Vol. 7 • (double) Issue 31 • January - June 2010

Newsletter

Newsletter of the Institute for European Studies • Vrije Universiteit Brussel • Pleinlaan 2 • 1050 Brussel • Belgium

Karen Donders, PhD 1

Senior Research Fellow Corner 2

- Richard in Arizona & Israel 2

- Acad. Director on the move 2

- CORPUS Project 3

- Dr. Céline Francis 3

Short Stories 3

New Faces @ the IES 4

Activities at the IES 4

- 3rd USC Summer Programme 4

- Hendrix Students 4

International Relations 5

- Pittsburg 5

- CARE workshop 5

EU in Int’l Affairs Conference 6-7

IES Publications 8

- EU Climate Policies 8

- Working Papers 8

News from the IES researchers 9

- EuroCPR 9

- Public Broadcasting 9

- Katja in the States 9

Greening the IES 9

IES Policy Fora 10

- The Kiev Protocol 10

- Producer Responsibility 10

- Culture and Migration 11

- EUFOR/Cchad/RCA 11

- Hongyu in Prague 11

E-learning & Training 12

- E-learning in Brazil 12

- Training Wallonia 12

- Upcoming activities 12

Newsletter of theInstitute for European Studies

Published byAnthony Antoine

Institute for European StudiesVrije Universiteit Brussel

Pleinlaan 2 (IES)B-1050 Brussels (Belgium)

http://www.ies.beies@vub.ac.be

Contributed to this Newsletter:

Anthony Antoine, Katja Biedenkopf, Alina

Christova, Bart De Schutter, Karen Donders,

Claire Dupont, Armelle Gouritin, Eva Gross,

Harri Kalimo, Richard Lewis, Alexander

Mattelaer, Trisha Meyer, Alexandra Mihai,

Sebastian Oberthür, Justyna Pozarowska,

Olof Soebech, Ben Van Rompuy, Hongyu

Wang, Sigrid Winkler

Editing: Anthony Antoine, Anne Sterckx,

Trisha Meyer & Alex Daniel

Pictures courtesy of IES

C o n t e n t s Karen Donders, PhDThe Institute for European Studies is proud to an-

nounce that its researcher Karen Donders success-

fully defended her PhD in communication sciences.

On 21 May, Karen publicly defended her PhD “Under

Pressure? An analysis of the impact of European State

aid policy on public service broadcasting: Marginali-

sation or revival as public service media?”

In her PhD Karen investigates whether and how the

European Commission has affected Member States’

regulation and policy for public broadcasting organi-

sations on the basis of EU State aid rules. Three ques-

tions are at the core of the research. Firstly, which

topics, priorities and trends can be identified in the

European Commission’s policies? Secondly, is State

aid policy in the area of public service broadcasting

resulting in a marginalisation of public broadcasters’

activities or is it, on the contrary, furthering good

governance principles and a sustainable public

service media project? Thirdly, what will be

the foreseeable future effects of European

State aid policy on public service broad-

casting?

In her presentation Karen explained the

context within which her PhD can be

situated. She pointed at the main-

stream idea with scholars in the

field of media policy research

that public broadcasting is

under pressure due to the

European Commission’s

intervention. In fact,

many scholars believe

that the European

Commission will

squeeze the big

public broadcast-

ing organisations

we have in Europe

into the margin of

service delivery.

Karen argues the contrary in this thesis as she dem-

onstrates that the dynamics underlying Commission

investigations into the funding of public broadcasting

organisations and the closure thereof – even though

based on a competition rationale – foster the emer-

gence of a sustainable public service media project.

The main building blocks of Karen’s research are five-

fold. Firstly, it contextualises the evolutions public

broadcasters have gone through and defines what is

meant by ‘public service media’. Secondly, the legal

framework within which the European Commission

can tackle Member States’ public broadcasting policy

is assessed. Thirdly, the Commission’s policies are

analysed from a historical angle and a more detailed

thematic perspective (focusing on all decisions of the

European Commission in this area). Fourthly, for both

Germany and Flanders the regulation and policy for

public service broadcasting before and after Euro-

pean Commission involvement is scrutinised

and evaluated. Finally, some conclusions

with regard to the research argument are

presented and a number of policy recom-

mendations presented. Consequently,

K a r e n addressed the main conclu-

s i ons of her research.

After the 20-minute presen-

tation, all jury members were

entitled to ask questions.

This provoked a lively debate

between Karen and some

of the jury members of

which some agreed and

others disagreed with

the controversial argu-

ment of the thesis.

Welcome Chloë !

Daughter of IES Researcher Marie Lamensch

Born on 1 June 2010.

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Senior Research Fellow Corner

R i c h a r d L e w i s i n A r i z o n a a n d i n I s r a e l IES Academic Director on the moveIES Academic Director Sebastian Oberthür

delivered three presentations related to the

development of international climate policy

and the role of the EU in the aftermath of

the Copenhagen Climate Summit of Decem-

ber 2009. On 15 January 2010, he delivered

a lecture on “EU Leadership on Climate

Change: A Matter of the Past?” at Radboud

University Nijmegen.

On 26 January 2010, Sebastian participated

in a panel discussion on climate change at

the conference on “Mapping the Future of

the EU/US strategic partnership: policy and

research perspectives” organised by the Eu-

ropean Commission on 25 and 26 January

in Brussels.

Finally, he acted as a discussant of an in-

tervention of the Director-General for Exter-

nal Relations of the European Commission,

J. Vale de Almeida, on “The role of the EU

after the new Lisbon Treaty and the UN Co-

penhagen conference: from regional entity

to global actor?” during the GARNET PhD

School Alumni Conference on “Global Gov-

ernance, Regionalism and the Role of the

EU: Facing the Emergence of a Multipolar

World” that took place in Brussels on 4 and 5

March 2010. In his interventions, Sebastian

explored the reasons for the lack of suc-

cess of the EU in moving other international

players, including the US and advanced de-

veloping countries, towards an ambitious

climate agreement in the Copenhagen pro-

cess. He highlighted the importance of the

changing international political framework

in the issue area of climate change. As a

result, the EU’s influence in international

climate policy has declined, even though

it still remains the sole candidate for inter-

national leadership. Under the cir-

cumstances, the U n i o n

may be well ad- v i s e d

to strengthen i t s

efforts to build inter -

national alli- ances

with like-mind- e d

countries and t o

explore the pos-

sibilities for fos-

tering productive

issue linkages

in order to ad-

vance interna-

tional talks.

Senior Research Fellow Richard Lewis was at Arizona State University (ASU) in Phoenix for the six monthly meeting of the Metropolis mi-gration network’s international steering com-mittee from March 11th-13th. The main task of the committee is to prepare and monitor the annual Metropolis conference which this year will take place in the Hague at the beginning of October on the theme of “belonging in society”. The 2011 conference will be in Punta Delgada, Azores and there was also substantial discus-sion of this event by the committee. In addi-tion, there is always an opportunity for exchange of views on research activi-ties by the various institutions repre-sented, both aca-demic and govern-mental, and a useful indication of the legislative changes that affect the field of immigration and asylum.

