In her speech to the European Parliament on 27.11, Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen highlighted the need to make the European internal market work better. She highlighted the need to open up the markets, while at the same time not leaving anyone behind. The challenge is to support a better functioning EU market, in particular on services, while making sure that the workers’ rights and professions are governed in fair and transparent fashion. A balance needs to be struck between the free movement of workers, services and establishment, on the one hand, and the regulation of professions, on the other. These themes were explored in great detail in two 2-day training sessions on Free movement in the context of Professional Qualifications, offered by IES Professor Harri Kalimo, Professor Vassilis Hatzopoulos (Pantheion University, Athens) and research Lea Mateo, on 22.-23.10. and 4.-5.12. at the IES. The trainees were experts from the SOLVIT network, established by the Commission in 2001 to help companies and individuals with problems to operate across the borders. ...

On November 9th, 2019, the world will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and all eyes will be on the German capital. Around this historical event the city will host an international Summit from November 6th-10th, 2019. On the evening of November 9, world-renowned singers and bands will perform a peace concert, paying tribute to the past 30 years without the Wall. Former IES Academic Director Prof. Dr. Luk Van Langenhove has been invited to deliver a keynote Address to this Summit. He will speak about “The Psychology of Walls and the need for Windows of Dialogue”.

On 24 October, Ilke Adam gave a keynote speech at the landmark European Conference ‘From Tampere 20 to Tampere 2.0. Towards a new programme (2020-24) for EU migration and asylum policies 20 years after the Tampere conclusions’. This conference brought together high-level policy makers, experts, academics and civil society leaders reflecting on the 20 years of European immigration policies and the way forward.  

On Thursday 14 November IES-VUB hosted the first discussion in academia of the ‘Scaling Fences. Voices of Irregular African Migrants’to Europe’ report by UNDP-Africa. The report was presented by Ms. Ahunna Eziakonwa, UNDP assistant secretary-general and Mohamed Yahja, research director of the Scaling fences project. Almost 2000 irregular migrants in Europe were surveyed, from 39 different countries. 

On Thursday 14 November, IES PhD candidate Stephan Klose defended his doctoral thesis on role theory’s added value for International Relations and EU studies. In his dissertation, Stephan addresses two shortcomings in the role theory literature – role theory’s conceptual ambiguity and the lack of engagement of role theorists in relevant disciplinary debates – which together have obscured role theory’s value for the study of international affairs. 

On October 18, the EDGE Programme organised a full day of presentations, discussions and conversations on long-term challenges to democracy. The agenda included many activities to foster research creativity and intellectual exchange, from an academic speed-dating to the launch of the first ‘EDGE Book’, i.e. the edited volume on ‘The Edges of Political Representation. Mapping, Critiquing and Pushing the Boundaries’. Researchers and Professors from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Institute for European Studies, joined a roundtable discussion on the future challenges of democracy and a closing speech on “What Future for Parliamentary Politics and Democratic Engagement?”, by Cristina Leston-Bandeira (University of Leeds).

For the next Multiannual Financial Framework, the Commission has proposed a new mega instrument in the area of external action that will make migration a key focus of the EU’s development cooperation. The nexus between migration and development will thus take centre stage in the EU’s engagement with third countries. In this context, it is interesting to look at current policies combining external migration governance with development cooperation. While the EU seems to assume that policies concerning migration and development cooperation are coherent, a closer look reveals that this is not always the case. Particularly concerning aid conditionality and the emphasis on short-term versus long-term goals, development cooperation and migration policies have different objectives, at times leading to incoherence in the EU’s external policies. 

The Jean Monnet network ‘Governing the EU’s Climate and Energy Transition in Turbulent Times’ (GOVTRAN), to which the IES-VUB serves as leading coordinator, held its second international workshop under the overarching theme ‘Climate and Energy Governance and the Future of Europe’ at the Istituto Affari Internazionali in Rome on 30 September – 1 October 2019. Seventeen researchers from across Europe presented twelve draft papers examining how various aspects of EU climate and energy policy interact with some of the underlying causes of the current crisis of European integration. Topics included, inter alia, the impact of rising populism, the role of Central and Eastern European Member States, the effectiveness of EU policies to promote renewable energy, the role of the European Parliament and of the Commission, and changes in EU international climate and energy governance. 

In the context of a thematic 'research' week, the Spanish high school Institut Vall de Llémena has invited experts from different research areas to explain to the students how to conduct scientific research. Davesa disentangled the rationale behind social sciences research based on his own experience at the Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

The Institute for European Studies (IES), Vesalius College (VeCo) in Brussels and the Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) of the University of Warwick in the UK are offering a joint training programme on the Politics of International Development. 

The training will be held at the West Midlands Europe Hub in Brussels on Friday evening 17th January and all day Saturday 18th January 2020.

The training, aimed at early to mid-career professionals, will provide a solid introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals in context and detailed knowledge on the framing, implementation and implications of Sustainable Development Goal 16 on peaceful, just and inclusive societies. It will take a critical approach to the dominant international development agenda. It will enable participants to situate the Sustainable Development Goals in an intellectual history of thinking on development, as well as the contemporary challenges of the pressures on multilateralism and resources and demands...