16/12/2022
Under the auspices of the Circle U. European University Alliance, we had the pleasure to host a three-day seminar in November with Master students from UCLouvain and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on the theme of ‘The EU and Eastern Europe: Peace, Democracy and Cooperation’. On the first day, students exchanged with academic experts from UCLouvain and the University of Belgrade on the geopolitical stakes of EU Eastern policy, followed by a dialogue with a Member of the Cabinet of European Commission President von der Leyen. The learnings were put in practice in the second day, as students simulated a European Council agenda point on the Ukrainian candidacy to the EU. The meeting was preceded by heavy negotiations among Member States and the EU Institutions with live coverage by the journalist, and occasional disruptions by NGO representatives. Unfortunately, the penned Conclusions could not be adopted as some Member States felt excluded from the compromise. The last day provided apt opportunity to compare the experience with that of practitioners with visits to the EU institutions. The European Commission prepared a cross-Directorate Generals (DG) programme with speakers from the DG for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR), and DG for Budget (DG BUDG) and the legal service, to explain the role of the European Commission and the current state of play in the region. The trip was concluded by a visit to the Permanent Representation of Belgium to the EU where a wider outlook on foreign affairs was presented including on the relations with the UK, the EFTA countries, and the Holy See, as well as the work of the Committee for Civilian Aspects of Crisis Management (CivCom) and of the Politico-Military Group (PMG). We thank the speakers for their contribution and the European Commission and the Permanent Representation for hosting us. Lastly, this cross-university programme would not have been possible without the European University Alliances, supported by the European Commission.
https://uclouvain.be/fr/facultes/espo/euro