The Spring meeting of the committee is also noteworthy for its seminars and on this occasion ASU’s North American Center for Transborder Studies hosted an academic and practitioner panel on illegal migration which is a hot topic in Arizona which bears much of the pressure of irregular migration on the Mexico-US border. This pressure is not only from Mexi-can nationals across the border but also from many other nationalities especially from other parts of Latin America. In spite of the existence of the NAFTA there appear to be few common policies to deal with the issue. There is little doubt that the United States needs temporary workers and the panellists considered that the US, as the prime economic mover of the region, needs substantial and comprehensive immigration reform. (The likelihood of this be-ing addressed is now greater since the sign-ing into law of the Health Care Bill by President Obama on March 23rd 2010 which took care of a major domestic preoccupation of the US ad-ministration.) The panel reiterated the received wisdom that immigrants, especially highly edu-cated and skilled immigrants, actually create jobs and that an adequate pipeline of skilled and unskilled immigrants to the United States should be resumed as the economy picks up.

The committee was also invited on a field trip to the Mexican border about a two and half hour drive from Phoenix across the Sonora desert. The border town which bears the same name of Nogales – and is in reality the same town –on both sides of the frontier is traversed by a wall twelve miles (18 km) long. While it would be invidious to compare it the Berlin wall, it certainly has a comparable appearance in places but obviously not a comparable con-notation.

The members of the committee were briefed by the deputy Mexican consul in Nogales, Ari-zona who has 34 staff and deals with 3-400 issues a day. We were then given a powerpoint presentation by the US Border Patrol and Field Operations staff on their work which required a high degree of technical expertise in policing the border as well as considerable humanity in dealing with what is, after all, a human prob-lem. One of the most difficult of current issues is the trafficking of children across the border to attempt to re-unite them with parents who are already in the United States illegally. To give an indication of the scale of opera-tions, the Border Service is called on to deal with 240.000 cases a year along the Mexican

border, a high proportion of which are in Ari-zona. This has decreased by no less than half in the last five years. Many of the issues on the border are related to drug smuggling and the “narcotics wars” between gangs that result in periodic shoot-outs in border towns. One such incident took place in Ciudad Juarez the very same day that the group were in Nogales.

The members of the committee then crossed the border to have an agreeable lunch and discussion with the mayor of Nogales, So-

nora (see picu-ture) whose staff co-operate their American counter-parts on border is-sues. The Mexicans proved gracious hosts given that they are busy public officials. The lunch was followed by an hour and a quarter’s wait to re-cross the border into the Unit-ed States because of the substantial queue of cars. For-

tunately, there was no need to compete with the freight traffic which has a separate cross-ing point. This was important because 70% of the fruit and vegetables exported to the US by Mexico passes through the inspection point just north of Nogales.

Richard was also at a two day conference at the Ruppin Academic Center near Netanya in Israel on May 31 and June 1. He spoke on a topic of high social and political interest in Isra-el, namely the position of Muslims in European society which drew a number of controversial comments (both negative and positive) from the audience.

Much of the discussion centred on the nature of Israel as a Jewish state although there were also many academic papers on other topics). Does Israel have a vocation to be virtually all Jewish? If so, what is the position of the more than a million Muslim Arabs and Druse living and voting in the state. In addition, Israel is a magnet for economic migrants from all parts of the world and attracts illegal economic mi-grants from neighbouring countries and Africa who want to participate in a successful high tech economy largely unaffected by the recent economic crises. Economic migrants now num-ber about 300.000 out of a total population of 7 million and most will probably not convert to the dominant religion.

Richard had the “misfortune” to make his pre-sentation after a keynote speech by Nathan Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident refused an exit permit by the Soviet authorities. Sharan-sky is a charismatic and witty speaker and was a very hard act to follow! He is currently head of the Jewish Agency, the body that oversees immigration policy. Israel has a huge experi-ence of integrating new immigrants and much wisdom to impart; in the two years following independence in 1948, the population in-creased by a third in each year (170.000 immi-grants out of a population of only 650.000).

Ruppin Academic Center was founded in 1949 to provide management education to the kib-butz movement. The School of Social Science and Management numbers about 2500 stu-dents and includes 85 nationalities. The Insti-tute for Immigration and Social Integration has a very strong team that organised the confer-ence which they hope will be the first of a long series of such events.

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Short Storiesu The institute congrat-ulates PhD Researcher Marie Lamensch on the birth of her daughter Chloé, born on the first of June 2010.

u Congratulations are also in order for the

IES management as-sistant Laila Macharis who married to Jeroen De Vleesschauwer on 5 June 2010.

u On 1 June, IES P r e s i -d e n t Bart De S c h u t -ter was appointed chairman of the Univer-sity Association Brus-sel (UAB), the academic platform between the VUB and the Erasmus Highschool. He succeeds Jean-Luc Vanraes who became Minister of Fi-nances in the Brussels Government.

u Ro-manian-b o r n Amelia P a d u -r a r i u , a former IES Summer School student, started working at the IES as a researcher to help Se-nior Research Fellow Eva Gross on a Com-mittee of the Regions-financed project. Amelia also started her PhD research on EFSP issues.

u Pa-t r y c j a Rozbic-ka is a visiting f e l l o w from the European Uni-versity Institute in Flor-ence. She will be staying at the IES until Septem-ber to continue her PhD research on EU lobby-ing.

E U 7 t h f r a m e w o r k C O R P U S p r o j e c t k i c k - o f f m e e t i n g i n B e r l i n

On the 26th of January, the IES Team of Senior research

fellow Harri Kalimo and researchers Ólöf Söebech and

Klaas Chielens took the train to Berlin to attend the kick-

off meeting of a new European project financed under

the EU’s FP7, in which the IES will participate. In addition

to Harri, Ólöf and Klaas, the IES team consists of Dr. Ja-

mal Shahin, Alexandra Mihai, Lawrence Steenstra and

Steffi Weil.

The project, “Enhancing Connectivity Between Research

and Policymaking in Sustainable Consumption - CORPUS”

aims to develop novel approaches to “knowledge broker-

age” (KB). Knowledge brokerage means efforts to bring

the policy-making and research communities closer to

each others. In CORPUS, this is being done while testing

a combination of online and offline tools. The objective

is to stimulate community-building across the involved

researchers, policy-makers and civil society in the field

of sustainable consumption policies to arrive at a self-

sustaining process of knowledge management.

The CORPUS project was

formally started at the

meeting in Berlin, where

the IES team met with our

other partners. The con-

sortium members consist

of 11 organisations who

cover a broad area of ex-

pertise.

The project is lead by

the Institute for Ecologi-

cal Economy Research

(IÖW). Our other partners

include the Austrian Min-

istry for Agriculture, For-

estry, Environment and

Water Management (BML-

FUW), the Austrian Re-

search Institute for Man-

aging Sustainability (RIMAS) at the Wirtschaftsuniversität

Wien (WU Wien), Belgian Strategic Design Scenarios (SDS),

Copenhagen Business School (CBS), The Danish Topic

Centre on Waste (DTCW), the Finnish Ministry of the En-

vironment (FiMoE), the French evaluation organisation

Planète Publique (PP), the Regional Environmental Centre

for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) and the Norwegian

National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO).

The IES is responsible for building the CORPUS Web Plat-

form, which is to become a central reference point for

high quality information and networking among Euro-

pean professionals working with sustainable consump-

tion. It will provide a space for incubating and nurturing

knowledge to be shared among researchers and policy-

makers through the private domain, and scientific results

to be disseminated in the public domain. Additionally,

the platform will facilitate a transparent, mutually com-

prehensible, and effective interaction (dialogue) between

scientists and policy makers.

