European Union

On Wednesday, MEPs gave their green light to new EU rules to reduce emissions from passenger cars, vans, buses, trucks and trailers.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On 19 March, Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for Internal Market, will present to the SEDE Members the newly released European Defence Industrial Strategy (EDIS) together with the proposed European Defence Industry Programme (EDIP), which set ambitious targets to enhance the defence readiness of the European Union and its Member States. ...
In camera, a tour d'horizon on EU security and defence priorities will be given by the EEAS Deputy Secretary General Charles Fries and SEDE Members will hold an exchange of views with the EEAS and Rear Admiral Vasileios Gryparis, Operation Commander of EUNAVFOR ASPIDES on the Red Sea crisis and the establishment of the CSDP defensive maritime security operation EUNAVFOR ASPIDES.
Meeting agenda and documents
Webstreaming - EP Multimedia Centre
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

MEPs on Wednesday gave their final green light to new legislation to protect EU journalists and media from political or economic interference.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

MEPs on Wednesday gave their final green light to new legislation to protect EU journalists and media from political or economic interference.
Committee on Culture and Education

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Wednesday, Parliament adopted its proposals to better prevent and reduce waste from food and textiles across the EU.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On Wednesday, Parliament adopted its proposals to better prevent and reduce waste from food and textiles across the EU.
Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The overhaul of the EU Customs Code reform would change the way customs authorities operate, cooperate with traders and manage goods that people order online.
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

The European Parliament backed today more effective EU rules for combined work and residence permits for third-country nationals.
Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Inga Ulnicane

How to align research and innovation with values, needs and expectations of society? During the past ten years, researchers, policy-makers and funders in Europe have developed and supported the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) approach to address societal aspects of research and innovation early on. This approach aims to go beyond risk management and have a broader focus on the purpose of research and innovation. It involves a range of anticipation, reflection, engagement, and action mechanisms to involve society and foster interdisciplinary collaborations to shape research and innovation towards socially beneficial goals. Importantly, in the RRI approach responsibility does not just refer to responsible conduct of individual researchers but aims to facilitate responsible processes and governance arrangements across the whole research and innovation system.

To build such a system, it is important to provide relevant training opportunities for researchers and stakeholders. Some of the major research funders such as the EU Framework programme and UK research councils have supported the development and delivery of RRI training activities, which play a crucial role in raising awareness and developing culture that puts societal aspects at the core of research and innovation. Two recent collaborative publications in the Journal of Responsible Technology share a number of good practices of RRI training.

 

RRI capacity development in a large-scale EU research project

Researchers in the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP) have developed a dedicated RRI capacity development programme (Ogoh et al 2023). The HBP (2013-2023) was one of the largest international collaborations ever that brought together around 500 researchers from over 100 universities and research centres from some 20 countries. Over ten years, the project received approximately half a billion Euros from the EU Framework Programmes. An integrated RRI team of social scientists and humanities researchers in the HBP worked alongside neuroscientists, computer scientists and engineers.

Continuous collaboration in this case allowed the development of the RRI capacity development programme in close consultation with researchers and stakeholders. The programme included 17 modules on a range of topics such as data governance, dual use, and diversity. Moreover, it developed online training resources, lectures, and videos.

Many participants of online and in-person training were eager to learn about and reflect on societal aspects of their work. Often, they told us that this much needed training has been missing during their university education, which typically had covered ethical aspects rather narrowly in terms of ethics approvals. However, assessing the impact of RRI training is far from straightforward. Counting training sessions and participants as well as reading evaluation forms gives some indication of interest and satisfaction. At the same time, it is much more challenging to assess some of the core aspects of RRI such as reflexivity, changing culture and increased sensitivity towards societal expectations.

 

RRI and doctoral training

In the UK, RRI training is integrated in the centres for doctoral training. A recent editorial (Stahl et al 2023) presents a variety of examples of how RRI training is organized and assessed in the context of these centres. This collaborative publication provides rich information and reflection on aims, content, and challenges of teaching RRI. It addresses questions such as: What kind of skills, attitudes and competencies do researchers need in the context of RRI? Should they be required to have a relatively detailed understanding of methodologies of foresight or public engagement? Or should they rather be willing and able to continuously reflect on and address social and ethical aspects of their own research?

