrial Innovation for Competitiveness initiative), titled “Low-carbon innovation for sustainable infrastructure – The role of public procurement”.

Public procurement is a powerful tool which can be used to generate demand for innovative, low-carbon solutions that go in line with governmental goals, such as employment, sustainable development and a low-carbon transition for infrastructure. The public purse has a particularly strong impact on European goods, services and infrastructure, and can, if wisely managed, act as an enabler for driving markets towards more sustainable production patterns.

The shared threat emanating from Pyongyang creates a centripetal force that binds Washington, Tokyo, and Seoul because the three partners need mutual assistance. On the other hand, however, the high stakes involved in the North Korea policy of these states also intensify discord over the means to address the threat, thereby producing a centrifugal force. Policies that hurt each other’s fundamental security interests have to be pursued only with careful consultation with the partners, for both the policies’ effectiveness and for the maintenance of the partnerships. For effective cooperation, the U.S., Japanese, and ROK governments must all embrace the centripetal force of the North Korean threat while being mindful of the centrifugal force.

IES researcher Jan Claudius Völkel has published a new analysis of “Geostrategic, political and socio-economic interests and stragies of regional actors in North Africa and the Sahel” for the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (BpB, Federal Agency for Civic Education, in German language).

The paper examines the evolution of Europe's geopolitical architecture, and its fit within the broader transatlantic/Western system. The central argument is that all the media buzz about Europe's many crises (financial, migration, populism, Brexit) may have prevented Europeans from appreciating the most geopolitically significant crisis the old continent is undergoing: a balance of power crisis. The author argues that Europe's balance of power crisis is animated by three structural developments that are testing the fabric of the postwar European geopolitical architecture: US retrenchment from Europe, Germany's emerging leadership position within the EU, and Russia's attempts to recreate a sphere of influence in Eastern Europe. 

On 2 March 2018, Mathias Holvoet defended his PhD thesis entitled “A policy to commit atrocity, understanding the “policy element” for the purpose of defining crimes against humanity”. His promotors were Prof. dr. P. De Hert and Prof. dr. S. Smis.

As a PhD researcher at the IES, Mathias was affiliated with the Faculty of Law and Criminology.  He was a member of the IES’ Migration, Diversity and Justice Cluster. Within the field of International Criminal Law, his work focused on the law of crimes against humanity, the relationship of International Criminal Law with neighbouring fields such as International Human Rights Law, International Humanitarian Law and International Refugee Law and the continuing relevance of hybrid or internationalized criminal mechanisms within International Criminal Justice.

On 22 March, IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove will act as discussant to Prof. Luc Soete’s talk on “Europe’s future R&I policy – Visions and values for Openness”.

This event is the last of a Tour d’ Europe, organized by the E.C., in the 28 capitals of the EU in order to discuss the outcome of a report prepared by the RISE independent expert advisory group to Commissioner Carlos Moedas. 

This could have hardly published more timely: last week Ethiopia’s prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn stepped down due to the ongoing violent clashes in the country, this week IES researcher Dr Jan Claudius Völkel published an updated conflict analysis on the East African regional hegemon for the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education, in German language).

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. 

Korea-Foundation-VUB Korea Chair Dr. Ramon Pacheco Pardo has been invited to teach a course on 'EU and Asia' as part of Seoul National University's International Summer Institute. SNU is Korea's top university. As South Korea's first national university, Seoul National University has a tradition of standing up for democracy and peace on the Korean peninsula. Graduates have long served as public servants in key positions of the Korean government. In teaching, research, and public service, Seoul National University continues to set the standard of excellence. If you would like to find out more about the courses of the Seoul National University International Summer Institute, please visit this website.

In the framework of the Master of Arts in Transatlantic Affairs (MATA), jointly offered by the College of Europe and The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University), and in cooperation with the EU-funded Horizon 2020 project EL-CSID (European Leadership in Cultural, Science and Innovation Diplomacy), the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, is organising a workshop on "Soft Power in Transatlantic Relations" on 13 and 14 April 2018. Luk Van Langenhove, IES Academic Director and EL-CSID Scientific Coordinator, will draw concluding remarks. More information is available on conference website.

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.