IES Congratulates “its” Dr. Céline Francis

On 27 April, researcher Céline Francis defended her

doctoral dissertation on “Conflict Resolution and Sta-

tus: the Case of Georgia and Abkhazia (1989-2008)”.

Although Dr. Francis technically “belonged” to the Poli-

tics Department of the VUB, she had been working at

the IES premises for the past four years (that is, when

she was not in Georgia or Abchazia for field research) -

thus becoming de facto “one of the family”.

Her dissertation explores conflict resolution initiatives

implemented in Georgia and Abkhazia. Most notably,

it examines how the struggles about Abkhazia’s de

jure and de facto status complicated or sometimes

prevented these initiatives. This research draws on an

in-depth study of the negotiation process from 1989

to 2008 as well as other conflict resolution oriented

projects, such as informal dialogues held between Ab-

khaz and Georgian officials and/or middle-level repre-

sentatives and local peace initiatives.

An abstract of Céline’s PhD thesis can be found at

http://www.vub.ac.be/ES/

The doctoral committee, headed by Prof. Dr. Youri

Devuyst, officially awarded Céline the title of “Doctor

in de Politieke Wetenschappen” - a title she very much

deserves! At the ceremony, IES Executive Director An-

thony Antoine congratulated her on behalf of the en-

tire Institute. Needless to say that all colleagues and

staff are very proud and wish Céline a lot of success in

her futher career !

4

As in previous years, the IES hosted a group

of students from the University of Southern

California (USC) for its Brussels summer pro-

gramme on ‘Contemporary Issues in European

Foreign and Security Policy’.

This year, 6 students participated in the pro-

gram, which includes lectures and an intern-

ship component. In addition to academic lec-

tures, programme participants also visited

NATO and the European Parliament. Students

interned at Egmont, BICCS, the Center for Gen-

der Studies and Diversity Research, F.D. Blue-

print and the EU-Russia Centre. Coordinated

by IES Senior Research Fellow Dr. Eva Gross,

the programme was taught this year by IES As-

I E S h o s t s t h i r d e d i t i o n o f t h e U S C B r u s s e l s S u m m e r P r o g r a m m e

Activities at the IES ...

sociate Fellow and Vesalius College professor

Dr. Joachim Koops with guest lectures by Fra-

ser Cameron (EU-Russia Centre), Sven Biscop

(Egmont) and IES Academic Director Sebastian

Oberthür. Thanks to Brussels-based USC alum-

nus Dennis Oswell, students were treated to

a BBQ where they could meet and interact with

professionals working in Brussels - and a lunch

at the European Parliament.

Student feedback was positive – and ranged

from “Great experience” and “I really learned

a lot about the EU” to “This program helped

me grow as a person both academically and in

general”. We look forward to the next edition

of the USC Brussels programme!

During the months February through June 2010, ten International Relations students from the prestigious Hendrix College (Arkan-sas, US) studied European politics and law at the Institute for European Studies. It was the second time that the IES organised such a “se-mester abroad” programme for Hendrix. Just like last year, the Institute collaborated with the VUB and Vesalius College to have a tailor-made “studies abroad” programme explaining

the European decision-making process in vari-ous fields. Coordinated by Executive Director Anthony Antoine, the semester programme consisted of courses, study visits, a paper pre-sentation and a four-week internship. Senior Research Fellow Irina Tanasescu led the aca-demic programme, assisted by IES research-ers Alexandra Mihai and Alina Christova.Senior Research Fellow Richard Lewis and BICCS Director Gustaaf Geeraerts convened

lectures on migration issues and foreign and security policy. The IES E-learning & Training team provided in-depth courses on European decision-making. The students also took one elective course from Vesalius College.

The highly motivated students gave very in-teresting paper presentations and obtained excellent exam results.

Hendrix College at the IES

New faces @ the IESIn March, Anne Sterckx joined the IES to assist management in anticipa-tion of Laila Macharis’s maternity leave who is expecting twins. Before joining the IES, Anne

briefly worked at IRMO (VUB’s International Relations and Mobility Office) where she was responsible for communication in the framework of the internationalisation of university. Prior to her appointment at VUB, she worked in the communication depart-ments of international companies such as Siemens and Alcatel. Anne will focus on IES communications when Laila returns from her maternity leave.

Researchers Hongyu Wang and Anna Ru-dakowska have joined the IES for one year to finalise their PhD in the field of EU-China rela-tions. Hongyu, a political

scientist from Renmin University (Bejijng, China), is persuing a joint PhD degree from Renmin and VUB on “Multilevel networks in European foreign policy making and EU-China relations”. Anna, who holds an MA in

Economics from the War-saw School of Economics previously studied at the National Chengchi Uni-versity in Taiwan. She is a VUB PhD researcher finalising her doctoral research on “Normative

Power Europe – Values in the European Union Policies towards Cross-Strait Rela-tions”.

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International Relations

On May 6-7, 2010 a conference on “Promot-

ing the Rule of Law: Cooperation and Competi-

tion in the EU-US Relationship” was held at the

University of Pittsburgh. This event was spon-

sored by the European Union Center of Excel-

lence, and the Center for International Legal

Education of the University of Pittsburgh and

our Institute for European Studies.

Participants included academics, officials from

the EU (Council, Commission, ECJ), the Coun-

cil of Europe, US government agencies, court

magistrates and lawyers.

IES contributions came from PILC-colleague

Ricardo Gosalbo Bono (The significance of

the Rule of Law and its implication for the EU

and the US) and IES President Bart De Schutter

(The role of legal education in developing the

Rule of Law).

The conference generated some useful conclu-

sions:

- While a consensus definition of the “rule of

law” is difficult to achieve, there are com-

mon elements to the definition on which

most can agree. The concept of rule of law

requires both procedural and substantive

focus. On the procedural side, due pro-

cess, judicial review (by an independent

judiciary), equality of application of the

law, and transparency of the rule-making

process are all elements of coherent un-

derstand of the rule of law. Moreover, the

western origins of the concept of rule of

law raise questions about how it works

when exported to non-western cultures.

A more difficult question is whether the

rule of law must be defined by inclusion of

specific substantive rights such as the Uni-

versal Declaration of Human Rights. Dis-

cussion at the conference indicated that

Europeans are much more ready to focus

on substantive rights as necessary to the

rule of law, while Americans tend to found

any definition on procedural elements.

- External programs of the European Union

and the United States can affect internal

development of the rule of law in another

country, but both governmental and non-

governmental efforts at such impact run

the risk of counterproductive results. Pro-

grams must be focused on the long term,

built on relationships of trust (eg the ac-

cession process within the EU), facilitate

local ownership and accountability and fit

local realities.

- Civil society and legal education have

important roles to play in rule of law pro-

grams. The export of legal education, par-

ticularly through LL.M. programs on both

sides of the Atlantic proved important not

only to efforts to externalize rule of law

development, but also to the internaliza-

tion of the lessons learned. The rule of

law is something to be developed not

only on individual national (or regional)

levels, but also through international law.

Governmental conduct indicating both ac-

ceptance of and respect for international

law is an important part of the effort to

establish the rule of law in other countries.

Legal education, in particular, demon-

strates the lessons of rule of law promo-

tion. It requires a long-term view, and

long-term funding, to allow foreign stu-

dents to study in the EU and the US and to

trust that they can carry home with them

the lessons of the rule of law in a man-

ner that will result in local ownership, and

implementation through culturally appro-

priate methods.