The editorial demonstrates a broad range of approaches and methods to RRI training and assessment across diverse disciplines and universities. While having RRI as part of doctoral training is an important step towards its institutionalization, it is rather limited on its own. To be impactful, it needs to be part of a broader transformation of the research and innovation system including policy, reward system and funding.

 

References:

Ogoh, G., Akintoye, S., Eke, D., Farisco, M., Fernow, J., Grasenick, K., Guerrero, M., Rosemann, A., Salles, A. & Ulnicane, I. (2023). Developing capabilities for responsible research and innovation (RRI). Journal of Responsible Technology, 15, 100065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2023.100065

Stahl, B. C., Aicardi, C., Brooks, L., Craigon, P. J., Cunden, M., Burton, S. D., De Heaver, M., De Saille, S., Dolby, S., Dowthwaite, L., Eke, D., Hughes, S., Keene, P., Kuh, V., Portillo, V., Shanley, D., Smallman, M., Smith, M., Stilgoe, J., Ulnicane, I., Wagner, C., & Webb, H. (2023). Assessing responsible innovation training. Journal of Responsible Technology, 16, 100063. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrt.2023.100063

The post Responsible Research and Innovation training appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 27 January 2016

The grandness of the EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy lies in its potential to render the existing conundrum of various EU strategies into a more orderly set of strands with a clear vision regarding their mutually complementary role.

Strategies are inbuilt in EU’s genome. These policy documents define EU’s aims, approaches in tackling challenges and addressing common issues.  EU Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy (hereafter – EUGSFSP) is being designed with an aim to “enable the Union to identify a clear set of objectives and priorities for now and the future. On this basis the European Union can align its tools and instruments to ensure that they have the greatest possible impact”. The EUGSFSP refers to other existing initiatives, which should be streamlined according to the needs of this particular strategy. This short overview of several EU’s strategies is aimed at providing a broader context on how the EU Global Strategy of Foreign and Security Policy fits in the existing conundrum of EU strategies. Consequently, it provides few suggestions for consideration in the context of the EUGSFSP drafting and implementation process.

EU strategies are designed, coordinated and their implementation is overseen by Directorates-General of the European Commission, as well as European External Action Service. It is a common practice that prior to the drafting process a public consultation takes place. Then, during the drafting process of a strategy states come together to identify areas of mutual interest, where they see the added value of a joint action. It could be termed as the “business as usual” practice.

Broadly speaking, these policy documents are being discussed on two levels. The European level encompasses inter-service consultations and public consultations, as well as the European Council and its working groups. The national level is characterised by working groups which gather all national (and in certain cases subnational) entities involved in the implementation of the relevant strategy.

Overall, EU strategies vary in structure, level of details in terms of the implementation process, approach on measuring achievements, as well as vagueness or concreteness of goals. For example, DG MARE coordinates the EU Maritime Security Strategy (hereafter – EUMSS) which excels in its detailed approach towards actions to be pursued. One of DG REGIO’s facilitated strategies is the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (hereafter – EUSBSR), which, as its name suggests, has a regional focus and is characterised by broad descriptions of policy areas, getting closer to implementation once the flagship projects are explained. The European External Action Service is leading the EU Central Asia Strategy, which since 2007 defines a tailored approach to each of the five countries involved. These are just three examples of a much wider pool of EU strategies dedicated to regional matters or a specific policy area.

The reason why EU strategies are described as a conundrum is that they are far from being unique in terms of issues they are addressing and geographic areas they are aiming at covering. Here are few examples of overlapping responsibilities. Both the EUMSS and the EUSBSR aim at strengthening the cross-sectoral cooperation and synergies between information, capabilities and systems of various authorities in domains of maritime surveillance, preparedness for emergency situations and marine pollution. Moreover, the EUMSS has its own external dimension (called “Workstrand 1”), which defines actions to be undertaken in cooperation with the third parties. Similarly, EUSBSR encompasses cooperation with non-EU countries. In addition, the Strategic Review “The European Union in a changing global environment: A more connected, contested and complex world” covers regions which have already their specific EU strategies in place, such as the previously mentioned EU Central Asia Strategy.

