Upcoming Events
Established in 2018, the Brussels Interdisciplinary Research centre on Migration and Minorities (BIRMM) is recognized as the VUB’s Interdisciplinary Centre of Expertise on Migration and Minorities. Over 100 VUB researchers from 11 disciplines participate in it. The coordination is hosted at the IES’ MDJ research cluster, and directed by Prof. Ilke Adam and Prof. Florian Trauner. On 1 September Hannah Vermaut started as the new BIRMM coordinator. She will be assisted by PhD researcher Omar N. Cham. The new coordination team is set to boost BIRMM’s communication and activities.
Leading experts of Green Public Procurement (GPP) from different countries, organisations and the European Commission met on 16-17 June in a virtual expert workshop organised by HILMI project. The aim of the Workshop was to obtain insights into concrete examples and experiences to further develop the legislation and the measurement of the greening of public procurement. These insights will feed into the policy advice that the HILMI Project, led by Professor Harri Kalimo, will be providing the Finnish government by the end of the year. 
In September 2020, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) published its Roma and Travellers Survey 2019, covering six countries: Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. The survey includes interviews with almost 4,700 Roma and Travellers, collecting information on more than 8,200 individuals living in their households. IES Postdoctoral Researcher Serena D’Agostino is the author of the Country Report on Belgium, in which she outlines that the access to both justice and education is particularly problematic for Roma and Travellers. Travellers children are, for instance, highly affected by the existing Dutch and French speaking education systems, where the lack of inclusive education based on case-by-case assessments contributes to their marginalisation. She also highlights that in the reported period the evictions of Travellers have repeatedly occurred in the three Belgian regions - such as in July 2019, when the commune of Anderlecht (Brussels) sent in police to clear out a site where some 30 people, including...
On 18 and 19 June several representatives from the Institute for European Studies and Vesalius College participated in the 4th European Conference on Teaching and Learning Politics, International Relations and European Studies – EuroTLC.
For many years, the Institute for European Studies has built a solid reputation in teaching and learning innovation. Long before the COVID-19 pandemic, blended and online learning was part of its educational portfolio. Now, with the establishment of an Office for Teaching and Learning Innovation (OTLI) in the Spring of 2020, the Institute has taken the next step in this essential development towards the ‘education of the future’.
On 18 June 2020, Intersentia published the sixth volume in the ‘European Integration and Democracy’ Series. The book, devoted to ‘Disinformation and Digital Media as a Challenge for Democracy’, was edited by Georgios Terzis, Dariusz Kloza, Elżbieta Kużelewska and Daniel Trottier, with the assistance of Ioulia Konstantinou.
With two new H2020 projects on migration and immigrant integration, one FWO postdoctoral project on immigration policies, and a European research project on the BLM movement, the IES’ Migration, Diversity and Justice (MDJ) research cluster has had a particularly successful year with respect to research grants. 
At the beginning of our rather exceptional COVID-19 summer, thirty international students participated in the Inter-University Summer School on EU Policy-Making. This was the 17th edition of our long-standing summer programme, but different from previous years, the intensive two-week course was held online from 6-17 July 2020. 
Matilda Axelson from the IES participated in the organization and execution of a workshop by RENEW-Industry - the Research Network on Industrial Decarbonisation on June 17th 2020. RENEW-Industry co-organized the workshop "How to jump start industry decarbonisation in the wake of the Corona crisis?" together with eceee, Prof. Dr. Stefan Lechtenböhmer and Dr. Marlene Arens.
In September 2020, Prof. Dr. Kristin Henrard joined the Institute for European Studies as Senior Researcher in its Migration, Diversity and Justice (MDJ) team. Kristin Henrard was also appointed at Vesalius College as a Professor of International Law and Programme Director of its BA in International and European Law. She has more than 160 publications, a substantial part of which pertain to the areas of human rights and minorities, ranging from educational rights, linguistic rights, to the prohibition of (racial) discrimination (the various dimensions of the right to equal treatment), socio-economic and political participation and religious fundamental rights.
The GOVTRAN project partners are delighted to share the latest Review of European, Comparative & International Environmental Law (RECIEL) special issue on Assessing the EU 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework. The Special issue and the 10 articles, all of them open access publications until the end of November, is a result of a GOVTRAN workshop that was organised in Helsinki in the summer of 2019.
On 9 October, from 10.00 to 12.00, IES PhD Researcher Laura Westerveen will defend her PhD thesis. Laura’s thesis is entitled: "Ethno-racial (In)equality in Belgium and Germany: Understanding Policy Frames". Her dissertation explores the framing of inequalities along ethno-racial lines in policy discourses. In particular, it identifies different types of ‘policy frames’ surrounding these inequalities in Belgian and German education and employment policies.
On 4 September 2020, IES PhD Candidate Klaudia Majcher successfully defended her PhD thesis on “Coherence between EU Data Protection and Competition Law in the Digital Market”. Klaudia’s PhD supervisors were Prof. Dr. Harri Kalimo (LLM Programme Director & Research Professor at the IES) and Prof. Ben Smulders (Director and Principal Legal Advisor in the European Commission). The committee was also comprised of VUB Prof. Caroline Buts and VUB Prof. Christopher Kuner, and jury members Dr. Orla Lynskey (Associate Professor of Law at the London School of Economics) and Prof. Peggy Valcke (Professor of Law at KU Leuven Center for IT & IP Law).
Prof. Florian Trauner was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair for the project ‘EXPAND: Explaining Resilience in EU Justice and Home Affairs’. Jean Monnet Chairs are funded by the European Union’s Erasmus+ Programme and aim at achieving research-led excellence in teaching and learning. The objective of the Chair ‘EXPAND’ is to contribute to the understanding of the changing nature of the European integration policies in and beyond the EU with regard to Justice and Home Affairs Policies. IES in the media...
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Ramon Pacheco Pardo
US experts: "Kim Jong-un's apology is a political decision" (in Korean)
26 Sep 2020
In: News 1
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Ramon Pacheco Pardo
Kim Jong-un's unusual apology...Wants stability on the Korean Peninsula due to rising domestic unrest (in Korean)
25 Sep 2020
In: RFA
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Ramon Pacheco Pardo
North Korea’s Kim Jong Un Apologizes For Shooting Death of South Korean Official at Sea
25 Sep 2020
In: RFA
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Ramon Pacheco Pardo
Jung Eun-kyeong and Bong Joon-ho were selected as '100 Most Influential People of 2020' in the US
24 Sep 2020
In: TBS News
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2014 represents a strategic crossroads for NATO. To encourage debate in the policy and academic communities, the Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, the Royal United Services Institute and NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division organised a workshop on 30 June in Brussels. In discussing present challenges and paving a way forward for NATO, the workshop saw high-level participants come together for a stimulating and in-depth strategic debate. The event showcased a special feature that was published with the RUSI Journal in advance of the Alliance's Summit in Wales, 4-5 September 2014, with contributions from IES Researchers Alexander Mattelaer and Luis Simón.
IES is a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence at the 