- The European Union and the United States

can benefit from the development of a

common understanding of the rule of law

and should promote it through programs

that are effective and well-coordinated.

The conference participants were unanimous

in the opinion that, while a common under-

standing of the rule of law would be a positive

development, no matter the definition, the rule

of law should be promoted by both the Euro-

pean Union and the United States. This can be

accomplished through both governmental and

non-governmental programs. Until in the EU

and the US is determined the full panoply of

rule of law programs in which each is engaged,

it will not be possible to clearly measure the

success of the overall effort or to engage in

that effort in a cooperative manner.

Amongst proposed options for further con-

sideration is the implementation of a joint

research project between the Center for Inter-

national Legal Education and the Institute for

European Studies, which might explore further

such topics as the procedural and substan-

tive elements of the rule of law; the goals and

methods of rule of law programs and interna-

tional law and rule of law.

@ the IES

In June and July the IES hosted Adrienne Lester,

2nd year student at the Law School of the Uni-

versity of Pittsburgh. Adri-

enne was awarded with a

University of Pittsburgh

fellowship to study issues

on European intellectual

property law at the IES.

S t r e n g t h e n i n g I E S l i n k s w i t h t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f P i t t s b u r g h

C A R E W o r k s h o p

On 20 May, a project workshop on the Euro-pean External Action Service and Consular Protection took place at the Common Repre-sentation of the European Region Tyrol-South Tyrol-Trentino in Brussels. The workshop was organised by the University of Vienna and the Institute for European Studies. Following interesting presentations by conference con-venor Prof. Dr. Erich Schweighofer (UWien), Philippe Willaert (EC DG Relex), Kathleen Ver-streken (European Council), Vicente Nieto (EC), Annemarieke Vermeer-Künzly (Uni. Amster-dam) and representatives from the Austrian, Italian and Belgian MFAs, IES Executive Direc-tor Anthony Antoine chaired a roundtable on “improving the consular network for EU citi-zens” with all participants involved.

CARE, or “Citizens Consular Assistance Regu-lation in Europe” is a project that offers tools to the Commission to help examine the legal framework of consular protection in all EU member states. It consists of a web-based data base collecting all relevant legal documenta-tion from all EU countries on the matter. The project found its basis in the 2006 EC Green Paper on “Diplomatic and consular protection of Union citizens in third countries”, which fo-cused on the right established in Article 20 of the EC Treaty. Under this Article, if a citizen of the Union is in a third country in which the Member State of which he is a national does not have an embassy or a consular post, he is entitled to protection by the authorities of any Member State represented on the spot, on the same conditions as the nationals of that State. As these conditions vary from state to state, the implementation is rather difficult.The CARE Project answers the EC call for a wide public consultation on this issue.

6

International Conference on the EU in International Affairs

Eyjafjallakökull not impeding success of EU in International Affairs ConferenceFrom 22 to 24 April, the IES organised its se-

cond international conference on ‘The EU in In-

ternational Affairs’. This year, the conference

took place at the Palace of the Academies in

Brussels. It was co-organised by the Institut

d’Études Européennes (IEE) of the Université

Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), the UN University pro-

gramme for Comparative Regional Integration

Studies (UNU-CRIS) from Brugge and Egmont,

the Royal Institute for International Relations.

Initially this second edition of the EU in In-

ternational Affairs conference had more than

340 enrolled participants. Unfortunately, the

eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in the

week prior to the conference prevented some

100 participants to come to Brussels. As a

result, the planned 47 academic panels were

reduced to 34, giving conference co-ordinater

Jamal Shahin a headache and a few sleepless

nights to re-shuffle everything to a coherent

conference. Fortunately, all participants were

well aware of the difficult circumstances and

were all very appreciative of the efforts made

by the conference organisers, the overall or-

ganisation, from academic panels to catering,

went very smoothly thanks to the efforts of all

staff involved.

The presentations in the panels, given by a mix

of junior and senior researchers from 23 dif-

ferent countries and from over 110 different

research institutes and universities, were of

very high quality.

On Thursday 22 April EU Commission Presi-

dent Jose Manuel Barroso opened the con-

ference. In his vivid introductory speech, Mr.

Barroso gave an overview of the developments

in European contemporary foreign affairs po-

licy. He took ample time to answer questions

from the public. IES Academic Director Sebas-

tian Oberthür and IEE-ULB Director Marianne

Dony welcomed Mr. Barroso and all conference

participants.

The keynote speech on the eve of the confe-

rence closing day was given by Ambassador

François Roux, head of cabinet of Olivier

Chastel, Belgian State Secretary for European

Affairs. He shed light on the eminent Belgian

presidency of the EU and its emphasis on

(amongst other things) the 2020 agenda, sus-

tainable development and the financial crisis.

He was introduced by conference co-organiser

Sven Biscop of the Egmont institute.

The conference was closed by European Com-

missioner for Trade Karel De Gucht, who gave

a speech on ‘Current Challenges for the EU as

an Actor in International Trade’, in which he

elaborated on the internal and international

position of the EU in trade and trade policy.

He concluded that “a vigorous and successful

trade policy [of the EU] may be one of the best

tools to convince other continents that Europe

can deliver”.

Final closing words were by Luk Van Langen-

hove, co-organiser and Director of the United

Nations University Centre for Comparative Re-

gional Integration Studies.

The organisers were pleased to reach the ini-

tial goals of the conference: to provide a broad

and stimulating venue for discussing the role

of the EU in international affairs amongst aca-

demic scholars, high level practitioners and

other interested parties. Despite the volcano

eruption and the air traffic problems that follo-

wed, the organisers could welcome nearly 250

participants from all over the world who could

share valuable insights with peers and above

all could discuss and critically analyse

the views of others.

Just like in the first edition of

2008, this conference facilitated

discussions between the

growing community of

academics studying the

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Union and its international relations, whether

in political science, sociology, economics or

law. The conference also gave participants

the chance to test their theoretical insights

with the experience of practitioners (and vice

versa). The various so-called ‘policy-link pa-

nels’ were a much appreciated and ideal tool

for this.

Participants also cherished the keynote spee-

ches by prominent politicians; the question-

and-answer sessions that followed were of a

particular interest. It is thus not surprising that

the overall feedback for the conference was

very positive. Conference organisers are opti-

mistic that a third edition of ‘The EU in Interna-

tional Affairs’ will take place in 2012 (this time

hopefully without the intervention of erupting

volcanoes or other natural disasters).

The conference involved the participation of

nearly all IES academic and supporting staff.

It could not have been organised without the

invaluable commitment of IES Senior Fellow Dr.

Jamal Shahin and of the entire IES secretariat,

namely Events coordinator Mark De Clerck,

his secretariat colleagues Laïla Macharis,

Hilde Vanderheyden, Anne Sterckx, Michiel

Foulon, Lawrence Steenstra and the various

jobstudents and interns who worked day and

night to make this event a success.

