The Institute for European Studies of the ULB awarded two Jean Monnet projects

OpenEUdebate: Matching politics with policy

A three-year, 300.000 euros project, OpenEUdebate focuses on the fragmentation of the European public sphere. “Despite the efforts of civil society and EU institutions, the European public sphere is fragmented, just as the Europeanisation of politics and decision making breaks and transforms the functions of national public spheres. “Our network takes stock of the fragmentation and conceives strategies to communicate differently with diverse national and specialized publics,” explains PhD candidate and IEE-ULB affiliated researcher, Alvaro Oleart, one of the project members.

“The network aims at building bridges between the different levels of the European public sphere by creating a network to link key mediators in existing public spheres – academics, journalists, civil society activists, institutional administrators and political leaders – into a platform translating expert knowledge about European politics. Doing this will improve the quality of citizens’ political judgement about the EU policy, politics and policies that will have a positive impact on their perceptions.”

An online platform for debating and learning about the EU

OpenEUDebate proposes a “user friendly high-knowledge exchange platform” with the aim to connect specialisits in EU affairs with decision makers, journalists and citizens to enhance a policy-oriented political debate on Europe.

Jean Monnet Module at the IEE-ULB

IEE-ULB Director Ramona Coman will coordinate a Jean Monnet module “Rule of Law and Mutual Trust in Global and European Governance (RoLETTE)”
The module fosters interdisciplinary and comparative understanding of the rule of law and mutual trust in global and European governance.
It will be developed at the Institute for European Studies of the ULB from 2018-2021. It seeks to improve the quality of academic debate, training and research in this field of interest to students, practitioners and academics by diversifying: the training formats, the target audiences, and the range of activities.

To deepen and diversify teaching in European studies by establishing tailor-made courses on specific EU issues relevant for graduates in their professional life is the objective of the module. It includes a graduate specialization course on “Rule of law and mutual trust in Global and European governance” open to MA students, executive training for professionals on the “Challenges of the rule of law and mutual trust in the EU,” and a cycle of student-led conferences and public debates around the “Rule of law and mutual trust.”

“The aim of the module is to renew the teaching at the IEE on the rule of law and mutual trust. The module will give the opportunity to develop a truly interdisciplinary curriculum with the participation of a wide range of academics and practitioners with different views on the topic. I am thrilled to coordinate this module for the next 3 years. Beyond teaching, the module seeks to foster public debate and to produce teaching material, opinions and academic writings.”

Besides the development of three new teachings, RoLETTE seeks to foster the necessary cooperation between leading academics and experts to allow for: a set of academic articles in peer reviewed journals, topical policy briefs, an international textbook, as well as new on-line teaching materials and teaching packs in open access.

Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

IEE-ULB has been recognised as a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. This certification provides the Institute with resources to finance both research and teaching activities. The project awarded in 2016 is dedicated to European solidarity.