Why is it worth pointing out these commonalities? The success of EU tools and instruments lies in their complementary nature. When it comes to the EUGSFSP, it would be advisable to go beyond the “business as usual” practice outlined above and render the existing EU strategic conundrum in a more orderly jigsaw. Namely, the EUGSFSP would explain the role of other relevant EU strategies and clarify their unique contribution to attaining the EUGSFSP goals. Such an approach would also help to pool the existing expertise for more coordinated actions and streamline initiatives taken under various EU frameworks, as well as avoid duplication of activities.

However, such an endeavour demands additional coordination of input and effort both from European and national levels. On the European level, it requires brainstorming regarding the future inter-service coordination of various strategies in order to increase the overall awareness of various EU strategies among different divisions of EU institutions. On the national level, it requires extended consultations. These discussions should not be limited to the so-called “usual suspects”, such as authorities dealing with foreign affairs, defence and military matters. It should incorporate inputs from other governmental bodies involved in the national steering of different EU strategies. All in all, if the EUGSFSP really is aimed at being grand, these suggestions might help to render the EUGSFSP impressive and overarching not only in words but also enshrine it in its nature and scope.

The post EU’s Conundrum of Strategies: Is There an Orderly Jigsaw on the Horizon? appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 11 April 2016

Do you have at work one of these lovely collaborative brainstorming boards? I do. Here is my inspirational (inspirational / management) quote. In short, I have taken the liberty to add a new twist to the widely used Altshuler’s quote.

The impressive photo of F-22 was retrieved from Defense Industry Daily.

In case you find this collage inspirational and worth having in your office area, then feel free to download the JPG file.

The post Motivational Quotes For Work appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

Original date of publication on the UACES Ideas on Europe platform: 15 October 2019

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Foreword

The outlined science diplomacy research project is presented with a full appreciation of Adler-Nissen’s concise observation that ‘over the last 50 years, European states have come to view their nations as anchored so deeply within the institutions of the EU that their diplomats merge the promotion of national interests with those of the Union and states begin to speak with one voice’. ‘Science diplomacy’ is a term coined approximately ten years ago in order to launch a more in-depth discussion on the relations between science and diplomacy in shaping international ties. European Union (EU) is no stranger to science diplomacy. However, the overall pool of scholarly examined case studies remains rather thin. There is room for more insight into how individuals in various professional circles practice science diplomacy. This article provides an outline of how an analysis dedicated to the EU science diplomacy in the Southern Neighbourhood with a particular focus on Morroco (MA) and Tunisia (TN) throughout the time frame of 2014 – 2017 would contribute to the overall examination of science diplomacy, as well as establish ties to other topical theoretical strands of EU studies.

 

Science Diplomacy as a Component of the EU’s Structural Diplomacy

Since science diplomacy is not a term which would be widely integrated into the EU documents, the practices of this form of diplomacy, including those that are sometimes described as ‘public diplomacy’ or ‘academic exchange’ become the logic subjects for further examination. The implicit science diplomacy is understood as policies and implementation measures which are not called ‘science diplomacy’ but correspond to the basic definition of one of the three taxonomies of science diplomacy. ‘Diplomacy for science’, meaning, diplomacy exerted to establish cooperation agreements either between governments or certain institutions allowing one or several of the parties involved to benefit from ‘foreign science and technology capacity in order to improve the national capacity’ (Šime, 2018, p. 4; Van Langenhove, 2017, p. 8), is worth exploring in the European Southern Neighbourhood Policy context throughout the selected time frame of 2014-2017.

The novelty of such a choice or research project is its endeavour to enrich both the academic and policy expert thinking on the evolving ‘diplomacy for science’ understanding in the EU setting and embed it in a wider theoretical framework of structural diplomacy. In order to acquire a more nuanced understanding how the institutional set-up influences the perspectives of EU-based actors towards cooperation with the peer institutions located in the selected countries the actor-centered institutionalism is chosen as another theoretical building block. It implies analysing activities of certain entities as the causal link between macro-level processes and the governance regulations (Marks, 1996, p. 23).

Structural diplomacy, being an instrument of structural foreign policy, is a process of dialogue and negotiation by which actors in a system seek to influence or shape sustainable structures in the various sectors in a specific geographical area (Keukeleire & Justaert, 2010, p. 3; Keukeleire, Keuleers, & Raube, 2016, p. 200). Structural diplomacy and structural foreign policy are worth employing, firstly, due to a full appreciation of the funding schemes managed by key institutions representing the EU (namely, the sectoral Directorates-General of the European Commission), which ensure practical implementation of its defined external relations, such as the multilateral or bilateral agreements, corresponding funding programmes (Keukeleire, 2003, pp. 31-32, 49-50).