The organisation is also grateful to the GAR-

NET Network of Excellence (6th Framework

Programme of the European Commission DG

Research), the FWO (Fonds voor Wetenschap-

Pictures show: (left page) Prof. Dr. Sebastian Oberthür (Academic Director IES), Prof. Dr. Marianne Dony (Director IEE-ULB) and EU Commis-

sion President José Manuel Barroso • (top right) Prof. Dr. Luk Van Langenhove (Director UNU-CRIS) and EU Commissioner for Trade Karel

De Gucht • (middle left) Dr. Jamie Shea (Head of Policy Planning, Private Office, NATO) and Dr. Sven Biscop (Egmont Institute) • (middle /

centre) Ambassador François Roux (Head of Cabinet of the Belgian State Secretary for EU Affairs) • (middle right) one of the conference

panels • (below) Conference Atrium during session breaks.

pelijk Onderzoek) and the FNRS (Fonds de la

Recherche Scientifique) for their financial sup-

port. Last but not least, the organising parties

need to thank the Royal Flemish Academy for

the Arts and Sciences (Koninklijke Vlaamse

Academie voor Kunsten en Wetenschappen)

for hosting us at their Palace, and for “making

things work” - even in difficult circumstances.

8

2/2009

Gender Equality in the Case Law of the Euro-

pean Court of Justice

Agata Brzezinska

The principle of gender equality forms a part

of the EU’s social policy and serves equally

men and women. So far, fourteen directives

concerning gender equality have been adopted

in the EU, with the New Equal Treatment Direc-

tive as the latest one. The EU has developed

different models to promote gender equality:

equal treatment, positive action and most re-

cently gender mainstreaming. The equal treat-

ment model is primarily concerned with formal

equality and it unfortunately prevails in the

ECJ’s rulings. Indeed, this paper argues that so

far, the ECJ has not managed to develop a firm

and consistent case law on gender equality,

nor to stretch it coherently to positive action

and gender mainstreaming. It seems that in

spite of some progress in promoting the posi-

IES Publications

The IES is proud to announce its newest book publication “The New Climate Policies of the European Union”, edited by IES Academic Di-rector Sebastian Oberthür and Marc Palle-maerts, former IES Senior Research Fellow and cur-rent IEEP Senior Fellow and Head of the Environmental Governance Programme at the Institute for European Environmental Policy.

The topical book deals with the climate policies and the policy building process in climate negotiations of the European Union in an inter-national setting.

Climate change has taken centre stage in European and international politics. The fourth assessment report of the Intergovern-mental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), released in 2007, confirmed that cli-mate change is one of the most serious threats to international security and the well-being of human kind. At the European level, climate change has become a major agenda item regu-larly discussed by the European Council. Inter-nationally, the issue has become one of “high politics”. Since 2005, it has been a top priority of the G-8 Summits, and both the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly have placed it high on their agendas. World lead-ers are rallying to achieve a new global deal to combat global warming under the UN Frame-work Convention on Climate Change. Overall, there is hardly any high-level political encoun-ter in which the issue is not discussed.The European Union has established itself as

the most prominent international leader on the issue. It has been one of the most fervent sup-porters of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol, striv-

ing to sustain its leader-ship in the efforts to reach a new global agreement post-2012. The EU has also increasingly underpinned its international leadership position with domestic ac-tion. Most prominently, it introduced a greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in 2005. The peri-od 2007-2008 saw a major overhaul and leap forward in the development of a renewed EU framework of policy and legislation to address climate change. Most importantly, the new EU climate policies include a set of legislative acts ad-opted in early 2009 and known as the “climate and energy package” that is de-

signed to achieve the EU’s target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and increasing the share of renewable ener-gies to 20% by 2020.

This volume provides a timely overview and as-sessment of the develop-ment of the new EU cli-mate policies with a focus on the new climate and energy package. Are EU climate policies sufficient to meet the envi-ronmental, economic and political challenge posed by global climate change? How do inter-

national and domestic climate policies of the EU interact and are they mutually supportive? What are the prospects for the EU to keep its international leadership in the face of a more engaged US and increasingly assertive emerg-ing economies? In addressing these questions, the volume aims to enhance understanding and contribute to further discussions on the current and potential role of the EU in the fight against climate change.

Besides being Academic Director of the IES, Sebastian is a renowned expert in internation-al and European environmental and climate policy and law. Equally esteemed is Marc Pal-lemaerts, who besides working at the IEEP, is also a Professor of European environmental law at the University of Amsterdam and of interna-tional environmental law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

To mark the launch of the book, the IES or-ganised an Environmental Policy Forum on 10 Febraury. Artur Runge-Metzger, Director of Directorate C on Climate change and Air, DG Environment of the European Commission, and head of the European Union delegation to the international climate negotiations gave

a keynote presentation on “EU Climate Policy Post-Copenhagen”, in which he addressed the prospects for EU climate policy af-ter Copenhagen, covering both internal policy de-velopments and the Com-mission’s view on the next steps at the international level.

The book “The New Climate Policies of the European

Union” can be ordered from Brussels University Press

(http://www.vubpress.be) and costs € 40,00.

tion of women, the ECJ’s case law has recently

taken a step backwards with its conservative

judgments in e.g. the Cadman case. Overall,

this paper aims to sum up and evaluate the

most important cases of the ECJ on gender

equality.

3/2009

Testing limited environmental liability against

human rights requirements

Armelle Gouritin

Questions regarding oil spills remain high on

the political agenda. Legal scholars, legislators

as well as the international, European and na-

tional Courts struggle to determine key issues,

such as who is to be held liable for oil spills,

under which conditions and for which dam-

age. The international regime on oil spills was

meant to establish an “equilibrium” between

R e c e n t I E S W o r k i n g P a p e r s

the needs of the victims (being compensated

for their harm) and the needs of the economic

actors (being able to continue their activities).

There is, however, a constantly increasing ar-

ray of legal scholars’ work that criticizes the

regime. Indeed, the victims of a recent oil spill,

the Erika, have tried to escape the international

regime on oil spills and to rely instead on the

provisions of national criminal law or EC waste

legislation. In parallel, the EC legislator has

questioned the sufficiency of the international

regime and has started preparing legislative

acts of its own.

One can in fact wonder whether challenging

the international liability regime with the Euro-

pean Convention on Human Rights could prove

to be a way forward, both for the EC regulators

as well as the victims of oil spills. This paper

claims that the right to property, as enshrined

in Article P1-1 of the Human Rights Conven-

tion, could be used to challenge the limited

environmental liability provisions of the inter-

national frameworks.

N e w I E S B o o k P u b l i c a t i o n o n E U C l i m a t e P o l i c i e s

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News from the IES Researchers

On 29 March, IES researchers Karen Donders and Trisha Meyer presented their papers which were co-authored with Professor Caro-line Pauwels and Professor Leo Van Audenhove respectively at the European Communications Policy Research conference (EuroCPR) in Brus-sels.

This year the conference celebrated its 25th anniversary and focused on “Policies for a digital Europe: lessons learned and challenges ahead”. Both presentations were well-received. Karen skillfully presented the main research results of her PhD, which she defended in May (see article on page 1). In her presentation she expanded on the European state aid control towards national broadcasting policy. More specifically, she explained the benefits of in-troducing competition principles into the reg-ulation of public service broadcasting. Trisha presented a paper which discusses the copy-right enforcement policies in France and the United Kingdom (graduated response) in terms of surveillance society and code. In particular, she took issue with the widespread monitoring and bias towards technological regulation in-herent in the current policy initiatives and em-phasized the potential negative consequences for an open society & Internet.

Both researchers received good feedback and interesting questions on their papers. Overall the conference was a success, bringing schol-ars together to reflect on the future of a digital Europe.

