Research internationalisation is vital for an open and modern university like the VUB. International research co-operation brings impact, visibility, quality, and (of course) funding. But internationalisation can have its dark sides: the problems of human rights violations, industrial espionage, and working with questionable regimes cannot be ignored, particularly when they touch the VUB community directly. During this session on 4 December, the VUB research community discussed the challenges of international collaboration with a panel of policy-makers.

On 6 November a delegation including José Rosinol and Miriam Tey, the President and Vice-President of the Societat Civil Catalana (SCC) visited the IES to have discussions with IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove on Catalonia, Spain and Europe. The SCC is a grass-roots initative that embraces the diversity in Catalan society.

On 12 September 2018, the IES hosted an international workshop for the Horizon 2020 project “COP21: Results and Implications for Pathways and Policies for Low Emissions European Societies (COP21 RIPPLES)”. The workshop was dedicated to the nextsteps of the project work on international climate governance of which the IES is co-coordinator. IES participants included Sebastian Oberthür, Tomas Wyns and Gauri Khandekar.  The workshop gathered consortium colleagues from University College London, the Paris-based Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations (IDDRI), Climate Analytics, and Wuppertal Institutefor Climate, Environment, and Energy to discuss future work that will analyse international  decarbonization clubs and zoom in on international cooperation on low-carbon technologies and innovation, and on transformative climate finance.

IES Research Professor Jamal Shahin gave a keynote speech at the Conference Finland 3.0 of the ALL-YOUTH project, held on 22-23 November at the University of Helsinki. Jamal’s presentation, entitled ‘Youth Participation in Internet Governance’, addressed the role of youth organizations in the global multistakeholderism dynamics of Internet governance. The session used interactive tools to engage the audience in a debate around how is the Internet governed, and why is it politically, economically and socially relevant. Jamal pointed at youth as an actor with a strong voice that has had a key role in the different fora with which the Internet has opened up to stakeholder participation. The session displayed several video testimonies of young people involved in the Internet governance through platforms such as the Youth Coalition on Internet Governance (YCIG) or the No Hate Speech Movement of the Council of Europe. In addition to Jamal’s intervention, the Conference...

In recent months, trade defence has become increasingly prominent on the European political agenda. China is resolutely claiming to be a market economy, while US President Trump has set up measures on steel and aluminium. Recent events such as these have only underlined the importance of reforms on the EU’s Trade Defence Instruments (TDIs): they need to become more efficient so as to react quickly to external developments. These external and internal evolutions were amongst the key themes explored in the new high-level expert conference organized by the IES on 26 October, the TDI Yearly 2018.

From October 2018 through May 2019 UPV organises a series of lectures on various aspects of the EU’s past, present and future. Four lectures will be delivered by speakers from the Institute for European Studies: Ilke Adam will discuss the EU’s migration policy (24 October), Tomas Wyns will take a look at the EU’s climate policy in the context of climate change (28 November), Alexander Mattelaer will tackle the topic of Brexit and its implications on daily life of EU citizens (20 March), and IES Academic Director Luk Van Langenhove will provide an overview of possible scenarios for the future of Europe (3 April).

More here >>>

On 27 September, the new Academic Year at the IES was formally inaugurated with a lecture by Mr Martti Koskenniemi, Professor of International Law at the University of Helsinki and Director of the Erik Castrén Institute of International Law and Human Rights. A room packed with students from our two Advanced Master programmes (LLM in International and European Law and Advanced Master in European Integration) benefited from the insights offered by one of the most prominent international law scholars of our time. This academic year 2018-19, our two Advanced Master programmes have started off with a total of 83 students (part of the group is on the picture).

On 10 October, IES Prof. Dr. Marie Lamensch presented her study on VAT fraud written at the request of the European Parliament’s TAX3 Committee, a special committeeon financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidancethat was set up in March 2018 after Luxleaks, the Panama papers, and other tax related scandals. TAX3 aims to build on the work of its predecessors and investigate new issues, such as digital taxation, national citizenship programmes and VAT fraud.

Immigrant integration policy-making has long been considered a prerogative of the nation state. Yet, in recent years, elements of these policy areas have been shifted upwards, to the international level (EU and international organizations), downwards, to the sub-state level (regional and local authorities) and outwards (to countries of origin, transit and private actors). This dispersal of policy-making power increases the need for coordination. 

Ilke Adam and Eve Hepburn (Edinburgh University & Policy Scribe,) edited a special issue of Regional and Federal Studies inquiring into how and why governments in multi-level states coordinate on immigrant integration. Through a comparison of four case studies (Belgium, Canada, Italy and Spain) – which includes within-case comparisons over time, across regions and across sub-policy areas –  the authors aimed to identify the features of intergovernmental relations and the nature and dynamics that shape these. 

The VUB educational services organize regular Get Inspired! -sessions to VUB staff, where peers present perspectives in educational and research practices to inspire one another. On Tuesday 4 December the session zoomed in on sharing practices on benchmarking of educational programmes; invited to speak in the session was IES professor Harri Kalimo.

A 46th generation of our LLM and 16th generation of our EuroMaster students have successfully finished their studies at the Institute for European Studies. They celebrated this milestone in their lives during two 2017-18 graduation ceremonies, which were elevated by particularly inspiring speeches from two IES alumni who shared their views on ‘life after the programme’ and emphasized the importance of the IES alumni network.

In cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Finland, and with the support of the Institute for European Studies (IES/VUB), the ALL-YOUTH project calls on youth/young researchers to apply for the MasterClass: “The Future of the Council of Europe”. The session will take place on Monday 4 February 2019 at the Tampere University, Finland.