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 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.

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.

From 28 May until 1 June 2018, KF-VUB Korea Chair holder Dr. Ramon Pacheco Pardo, Dr. Tongfi Kim and Ms. Linde Desmaele participated in a series of events in Seoul (Republic of Korea) to launch the KF-VUB Korea Chair. On top of a high-level panel hosted by the EU Delegation to the Republic of Korea (ROK), they took part in several roundtable discussions with think tanks, including the Korea National Diplomatic Academy and Asan Institute, and ROK officials in which they exchanged views on achieving peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. 

Students of the University of Southern California, enrolled in the Brussels Programme on European Foreign Policy, were welcomed with a reception on Monday 28 May. They spent 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 by IES. It is led by Dr. Daniel Fiott and Dr. Luis Simon.

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 6 & 7 June, IES professor Harri Kalimo, assisted by IES researcher Lea Mateo and Chris Yon (UPitt), gave SOLVIT experts from the Member States two days of intensive training on EU free movement of goods law. The training covered a wide range of scenarios of obstacles that companies (in particular SMEs) encounter with public authorities in the Member States when attempting to operate across the borders and market their goods. The impacts of SOLVIT’s reinforced legal expertise should improve the help they provide to companies to make the best use of the opportunities the  internal market has to offer, and hence contribute directly into a more efficient European economy. 

Between 31 May and 1 June Silviu co-organised the 3^rd European Conference on Teaching and Learning Politics, International Relations and European Studies – EuroTLC together with Dr. Heidi Maurer (London School of Economics and Political Science) and Dr. Tomas Weiss (Charles University Prague). After two successful editions in Maastricht (2014) and Brussels (2016), the conference endorsed by the University Association for Contemporary European Studies (UACES), the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), the British International Studies Association (BISA) and the Political Science Association (PSA) was held at the Charles University in Prague where it welcomed scholars from across Europe, China and the US for one of the 20 workshop sessions or 15 paper panels.

IES PhD Researcher Klaudia Majcher gave a presentation at 13th Annual Conference of the Academic Society for Competition Law (ASCOLA) on “The Effects of Digitalization, Globalization, and Nationalism on Competition Law”, which took place at NYU School of Law on 21-23 June. Klaudia’s presentation focused on the legal theory of coherence as a framework for analysing intersections between EU competition and data protection law in the digital marketplace.

Matilda Axelson presented the new IES report ‘Breaking Through’ at the 10th Annual Meeting of the LCS-RNet in Yokohama, Japan, on 17/7. The presentation featured innovation and transitions, in the context of industrial decarbonisation. The LCS-RNet (International Research Network for Low Carbon Societies) is a global network of researchers that are making close contributions to individual countries’ low-carbon policy-making processes.

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

On 30 May 2018, Carlos Soria 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.