E u r o C P R

On 25 May the IES and the VUB Center for Studies on Media, Information and Telecom-munication (SMIT) organised a conference on ‘Exporting the Public Value Test: Assessing EU Member States’ evaluation of public broadcast-ers’ new media services’. In this conference representatives from academia, public broad-casters, private broadcasters, publishers and competent government authorities discussed the introduction of so-called ex ante tests of public broadcasters’ new media services. Such an ex ante test was first introduced in the United King-dom. The BBC’s new services (such as the successful iPlayer) are subject to a ‘Public Value Test’ in which both the public value and market impact of the proposed service are evaluated before ac-ceptance or refusal of the service by the BBC Trust.

Prof. Dr. Richard Collins, Dr. Maria Michalis and Prof. Dr. David Levy (now with Oxford University, previously policy advisor with the BBC) discussed the ins and outs of the British system. This system is now being exported to other EU Member States – basically due to the European Commission’s intervention with the national funding of public broadcasting. As IES Researcher Dr. Karen Donders explained, the European Commission has consistently asked

E U E v a l u a t i o n o f P u b l i c B r o a d c a s t e r s

Member States to introduce an ex ante test for public broadcasters’ new services in order to ensure compliance with the EU’s competition rules. After the first session dealing thus with the case of the United Kingdom and the Euro-pean competition rules, three other sessions followed in which the ex ante tests for public broadcasters’ new media services in Germany, Flanders, the Netherlands and Norway were discussed. Each session adhered to the same

structure. A scholar (resp. Dr. Irini Kat-sirea, Prof. Dr. Hilde Van Den Bulck, Prof. Dr. Hallvard Moe, Prof. Dr. Jo Bardoel and Marit Vochteloo) discussed the more academic view on the respective ex ante tests discussed; a rep-resentative from the

concerned public broadcaster (resp. Dr. Renate Dörr, Sandra Coppieters, Marit Ingves, Ronald Vecht) and a representative from a private broadcaster (resp. Maxim Hauk, Ben Appel) or publisher (Kees Spaan) commented.

The conference was highly interesting and pro-voked lively debates among the participants. The latter were divided on the desirability and specific set-up of an ex ante test. They also observed that smaller Member States faced considerably more practical difficulties in implementing an ex ante test for new media services.

Funded by the US Fulbright Commission, IES Researcher Katja Biedenkopf spent six months as Visiting Student Researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. The main aim of her stay in North America was to col-lect empirical data contributing to her doctoral research.

Katja conducted over 140 interviews with pol-icy-makers, public officials, NGO and business representatives. Besides California, she went to Washington State, Michigan, the US capital Washington, DC and also Ontario in Canada and the Canadian capital Ottawa. Katja’s cen-tral PhD research question is whether and how European Union environmental policy influenc-es American policy-making and actors’ policy positions.

K a t j a i n t h e S t a t e s

For the past 8 months, the IES has worked towards making the institute a more envi-ronmentally friendly workplace. To this end, the IES “greening team” has organised sev-eral awareness raising activities. Clustered around bimonthly “themes” such as “paper”, “food”, “energy” and “transport”, activities have included a “paper workshop” (how to use recycled paper in a creative way), a “food event” (providing staff with delicious organic meals - photo below), a “sustainable

energy” workshop (making staff aware of alternative energy sources, including mak-ing electricity out of lemons!) and finally, in July, a bike tour (photo right).

The focus of June and July was on sustain-able transport, and the initiative organised aimed at promoting biking as a means for

transport, sports and leisure. Approximate-ly one quarter of the IES employees met af-

ter work and biked through the Bois de la Cambre and all the way to the Zoniënwoud. There, the bikers took a rest and had some refreshments. The 2-hour bike trip proved to be a revitalising end to the work day.

This event is one of many that the IES has organised as a measure to increase aware-ness and to promote solutions and guide-lines towards more sustainable lifestyles. For the focus months on transport, the IES also purchased a second hand bicycle that all employees can use during work hours, promoting sustainable transport for the needed short trips during the work day.

G r e e n i n g t h e I E S : a n o n g o i n g a w a r e n e s s - r a i s i n g a c t i v i t y

10

E n v i r o n m e n t a l P o l i c y F o r u m : T h e K i e v P r o t o c o l o n P o l l u t a n t R e l e a s e a n d T r a n s f e r R e g i s t e r s

On the occasion of the entry into force of the Kiev Protocol on Pollutant Release and Trans-fer Registers (PRTR) to the Aarhus Convention, the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and the IES organised an Environmental Policy Forum on 8 October 2009. The distin-guished speakers were Michel Amand from the Walloon Direction de la Coordination et de la Concertation, Direc-tion générale Agricul-ture, Environnement et Ressources naturelles, Chairman of the Work-ing Group on PRTR of the Meeting of the Parties to the Aarhus Convention, and Dania Cristofaro from DG En-vironment’s Industrial Emissions and Protec-tion of the Ozone Layer Unit. Amand presented the Kiev Protocol and stressed its importance for environmental policy in Europe. Cristofaro gave an interactive presentation by using the new European PRTR taking Brussels as a practi-cal example. IES Senior Research Fellow Harri Kalimo and Marc Pallemaerts, IEEP Senior Fel-low and Head of Environmental Governance Re-search Team, jointly chaired the meeting.

Michel Amand presented the Kiev Protocol and stressed its importance for environmental poli-cy in Europe. The PRTR Protocol was adopted in Kiev on 21 May 2003. It has 38 signatories and is open to non-UNECE Member States. Switzer-land is not a Member of the Aarhus Convention but ratified the PRTR Protocol. The US and Can-ada are not signatories to the Protocol but they broadened the scope of their own registers to

include more of the pollutants covered by the Kiev Protocol, namely greenhouse gases. After 21 ratifications – 16 were necessary – the Pro-tocol entered into force on 8 October 2009, the day of the Policy Forum. It requires each Party to establish a register for pollutants releases and transfers from facilities operating at least

one activity listed in the annex to the Pro-tocol. 86 pollutants are covered. The data has to be accessible to the public through electronic means and free of charge. The re-ports of releases and transfers do not only include routine activi-ties but also extraordi-nary events. Each Party has 15 months’ time to

process the data before being obliged to make it available it to the public. For the EU, this delay is 6 months longer, hence 21 months. The first reporting year for the 21 Parties is 2010. By 31 March 2011 the first data must be made available. Confidentiality provisions are in place to meet the specificities of the PRTR Protocol but they are in accordance with the Aarhus Convention. Capacity-building activi-ties coordinated by UNECE will be conducted through bilateral and multilateral cooperation. Parties are requested to report regularly on their implementation efforts.

A working programme was adopted for 2011-2014. The top three priorities of this pro-gramme are the compliance mechanisms, technical assistance and information exchange at the technical level. Amand concluded his

presentation with the remark that the PRTR Protocol is a cost-effective tool for encouraging improvements of environmental performance, informing the public and assessing environ-mental policies.

Dania Cristofaro gave an interactive presenta-tion by demonstrating the use of the new Euro-pean PRTR (E-PRTR), taking Brussels as a prac-tical example. This online tool was launched on 11 November and contains emission data for pollutant releases to the air, water and soil. Cristofaro stressed that this data impacts every citizen’s life. E-PRTR is a tool but also a pro-cess. It involves industry actors, national au-thorities, the EU and citizens. Not all emitters have to report - the aim is to cover 90% of all EU emissions of the covered pollutants. Cristofaro then showed the Internet-based E-PRTR and used it exemplarily for Brussels demonstrating how and what kind of data can be retrieved. Cristofaro concluded her presentation by stat-ing that the strong point of the E-PRTR is that the data comes directly from the industrial operators in contrast to some other UN regis-ters that are implemented top-down. Member States are responsible for assessing the quality of the data while the Commission is in charge of making the data publicly available.