Secondly, the choice of structural foreign policy is motivated also by the acknowledgement that it is implemented with milieu goals (Keukeleire, 2003, p. 46) or endogenous local contexts (Keukeleire & Delreux, 2014, p. 30; Keukeleire & Justaert, 2010, p. 8; Keukeleire et al., 2016, p. 204) in mind, associated with support for evolution of long-term structural changes with permanent results (Keukeleire & Delreux, 2014, p. 28; Keukeleire & Justaert, 2010, p. 3; 2012, p. 2). In the Southern Neighbourhood, as some of the key context-specific traits the efforts directed towards promoting stability (Börzel & Lebanidze, 2017, p. 23) and state-building (Börzel & van Hüllen, 2011, p. 6) should be mentioned.

The research project is not preoccupied with the earlier identified democratisation-stability dilemma (Börzel, Dandashly, & Risse, 2015, p. 7; Börzel & Lebanidze, 2017, p. 23; Börzel & van Hüllen, 2014, p. 1040). Instead it focuses on the stability-enhancing activities stemming from the ‘volatile dynamics of change’ (Bouris & Schumacher, 2017, p. 293), namely, the geopolitical developments which EU’s envisaged ‘ring of well governed countries’ (Barbé & Morillas, 2019, p. 5) or (later on rephrased as) ‘ring of friends’ (Börzel & van Hüllen, 2014, p. 1035) transformed into ‘the ring of fire’ (Blockmans, Kostanyan, Remizov, Slapakova, & Van der Loo, 2017, p. 136; Bouris & Schumacher, 2017, pp. 85-86; Gaub & Popescu, 2015, p. 5), leading to a full awareness about a policy problem and the overall acknowledged urgency to address such instability of the EU neighbourhood via dialogue on certain assistance measures. It is worth adding that the severity of the situation has been commented with even grimmer assessments that the EU’s choice of promoting ‘resilience’ was directed more towards stabilizing ‘itself’ (Barbé & Morillas, 2019, p. 8), thus shifting more towards the internal dimension of the ‘intermestic sphere’ (Bremberg, 2010, p. 170) characterising the Mediterranean space.

Furthermore, due to the continuous instability risks posed by the youth bulges (Gaub, 2019, p. 11), higher education and research sectors are selected from the whole panoply of ‘intermestic affairs’ (Barbé & Morillas, 2019, p. 13) in order to acquire a more nuanced insight into the practical developments supporting the above discussed policy goals.

 

Mare Nostrum’s Community of Practices

The proposed science diplomacy research project follows the whims of the ‘practice turn’ in EU studies (Adler-Nissen, 2016). It supports the arguments of Adler-Nissen and Didier Bigo (2011, p. 251) about Bourdieu’s relevance in exploring the individuals as ‘liaison agents’ who shape the characteristics of international ties by mediating and refracting elite policies (Adler-Nissen, 2016, p. 11). Thus, the aim is to look beyond the elite diplomatic circles in order to explore how the high-level discourses are echoed in the working-level routines of EU funded higher education and research cooperation.

The theoretical configuration taps into an earlier identified potential of new institutionalism to offer theoretical integration opportunities (Scharpf, 2000, p. 762). Due to the fact that both structural diplomacy and actor-centered institutionalism have several commonalities with most reflections on the future EU ‘diplomacy for science’, stronger ties to both schools of thought would allow accelerating the conceptual honing of this strand of the EU science diplomacy. In addition, adding a practice theory theoretical component to this constellation tallies well with the focus on implicit science diplomacy developments following the actor-centered institutionalism’s approach to ‘interaction-oriented policy research’, where ‘actors and their interacting choices, rather than institutions are assumed to be the proximate causes of policy responses’ (Scharpf, 2000, p. 764). The conscious or unconscious practitioner of science diplomacy is placed in the limelight.

Communities of practice are understood as ‘like-minded groups of practitioners who are informally as well as contextually bound by a shared interest in learning and applying a common practice’ (Bremberg, Sonnsjö, & Mobjörk, 2019, p. 626). Thus, the research project is founded on a theoretical assumption that EU funded project managers share certain common traits in their working habits which are aligned with the requirements defined by the EU funding schemes. The research project seeks to draw some generalisations what such a community of practice delivers vis-à-vis the overarching goals set in the key policy documents.

