European Institute Highlights: Term 1

As we welcome the new year, the European Institute looks back at a busy and productive first term, from the showcase of our European Literary Map of London at the EU Citizens' Conference to a wide range of speaker events including former French President François Hollande and EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit.

Institutional Leadership on Europe 

We have continued to support and strengthen UCL's profile and visibility as a leading university for the study of Europe. In November, we co-hosted EU Commissioner Nicolas Schmit, with the UCL Labour Insitute at UCL Laws, for a public lecture on 'The Social Foundations of European Integration - Past, Present, and Future'. We were also delighted to to collaborate with Sciences Po Alumni UK and the School of Security Studies at King’s College London to host a conversation with former French President François Hollande on key geopolitical challenges and their perception within the great offices of state. 

Meanwhile we were delighted to strengthen links with the EU Delegation in the UK, most notably by participating in the EU Citizens Conference in October, where we showcased our European Literary Map of London. We also brokered a transfer of the European Literary Map of London exhibition to destinations across Europe through a partnership with the FCDO Soft Power team, using the Map to catalyse greater visibility for UCL in continental Europe, and to support partnership development and alumni engagement. 
 

Innovative Practice-led Education

In October, Damjan Kukovec, Judge of the General Court of the European Union, engaged with UCL students and academics in a packed seminar on Judicial legitimacy and coherence of decision-making of the CJEU, organised by Dr Oliver Gerstenberg.

Alongside this, we continue our popular series of student masterclasses, welcoming Federico Bianchi, Spokesperson and Head of Press and Public Diplomacy at the EU Delegation to the UK, for a session on the power of communication in diplomacy. In an interview with European Institute intern Aime Muelemann for the UCL European blog, Federico Bianchi further discussed key priorities for improving EU-UK understanding, the role of UCL in doing so and the EU Delegation's social media strategy. 

Supporting the Research Environment 

Our efforts to support the research environment at UCL, and to foster an environment where work on Europe can flourish, have also carried on. Our [Black Europe] Speaker Series continued with a lecture from Professor Diamond Ashgiabor, Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, on “EU integration and European colonialism”.

We also celebrated the publication of a report on “The Labour Government and Security Cooperation with the European Union”, which draws on discussions during a closed roundtable co-convened by the Independent Commission on UK-EU Relations, the UCL European Institute, and the University of Surrey in the aftermath of Labour's election victory.  The report looks at the fall and rise of security cooperation with the EU and sets out what an agreement might look like.

Extending UCL’s Reach 

Finally, we have continued our work to enhance the reach and relevance of UCL’s ideas and expertise on Europe, by engaging diverse external constituencies.  

In September, we co-convened a roundtable on the future of European security at the British Embassy in Berlin, in partnership with the Centre for European Reform, as part of our Jean Monnet work strand on European security, led by Dr Ben Noble. European Security was also the subject of Benjamin Martill’s December article on the UCL Europe Blog, where he discusses the most important developments in UK foreign and security policy and how they have shaped UK-EU security collaboration. 

We also continued our Centre of Excellence work on Energy with a public event followed by a closed-door roundtable in Brussels, co-hosted with UCL Insitute of Sustainable Resources and think tank Bruegel. The event explored opportunities and practical solutions for UK-EU cooperation on energy and climate, bringing together representatives of both sides and perspectives from government, diplomacy, civil service, industry, civil society advocacy, politics and academia, among others. Professor Michael Grubb explained why earlier investments make large-scale emission reductions easier to do over time, on our UCL Europe Blog.

Finally, we published the fifth in a series of policy briefs authored by UCL Faculty of Laws academics, through a programme supported by the UCL European Institute. The latest, by PhD candidate Lara Blecher, underlines the importance of engaging rights holders affected by mining activities.

Thank you

To deliver the above, we have worked closely with a range of partners and collaborators across UCL and beyond. We wish to take this opportunity to thank you for your continued collaboration and support – and to encourage you to stay up to date with events and opportunities by signing up to our newsletter, following us on Instagram, Blue Sky and LinkedIn or by getting in touch with a member of the team.