Organised by the Institute for European Studies and the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Université libre de Bruxelles.
The summer school
The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its devastating social-economic impact represent a considerable challenge for nation states and international organisations. While the effects of the crisis are global, nation states have acted as primary actors through a wide range of individual decisions. They sought to stop the spread of the virus by radically limiting internal and international travels, suspending economic activity, closing schools and universities, shops and public places and confining persons at home.
Many of these drastic limitations to individual freedom of movement and assembly have been taken without cross-border coordination. Transnational problems require transnational solutions and but establishing these been a visibly challenging task for the European Union but also for international and regional organisations in general.
The aim of this summer programme is to address a set of timely questions such as:
- What is the role of regional and international organisations in responding to the COVID-19 crisis as a global challenge?
- How do they assert themselves against nation states surging ahead on their own?
- How do they react to the socio-economic, informational as well as human rights and rule of law challenges within their member states?
- What is their organisational capacity and mandate to (re)act and has there been a change due to the crisis?
- How is international and regional solidarity translated into concrete action?
- How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the multilateral system and the balance of power of nation states and regional organisations
Speakers include
| Andrew Bradley | Chief of Staff, OACPS |
| Diego Canga Fano | Principal Adviser, European Commission |
| Ramona Coman | President of the Institute for European Studies, ULB |
| Gisella Gori | Council of Europe Liaison Office to the EU |
| Oana Lungescu | NATO Spokesperson |
| Frank Mattheis | Post-Doc Research Fellow, Institute for European Studies, ULB |
| Dorit Nitzan | Regional Emergency Director, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe |
| Barbara Pesce-Monteiro | Director, United Nations Brussels |
| Mario Telo | Emeritus President of the Institute for European Studies, ULB |
| Tony Venables | Founder of the ECIT Foundation |
Practical Information
When: 27 to 29 August 2020
Where: Institute of European Studies, Université libre de Bruxelles. Safety measures (physical distance, face masks, limited number of participants) will be implemented.
The summer school will also be offered online via Teams (synchronous format).
Registration is free and mandatory.