 

Scoping the Empirical Field

In Bourdieusian terms, the EU is considered as the transnational field which is characterised by certain permanent institutions (Bigo, 2011, p. 248) – Directorates-General of the European Commission and other services – which through the funding programmes (as the practical implementation means of the EU strategic frameworks) creates certain ad-hoc institutions – projects – aimed at accomplishing specific tasks by a defined set of consortium members within a limited time frame.

In order to render the empirical examination comprehensive, yet not too vague or overstretched, the roles of four EU institutions – European External Action Service (EEAS), Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), Directorate-General for Education and Culture (DG EAC), Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) – would be put under the magnifying glass in terms of exploring the projects funded by their overseen programmes. Those would be the EU-MA and EU-TN Annual Action Programmes overseen by DG NEAR (as integral parts of the European Neighbourhood Instrument 2014-2017), Erasmus+ of DG EAC and the Framework Programme administered by DG RTD. Projects’ coordinators are the selected community whose practices in terms of perspectives on and experience in cooperation with MA&TN-based institutions are worth exploring in order to get a better understanding what judgements and lessons learnt form certain basis of the EU ties with the EU Southern Neighbourhood in higher education and research sectors.

The outlined EU institutions would be analysed with an awareness of one policy area requiring the engagement of several Directorates-General (Glover & Müller, 2015, p. 33; Šime, 2018, pp. 10-11), which does not necessarily translate into frequent policy innovations and new policy constellations due to the overall policy inertia and a general preference of status quo characterising multi-actor policy systems (Scharpf, 2000, pp. 768-769). Since none of the four EU institutions has been tasked to pursue science diplomacy, let alone diplomacy for science, the chosen conceptual constellation allows elaborating on the EU’s multiple voices (da Conceição-Heldt & Meunier, 2014), namely, what role EU-based research and higher education institutions acting as Lead Partners or Coordinators of EU funded projects play in the overall EU implicit science diplomacy exerted in relations with MA&TN throughout 2014-2017.

 

Priorities of EU Institutions in Short

The DG NEAR’s European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI) 2014-2017 defines three priority sectors, none of which entail clear references to research, science or innovation. The EU puts emphasis on ‘socio-economic reforms for an inclusive growth, competitiveness and integration; strengthening fundamental elements of democracy; sustainable regional and local development’ (European Commission, 2018). The thematic focus of the EEAS on building the societal resilience in the European Southern Neighbourhood and DG NEAR pursued three priority sectors are not treated as the EU dialogue and practical cooperation with MA&TN lacking any component of science, research or innovation.

The leverage to such lack of domain-specific prominence is DG RTD and DG EAC continuous engagement of MA&TN in initiatives funded by the Framework Programmes and Erasmus+. It allows placing the ENI 2014-2017 initiatives and resources allocated to their implementation via EU-MA and EU-TN Annual Action Programmes as the benchmark to test whether research and higher education-related engagements funded by other EU programmes offer more opportunities. Those would be DG RTD’s Framework Programmes’ funded measures, such as BLUEMED and Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions, especially in view of the comparative difference between the chosen cases. Namely, TN is an associated country of Horizon 2020 but MA does not enjoy the same status.

In order to enhance the structural dimension of the empirical analysis, the acquired data on the EU funded projects, where MA&TN are involved would also explore their segmentation, whether certain sciences were benefiting more from the EU offered cooperation and learning of good practices than others, thus potentially contributing more to the capacity building in certain sectors of socioeconomic value to both countries.

Moreover, the depth of analysis would not stop only at the examination of the statistical landscape of project engagements. Through the exploration of Coordinators and Lead Partners’ assessments of the engagement of MA&TN institutions in specific projects, a more nuanced understanding would be obtained about MA&TN capacity of learning and strengthening their research and higher education institutions via project engagement. Therefore, the research project aims at exploring not only the scope and science domain-specific coverage of MA&TN engagement in the EU funded measures, but also to analyse whether the experiences obtained through the implemented projects have been judged by the EU-based managers responsible for the project implementation, namely, to bring tangible benefits in the capacity-building of MA&TN-based research and higher education institutions.

