The European Union is becoming an ever more complex entity that is difficult to grasp even for practitioners. At the same time, the European integration project has lately been facing distinct challenges that affect the core of the EU’s policy-making capacity as well as the political commitment of its Member States. The culmination of recent events creates dilemmas that go much further than traditional ‘deepening’ or ‘expanding’ integration paradigm and push the European Union to embody its mission more convincingly.

This summer school’s primary objective is to explain the post-Lisbon regime, with a view to the just launched “Conference on the Future of Europe”, assess how the novelties introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon in various policy areas have proved themselves in practice and, finally, see what further modifications in institutional governance and the respective competencies are to be sought for to better equip the EU to respond to the current challenges.

More specifically, the summer school will tackle how the institutional structure of the EU could be enhanced to better adhere to the democratic principle. In that regard, the possibilities of designing new electoral laws for the elections of the European Parliament will be discussed in detail as well as the right of initiative as the cornerstone of the current ordinary legislative procedure. Then, the course will elaborate further on how the EU could effectively safeguard the Rule of Law in its Member States, especially in cases of backslidings. Later, the modules will also address, inter alia,  how the EU could further ensure the protection of Fundamental Rights in the EU, how the EU is to preserve the Eurozone (and whether to expand it), how to make the European Union Greener and how to fight effectively against the climate crisis. Moreover, the course will also make a distinct effort to explain what digital transformation entails, what policies are regulatory areas are the most affected by that process and how the European values regarding social justice and equality can be maintained in the meantime. Finally, the course will map out how make the EU more secure and what role the EU should play on the world stage. On that basis the summer school will make an attempt to see what could the major issues for both EU Member States and EU institutions be in making an attempt to redesign the EU at the Conference on the Future of Europe.

Who this course is for:

Experts from national administrations and EU Institutions; practitioners from various EU-regulated policy fields; and lawyers, consultants, journalists and other professionals dealing with the European Union who want to enhance their understanding of how the recent developments in the EU will have an impact on their work.

Course methodology and highlights:

Sessions will be conducted by two experts providing a short presentation followed by facilitated panel discussions, allowing for the exchange of ideas and addressing issues of concern based on case studies, where participants will be especially encouraged to share their respective experiences.