The two presentations were followed by a ques-tion and answer session and a debate about the tracing of pollutants that are transferred between a number of industrial operators, the relation to and synergies with the register set up under the EU chemicals Regulation REACH, the possibilities to make available information on illegal waste sites, and the involvement of individual citizens.

In February, the IES was delighted to host the visit to Brussels of Mr. Reid Lifset from Yale University. Mr. Lifset is a leading figure in in-dustrial ecology and a member of the faculty at the School of Forestry and Environmental Stud-ies at Yale University, an institution where IES Senior Research Fellow Harri Kalimo has also been a Visiting Scholar for a number of years. The collaboration of Harri and Reid focuses on the issue of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). Extended producer responsibility refers to the idea that, by assigning the responsibility to producers for the end-of-life management of their products, producers are driven to con-sider environmental issues at the end-of-life management of their products.

More specifically, the research interests of Harri and Reid lie in the notion of individual producer responsibility (IPR), which they claim has been at the core of the concept all along. The individual nature of the responsibility un-derlines the objective of maximizing the in-centives for individual companies to reduce the environmental impact of their products through intelligent design changes. If company A knows it needs to take back and deal with its “A” branded products when they become waste, the company has an incentive to opti-mize its products for such takeback and recov-ery operations.

The issue of extended producer responsibility is an important part of the EU’s path breaking WEEE directive (2002) on the takeback and re-covery of waste electronic and electrical prod-ucts. Ccurrently in revision, the directive is at the centre of EU policy debates. Some of the revisions relate to the fact that the EU Member States have implemented extended producer responsibility in the majority of cases either inadequately, or not at all. Indeed, Reid and Harri participated on February 25-26 in Paris in a meeting of the IN-SEAD Group on IPR, a discussion forum and research network of academics and stake-holders from different phases of the e-waste lifecycle, interested in the topic of individual producer responsibility and electronic waste. Reid and Harri presented their work on re-thinking the creation of design incentives through IPR. The work is conducted together with Professor Luk van Wassenhove (INSEAD), Professor Atalay Atasu (Georgia Tech) and Dr. Chris van Rossem.

The next Monday, 1 March, Reid and Harri gave a presentation in the IES-IEEP Environmental Policy Forum, where they explained IPR to the

wider policy audience. The presentation elabo-rated on problems that IPR is facing in the cur-rent WEEE Directive as well as in the proposed revision process. The researchers concluded that there are many “elephants in the room”: important structural questions on manage-ment of waste electronics that remain unad-dressed in the policy discussions. For example, the huge problem of illegal shipments of e-waste to developing countries needs to be fully

addressed, quite obvi-ously. Yet the issue is even more challenging, because this should be done in a way that will not destroy the legal and environmentally sound parts of e-waste management systems that are emerging in developing countries. The latter are quickly

growing into environmentally, economically, and socially important parts of the societies in developing countries, not least because of the growing domestic use of electronics there. Another elephant is the fact that under current practice, most e-waste is shredded (mechani-cally torn into small parts) for recovery. What does that imply for incentives to design prod-ucts more environmentally?

E n v i r o n m e n t a l P o l i c y F o r u m : E x t e n d e d P r o d u c e r R e s p o n s i b i l i t y

IES Policy fora

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On April 14th 2010, the Migration and Diver-

sity Cluster Team organised a lunchtime Policy

Forum on the impact of culture on the integra-

tion of immigrants. The meeting was chaired

by Senior Research Fellow Richard Lewis and

featured a panel of three speakers: Dr. Chan-

tal Lacroix from the Brussels office of the

International Centre

for Migration Policy

Development, Pro-

fessor Marco Marti-

niello, Director of the

Centre d’ Etudes de l’

Ethnicité et des Migra-

tions at the University

of Liège and Professor

Virginie Guiraudon

from the Faculté des

Sciences Juridiques,

Politiques et Sociales,

Université de Lille 2.

Chantal Lacroix spoke about her research

which led to the recent publication of a book

entitled “Immigrants , Literature and National

Integration” (Macmillan 2009). In her work, she

compares experience in the UK and Germany,

two countries which have a very different his-

torical and literary frameworks. Notably the

book concerns the role of immigrant literature

in a multi-ethnic post-imperial state in the UK

which is a situation not enjoyed in Germany.

She noted two main planks in her research

findings. First the fact that immigrant literature

highlights the similarities between cultures ,

places immigrant culture in the realm of public

discourse and promotes cultural contacts and

dialogue. And secondly, that literature helps in

the re-definition of national culture to create a

hybrid culture.

Marco Martiniello

spoke about his work

for a project under

the auspices of the

migration network IM-

MISCOE (International

Migration, Integration

and Social Cohesion)

which examines the

political and cultural

relevance of the arts

in the migration dis-

course and in par-

ticular looks at the stereotyping of national

cultures or what he describes as “everybody

doing their own thing”. He emphasised the

special relevance of music in this regard be-

cause of its relevance to all ethnic minorities

and cited the example Congolese musicians

in Liège who can now be regarded as “Belgian

artists”. Professor Martiniello contended that

more could be done by policy makers to har-

ness the potential of the arts in the integra-

tion process in order to “re-design” integration

policy by means of the recognition of artists in

local, regional and national life.

Virginie Guiraudon spoke about the influence

and recognition of what she termed “post-

migrant” literature, that is, major authors who

have made a considerable impact on the liter-

ary scene in France. She emphasised that more

effort should go into finding ways to use the

arts to implement some of the guidelines con-

tained in the EU’s “Handbook on Integration”

(prepared by Migration Policy Group and due

to go into its third edition). She said that lit-

erature could be an element in “bonding and

bridging”, “knowing who you are and commu-

nicating it”. She lamented the lack of neigh-

bourhood artistic events in France which could

assist the process.

A series of lively interventions followed the

three presentations. American participants in

the audience shared their experience in bridg-

ing cultures while Professor Eric Corijn (VUB)

argued that the urban environment is the

space in which to build these bridges, that

cities are “closer to the world” (hence more

trans-cultural) than nations and that “we need

to change the mental map“.

The event was attended by more than 40 par-

ticipants, which was an excellent turnout, and

is a clear encouragement to organise more

encounters in the same format on migration

and diversity issues (it will be followed up by

Chantal Lacroix and Richard Lewis and lead to

further reflection and research on the topic).

I E S P o l i c y F o r u m o n C u l t u r e a n d M i g r a t i o n

On the 9th of February 2010 the IES hosted,

in co-operation with the Egmont Institute, the

policy forum “EUFOR Tchad/RCA in Retrospect:

Lessons Learned for

Planning and Imple-

menting CSDP Opera-

tions”. At this event,

Bjoern H. Seibert

from John Hopkins

University and re-

searcher Alexander

Mattelaer from the IES

presented the findings

of their research work

on the EU’s military

operation in Chad to

an audience of diplomatic and military officials

as well as fellow academics. Colonel Paul Peu-

gnet from the French Air Force, who served as

chief planning officer in the EUFOR operation

headquarters, acted as discussant and provid-

ed the invaluable practitioner’s perspective to

the debate.