This line of enquiry into the perspectives widely shared among the selected community of practice follows the conceptual logic of diffusion, especially its dependence on recipients, which, along the lines of the bounded rationality, are presumed to follow the ‘instrumental rationality or logic of consequences’ (Börzel & Risse, 2012, p. 5), as active shapers of results (Börzel & Risse, 2012b, p. 204). Thereby, strengthening the research potential and building capacities of research and higher education sectors in the Southern Neighbourhood is not just a matter of the EU’s proactiveness, but also depends on the responsiveness of MA&TN institutions to use the whole set of cooperation opportunities and ensuring the sustainability of project results.

 

Keeping the Focus on the EU

According to the new institutionalist logic of a bounded rational actor (van Lieshout, 2008, pp. 8-9) pursued along with the established social norms and values (Maggi, 2016, p. 22), the research project would explore what role the EU engagement both in the bilateral and multilateral dialogue on science, cooperation with MA&TN in this domain, play in the overall EU’s attempt to enhance resilience in its southern neighbourhood.

In order to keep a healthy level of focus and nuance ‘the target country perspective’ (Keukeleire & Justaert, 2010, p. 19) and three conceptualisations of alignment (Keukeleire et al., 2016, p. 205) – the value brought by an engagement in the EU funded projects of MA&TN researchers and higher education staff as seen from their own perspective – are kept outside of the scope of this specific suggested analysis. Instead, the emphasis is kept on exploring the perspective of EU-based institutions on their ties with the peer institutions in two selected countries of Southern Neighbourhood.

 

Methodology

Besides the acquisition of earlier described statistical data on projects implemented throughout 2014-2017 with the financial support of three EU funding schemes, the semi-structured interviews will give a new impetus to the research on the recent rediscovery of the value of Jean Monnet method in Northern Europe in advancing the EU goals (Ekengren, 2018). The selected method of interviews follows, the logic elaborated by Emanuel Adler and Vincent Pouliot: ‘Not only is language the conduit of meaning, which turns practices into the location and engine of social action, but it is itself an enactment of doing in the form of ‘discursive practices’’ (Adler & Pouliot, 2011, p. 6). The interviews serve as a way of exploring how project managers are walking the talk.

Self-censorship and self-legitimation (Adler-Nissen, 2016, p. 15) presented by the interviewed Coordinators and Lead Partners of EU funded projects and their narrated overall contextualisation (Adler-Nissen & Kropp, 2015, p. 164) of MA&TN engagement would be a good source of comparative insight between working-level deliverables and framework goals set in key EU policy documents and promoted among the EU’s high level representatives.

 

Ready to Look Beyond the ‘Golden Carrot’

To conclude, the outlined science diplomacy research project is crafted to take a fresh look at the earlier findings on the EU Southern Neighbourhood. It avoids the blind following of the assessment of Keukeleire and Justaert (Keukeleire & Justaert, 2012, p. 2), as well as Börzel and her colleagues arguing for the crucial role of the ‘golden carrot’ – EU membership (Börzel & Schimmelfennig, 2017, p. 278; Börzel & Hüllen, 2011, p. 7), namely, that the EU external action has less of an influence vis-à-vis those countries to which it cannot offer EU membership as the ultimate reward. A more nuanced insight into the stabilising efforts exerted via capacity building in higher education and research might offer some new food for thought, whether this assessment is still valid in the contemporary setting.

 

Bibliography

Adler-Nissen, R. (2016). Towards a Practice Turn in EU Studies: The Everyday of European Integration. Journal of Common Market Studies, 54(1), 87–103. Retrieved from http://static-curis.ku.dk/portal/files/162256180/Practice_turn.pdf

Adler-Nissen, R., & Kropp, K. (2015). A Sociology of Knowledge Approach to European Integration: Four Analytical Principles. Journal of European Integration, 37(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2014.990133

Adler, E., & Pouliot, V. (2011). International Practices. International Theory, 3(1), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1017/S175297191000031X

Barbé, E., & Morillas, P. (2019). The EU global strategy: the dynamics of a more politicized and politically integrated foreign policy. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 0(0), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2019.1588227

Bigo, D. (2011). Pierre Bourdieu and international relations: Power of practices, practices of power. International Political Sociology, 5(3), 225–258. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-5687.2011.00132.x

