A new 4-year research project entitled “Policy integration: decarbonisation and security of supply in the European Union's external energy policy” is currently taking off at the IES’ cluster on Environment and Sustainable Development. The project explores varying levels of integration of the key policy objectives of decarbonisation and security of supply into the European Union’s external energy policy toward third countries. It specifically focuses on the EU’s external energy policy toward and gas relations with key partner countries (Russia, Norway, Algeria/Azerbaijan).

The Institute for European Studies (IES) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is proud to announce the appointment of Prof. Dr. Alexander Mattelaer as its new Academic Director, as a successor to Prof. Dr. Luk Van Langenhove. With this new appointment, the IES sees a familiar face take charge of its academic activities. Indeed, Prof. Dr. Mattelaer is not only a senior member of the IES’ International Security cluster, he also has a longstanding affiliation with the Institute in different managerial capacities, having served as Assistant Director and Acting Academic Director for several years in the past. Beyond the IES, Prof. Dr. Mattelaer held posts as Director of European Affairs at Egmont Institute, and Fulbright Schuman Fellow at Harvard University and National Defense University. With a research background on diplomacy and defence issues, he currently teaches several courses at VUB related to EU and international security.

IES researcher Sara Silvestre successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled ‘Understanding the Negotiation Behaviour of Member States in the Council of the EU: The Case of the Asylum Procedures Directive’. It was a double PhD between the IES (supervisor Prof. Florian Trauner) and ISCTE – The University Institute of Lisbon (supervisors Profs. Robert Ladrech and João Miguel de Carvalho).

After her hearing at the European Parliament in December 2018, Trisha Meyer (Assistant Professor at Vesalius College and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute for European Studies) returned to Strasbourg to present the results of her study on the use of artificial intelligence to combat disinformation online at the Council of Europe on 28 February 2019. The study was commissioned by the European Parliament’s Panel on the Future of Science and Technology (STOA) and was co-authored with Prof. Marsden (Professor of Internet Law at the University of Sussex). The study focuses on the consequences of automated content moderation for freedom of expression and media pluralism and warns against use of artificial intelligence without human intervention and appeal mechanisms as a solution to disinformation. Prof. Meyer is grateful for the opportunity to exchange views on information disorder and media (dis)trust at the Council of Europe.

After a three-year running period, EL-CSID disseminated its final results to the audience on 27 February in Brussels. The Final Report (available online on www.el-csid.eu), which discussed EL-CSID’s final results and recommendations, was thoroughly discussed. The panels reflected the topics that were researched by the 9 partner institutions; how EU cultural and science diplomacy are perceived from the outside by partner regions; how to move forward with EU science, innovation and cultural diplomacy and how higher education could be an instrument of European diplomacy more generically.

No less than three publications were recently published by our researcher Elie Perot. In the article published in the policy journal Survival: Global Politics and Strategy, Elie argues that the obscuring of the distinction between war and peace is not a distinctive feature of contemporary times, nor simply a conceptual conundrum. Rather, it is a systemic and strategic response to the persistent fear of a general war at the international level, a factor of crucial importance in the perspective of the growing antagonism characterizing US-China relations.

On 23 January, Ramon Pacheco Pardo was invited by the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights to provide his views during a hearing focused on the gradual opening up of North Korea and on recent diplomatic developments related to the Korean Peninsula, zooming in on the human rights consequences in particular.

On 12 February, Jamal Shahin spoke about the GIPO project at a workshop hosted by the European Cyber Security Organisation, specifically their subworking group on telecom, media and content (SWG3.8). There, Jamal talked about the importance of bringing together different stakeholders in shaping the future of internet governance.

In 2018, the Institute for European Studies was honoured to bring four PhDs to fruition: Ferran Davesa (PhD Political Science), Mathias Holvoet (PhD in Law), Carlos Soria Rodrigues (PhD in Law) and Serena D’Agostino (PhD Political Science). The IES organised 57 events and produced 211 publications. Among  these events were the biannual EUIA conference, which was a record-breaking edition, and the large-scale Transatlantic EuroSim (EU simulation) conference hosted by the IES.
The Institute continued to expand and now counts 104 people or 55.4 full-time equivalents. In 2018, IES scholars took part in a total of 131 media appearances. Moreover, the Institute was particularly successful in obtaining externally funded projects. At the end of the year, no less than 38 external projects were conducted by IES scholars, whereas an additional 15 projects were funded through our own budget.

The European Union is a frontrunner on two major societal developments: digitalization and the circular economy. The EU has therefore particular prominence and interest in the policy domain where these two trends meet: in the creation of a digital circular economy. At the IES, professor Harri Kalimo, together with researcher Lea Mateo (who is pursuing a joint PhD with the University of Eastern Finland) are exploring this exciting topic in their research. 

The European Commission and antitrust regulators worldwide are focusing their policy and enforcement priorities on key aspects of the digital economy including e-commerce, big data and algorithms. Blockchain appears to be now next in line for scrutiny.  On 16 January 2019, the IES assembled a unique expert panel to explore and debate the “promises and perils” of this emerging and transformative technology in the antitrust context.  The panel was led by Dave Anderson, IES Associate Researcher (and Head of the Brussels office of the law firm BCLP LLP), and it included a diverse spectrum of expertise on blockchain and antitrust: Fabio Falconi from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, Pontus Lindblom who has been commissioned by the Swedish Competition Authority to advise them on blockchain, Thibault Schrepel from Utrecht University who is a leading commentator on the antitrust risks involved in blockchain and Falk Schöning from the law firm Hogan Lovells who participated e.g. in the OECD Blockchain roundtable last year as a private sector...

After successfully hosting the 31st edition of EuroSim – a Model European Union that brings together around 200 students from the US and the EU to simulate the legislative process of the European Union – the IES participated with its own delegation of students in the US edition that was hosted at the St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York between 28 – 31 March. Selected across its LLM, EuroMaster, and Postgraduate Certificate programmes, the Institute’s delegation negotiated together with peers from 20 different universities and colleges the EU’s next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF). 

Alexander Mattelaer and Jordan Becker contributed to a new report by former U.S. Permanent Representatives to NATO Ambassadors Douglas Lute and Nicholas Burns, entitled "NATO at Seventy: An Alliance in Crisis." The report coincides with NATO's 70^th anniversary, as the world’s most successful alliance faces perhaps the most daunting and complex set of challenges in its history. 

NATO Photo