Alexander’s intervention focused on the plan-

ning stage of the operation. Drawing upon the

findings of his IES Working paper (5/2008)

‘The Strategic Planning of EU Operations – The

Case of EUFOR TChad/RCA’, he discussed the

issues of political guidance, force generation

and operational design. Author of ‘African Ad-

I E S P o l i c y F o r u m “ E U F O R T c h a d / R C A i n R e t r o s p e c t ”

venture? Assessing the European Union’s Mili-

tary Intervention in Chad and the Central Afri-

can Republic’, Bjoern turned his attention to

questions pertaining

to the implementation

of the operation, fo-

cussing on the issues

of airlift, intelligence

and reserve forces.

Sven Biscop (Egmont

Institute), who chaired

the event, subse-

quently handed the

floor to

C o l o -

nel Peugnet, who spoke at length

about methodological p l a n -

ning tools and coordina-

tion between the EU

on the one hand and

the UN and NGO

community on the

other. On the basis

of these three pre-

sentation, a lively

discussion amongst

the forum participants

ensued.

H o n g y u i n P r a g u e

IES researcher Hongyu Wang attended the Civil

Society Dialogue Seminar organized by the

Directorate-General for Trade in Prague (Czech

Republic) on 24 March 2010.

The Civil Society Trade Seminar gives an oppor-

tunity for civil society to discuss the changes

to trade policy-making under the Lisbon Treaty

and help shape the debate on EU trade policy

priorities in the coming years. The seminar

addressed the role of civil society in EU trade

policy formulation, the role of trade policy in

relation to the global economic crisis, and the

benefits of trade agreements, in particular for

EU 12 countries as well as the contribution of

trade policy to sustainable development goals.

There were over one hundred participants

representing a wide variety of EU civil society

organizations, including NGOs, trade unions,

employer’s associations, labor associations,

think tanks, and the European Economic

and Social Committee.

More about the seminar can be found on-

line on http://trade.ec.europa.eu/civilsoc/

seminars/index.cfm

12

IES E-learning and Training News

IES Researcher Alina Christova attended the conference on Interactive Computer Blended Aided Learning in Florianopolis, Brazil, which took place during 5-7 November 2009.

The conference was organised by UFSC/SC – Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina/Brasil in cooperation with the Brazilian Ministry of Education, International Association of Online Engineering (IAOE), the International Journal of Computing and Information Sciences (IJCIS) and the International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Learnig (iJET). The ICBL is one of the four big conferences organised/co-organised by IAOE. IAOE is an international non-profit organization with the objective of encouraging the wider development, distribution and application of Online Engineering (OE) technologies and its influence in the society.

The association seeks to foster practices in education and research in universities, higher education institutions and the industry on OE.

This interdisciplinary conference focused on the exchange of relevant trends and research results as well as the presentation of practical experiences gained while developing and testing elements of interactive computer aided learning. The conference events encompassed 7 keynote sessions, 3 round tables, 9 workshops and over 50 presentations on practical experiences; e-learning methods, methodologies and tools;

pedagogical, psychological, technical and theoretical issues as well as short papers and posters.

The keynote sessions of the conference encompassed amongst others the following topics: WEB 2.O: A Second Chance to Education Technologies, Developing 3D Contents for E-Learning Applications, Learning to Innovate, Virtual Learning Environments & Virtual 3D Worlds, Innovations on Mobile Learning, etc. The session “Learning to Innovate” was of particular interest since it was one of the few examples of experiences with teaching social sciences online. The session was conducted by Jill Mordaunt from the Open University Business School in the UK, who made a presentation on the development of an online course on Business Organisations and their Environments.

At the conference, Alina presented the paper “Best Practices and Challenges of E-Modules (European Studies Online)” in the session on practical examples. The presentation was well received. It triggered interest as one of the few sessions on teaching social sciences online. Following the presentation, a discussion focused on the specificities of European Studies and possible ways of providing a platform for discussion and exchange of views for the students as well as the integration of case studies and audio-video material into the modules.

I E S E - l e a r n i n g i n B r a z i l

E-learning and Training SessionsOn 17-19 February and 16-18 June, the E-

learning and Training Unit organized two

editions of the “EU in Close-up” intensive

seminar on EU institutions and policy pro-

cess. The seminars attracted participants

from the corporate world, regional repre-

sentations, non-govern-

mental organisations and

academia. Throughout

the three days, topics

such as the functioning of

European institutions, the

inter-institutional deci-

sion-making, comitology,

lobbying were discussed

in detail by academics

and practitioners. The

training takes an interac-

tive approach, illustrating

the theoretical knowledge

with practical examples

and case studies. More-

over, it offers the partici-

pants a hands-on guide to

dealing with the various

EU information sources. Due to its timing,

the seminars had a special focus on the nov-

elties introduced by the Lisbon Treaty both

in the EU institutional structure and in the

decision-making process.

Because of the success of the previous ses-

sions and the demand for training on the

post-Lisbon European Union, the Training

Unit scheduled the last session in 2010 to

take place on 17-19 November.

The E-learning and Training Unit, together

with the Institute for Eu-

ropean Environmental Pol-

icy (IEEP) also organized a

one-day training seminar

on “The New EU Climate

Policies- between Copen-

hagen and Cancun” on

March 26. The event pre-

sented the international

framework of climate

change negotiations, with

a special focus on the EU

climate policies. Further-

more, topics such as ETS

and carbon markets, as

well as mitigation in de-

veloped and developing

countries were addressed.

The seminar ended with a

panel discussion on the outcomes of the Co-

penhagen summit and the EU’s international

role, bringing together representatives from

NGOs, industry, national parliaments and

European institutions. By bringing the vari-

ous actors involved in EU climate change

policies and their points of view around the

table, the panel debate complemented the

theoretical lectures well and allowed the par-

ticipants to interact and make the most of

the training seminar.

Training for Taiwanese civil servants

On April 28, the E-learning and Training

Unit, together with PhD researcher Sigrid

Winkler, successfully conducted a one day

customized training session for a group

of Taiwanese civil servants who were on a

study trip to Brussels, organized by the Tai-

pei Representative Office in the European

Union. The lectures offered a detailed analy-

sis of the EU institutional framework, as well

as the historical and legal developments,

focusing on Common Foreign and Security

issues and the changes brought by the Lis-

bon treaty. The E-learning and Training Unit

received very positive feedback from the

participants, and the Taipei Representative

Office in the EU reinforced its intentions for

future fruitful cooperation with the IES.

Upcoming Training Sessions:

8 October: Global Governance in Migration

Issues: the Role of the European Union

17-19 November: EU in Close-up

3 December: The Common Foreign and Se-

curity Policy after Lisbon

From 24 January

untill 12 February

2010, the E-Learn-

ing & Training Unit

successfully car-

ried out the train-

ing ”The Institutions of the European Union and

Their Decision-making Process” for the Walloon

Public Administration in Namur. The two-day

training programme targeted Walloon officials,

who will be involved in the Belgian Presidency

starting 1 July 2010. More than 80 Walloon of-

ficials took part in the programme. In prepara-

tion for the training, the participants received

access to the

E-Modules de-

veloped by the

E-Learning &

Training Unit.

The training

agenda en-

c o m p a s s e d

sessions on

the European

Commiss ion,

the European Parliament and European Coun-

cil as well as the role of the Presidency in the

decision-making process, comitology and the

co-decision procedure.

T r a i n i n g W a l l o n i a