Blockmans, S., Kostanyan, H., Remizov, A., Slapakova, L., & Van der Loo, G. (2017). Assessing European Neighbourhod Policy. (H. Kostanyan, Ed.). London: Rowman & Littlefield International, Ltd. Retrieved from https://www.ceps.eu/publications/assessing-european-neighbourhood-policy-perspectives-literature

Börzel, T. A., Dandashly, A., & Risse, T. (2015). Responses to the ‘Arabellions’: The EU in Comparative Perspective — Introduction. Journal of European Integration, 37(1), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2014.975986

Börzel, T. A., & Lebanidze, B. (2017). “The transformative power of Europe” beyond enlargement: the EU’s performance in promoting democracy in its neighbourhood*. East European Politics, 33(1), 17–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/21599165.2017.1280473

Börzel, T. A., & Risse, T. (2012a). From Europeanisation to Diffusion: Introduction. West European Politics, 35(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2012.631310

Börzel, T. A., & Risse, T. (2012b). When Europeanisation Meets Diffusion: Exploring New Territory. West European Politics, 35(1), 192–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2012.634543

Börzel, T. A., & Schimmelfennig, F. (2017). Coming together or drifting apart? The EU’s political integration capacity in Eastern Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 24(2), 278–296. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2016.1265574

Börzel, T. A., & van Hüllen, V. (2014). One voice, one message, but conflicting goals: Cohesiveness and consistency in the European Neighbourhood Policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 21(7), 1033–1049. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2014.912147

Börzel, T., & van Hüllen, V. (2011). Good Governance and Bad Neighbors? The Limits of the Transformative Power of Europe (KFG Working Paper Series No. 35). KFG Working Paper Series. Berlin. Retrieved from http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/kfgeu/kfgwp/wpseries/WorkingPaperKFG_35.pdf

Bouris, D., & Schumacher, T. (Eds.). (2017). The Revised European Neighbourhood Policy : Continuity and Change in EU Foreign Policy. London: Macmillan Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-47182-6

Bremberg, N. (2010). Security, governance and community beyond the European Union: Exploring issue-level dynamics in Euro-Mediterranean civil protection. Mediterranean Politics, 15(2), 169–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/13629395.2010.485039

Bremberg, N., Sonnsjö, H., & Mobjörk, M. (2019). The EU and climate-related security risks: a community of practice in the making? Journal of European Integration, 41(5), 623–639. https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2018.1546301

da Conceição-Heldt, E., & Meunier, S. (2014). Speaking with a single voice: Internal cohesiveness and external effectiveness of the EU in global governance. Journal of European Public Policy, 21(7), 961–979. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2014.913219

Ekengren, M. (2018). A return to geopolitics? The future of the security community in the Baltic Sea Region. Global Affairs, 4(4–5), 503–519. https://doi.org/10.1080/23340460.2018.1535250

European Commission. (n.d.). Tunisia. Retrieved August 16, 2018, from https://ec.europa.eu/neighbourhood-enlargement/neighbourhood/countries/tunisia_en

Gaub, F. (2019). Global Trends to 2030: Challenges and Choices for Europe. Retrieved from https://ec.europa.eu/assets/epsc/pages/espas/index.html

Gaub, F., & Popescu, N. (2015). The EU Neighbours 1995-2015: Shades of Grey (Chaillot Paper No. 136). Paris. https://doi.org/10.2815/732626

Glover, A., & Müller, J. M. (2015). Evidence and Policy in the European Commission: Towards A Radical Transformation. In Future Directions for Scientific Advice in Europe (pp. 33–41). Cambridge: Centre for Science and Policy. Retrieved from http://www.csap.cam.ac.uk/media/uploads/files/1/future-directions-for-scientific-advice-in-europe-v10.pdf

Keukeleire, S. (2003). The European union as a diplomatic actor: internal, traditional, and structural diplomacy. Diplomacy & Statecraft, 14(3), 31–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/09592290312331295556

Keukeleire, S., & Delreux, T. (2014). The Foreign Policy of the European Union (1st ed.). Palgrave Macmillan. Retrieved from https://books.google.se/books?id=Q4odBQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Keukeleire, S., & Justaert, A. (2010). Structural Diplomacy, Contextual Difference, and the Process of Learning. In UACES 40th Annual Conference. Bruges: UACES. Retrieved from https://www.uaces.org/documents/papers/1001/keukeleire.pdf

Keukeleire, S., & Justaert, A. (2012). EU Foreign Policy and the Challenges of Structural Diplomacy: Comprehensiveness, Coordination, Alignment and Learning. DSEU Policy Paper, 12. Retrieved from http://dseu.lboro.ac.uk/Documents/Policy_Papers/DSEU_Policy_Paper12.pdf

Keukeleire, S., Keuleers, F., & Raube, K. (2016). The EU, structural diplomacy and the challenge of learning. In M. Smith, S. Keukeleire, & S. Vanhoonacker (Eds.), The Diplomatic system of the European Union: evolution, change and challenges. London; New York: Routledge.

Maggi, E.-M. (2016). Actor-centered Europeanization. In E. M. Maggi (Ed.), The will of change: European neighbourhood policy, domestic actors and institutional change in Morocco (pp. 13–22). Wiesbaden: Springer.

Marks, G. (1996). An actor-centred approach to multi-level governance. Regional & Federal Studies, 6(2), 20–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/13597569608420966

Scharpf, F. W. (2000). Institutions in Comparative Policy Research. Comparative Political Studies, 33(6–7), 762–790. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041400003300604

Šime, Z. (2018). Council of the Baltic Sea States : The Role of a Sustainable and Prosperous Region in Bringing Science Diplomacy Forward (EL-CSID Working Paper No. 19). Brussels. Retrieved from https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/7dd3ca_6f7f6a0617764ae2a6f57922e3de0f29.pdf

Van Langenhove, L. (2017). Tools for an EU science diplomacy. Luxembourg. Retrieved from https://publications.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/e668f8cf-e395-11e6-ad7c-01aa75ed71a1/language-en

van Lieshout, H. (2008). Different hands. Markets for intermediate skills in Germany, the. U.S. and the Netherlands. Groningen. Retrieved from https://research.hanze.nl/en/publications/an-actor-centered-institutionalist-approach-to-flexicurity-the-ex

The post The EU’s Diplomacy for Science in the Southern Neighbourhood: Setting a Research Agenda appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

The next ordinary meeting of the Subcommittee on Security and Defence (SEDE) is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 19 March 2024 from 11.30-12.30 and 15.00-18.30 in Brussels (room SPINELLI 1G3).

The meeting agenda and documents will be published here.

SEDE missions 2023:

• India - 17-21 December 2023
• Israel and OPT - 8-10 December 2023
  
• Germany and Poland - 24-26 July 2023
  
• Armenia - 19-22 June 2023
  
• Romania and Moldova - 15-18 May 2023
  
• Djibouti and Somalia - 1-4 April 2023
  
• Bosnia and Herzegovina - 20-23 February 2023
  

SEDE meetings' calendar 2024
EP calendar 2024
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

On 14 February, SEDE MEPs will hold an exchange of views with the NATO Deputy Secretary General Mircea Geoană on the security situation in the Black Sea, on the Eastern Flank and in the Western Balkans. This will be an opportunity to reiterate our unwavering support to Ukraine, two years after the start of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. ...
Enhancing the EU's CSDP Mission in Armenia will be discussed - in camera - with Stefano Tomat, Civilian Operations Commander and Managing Director for Civilian Planning and Conduct Capability, EEAS and Markus Ritter, Head of Mission of the European Union Mission in Armenia (EUMA). In addition, SEDE Members will discuss hybrid warfare and the "EU Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Threats-2023" with Aude Maio-Coliche, Director for Strategic Communication and Foresight at the EEAS.
Meeting agenda and documents
Webstreaming
Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP

At the press conference concluding the Special European Council, President Charles Michel highlighted that EU leaders agreed to reinforce the EU’s long-term budget with additional funding, including €50 billion in financial support to Ukraine. They also discussed military support to Ukraine and the situation in the Middle East.

The Council and the Parliament negotiators reached a provisional political agreement to amend current rules on European statistics. The rules provide the legal framework at EU level for the development, production and dissemination of European statistics.

Council and the Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the listing act, a package that will make EU public capital markets more attractive for EU companies and make it easier for companies of all sizes, including SMEs, to list on European stock exchanges.

Council and Parliament strike provisional deal on multiple vote sharing directive.