Please find the blog here and a summary of the event below.

Summary of the event:

On Thursday, 23 November, CERiM had the honour of welcoming Dr. Alexander Stubb, the former Finnish Prime Minister and current Vice-President of the European Investment Bank, for our second Jean Monnet Lecture of the academic year. In his lecture entitled “The EU and the New World Order”, Stubb reflected on the development of international relations and global politics, highlighting three key dates that have changed international relations: 1945, 1989, and 2016.

Zooming in on 2016, which saw the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union and the election of Donald Trump, Stubb was concerned with the question: who will fill the power vacuum after the “fall of the Anglo-Saxon world”? Was it time for Europe to step in and if so, how?

In addition to the power vacuum, the world is facing a number of challenges. At the crux of his talk, Stubb identified three mega-trends that will shape and challenge Europe’s capacity to respond. The three mega-trends he focused on were, first, the rise of the aging population, second, increasing digitalisation and the growing role of technology, and lastly, climate change and its impact. Each mega-trend presents Europe with a unique set of challenges and opportunities.

By way of conclusion, Stubb outlined several ways in which Europe can take the lead in filling the power vacuum as well as taking on these mega-trends. He emphasised in particular the need to strengthen European and international institutions, a better engagement with evolving technology to effectively utilise its power, and continued support for international trade.

Despite these new set of challenges, Stubb is positive that things have changed for the better since the start of the European integration process. “Jean Monnet would be amazed at how far European integration has gone” and remains optimistic about the EU despite the ongoing crises affecting Europe, assuring the audience that “It will sort itself out”.

The next speaker CERiM looks forward to welcoming for a Jean Monnet lecture is the former German finance minister and 2013 candidate for Chancellor, Dr Peer Steinbrueck who will join us on 8 March 2018.

On 8 December 2017, CERiM will be holding a roundtable debate on “Debating the EU’s Future: Do we need institutional reforms? Will we get them?”. The future of the EU is uncertain. Given numerous developments such as the refugee crisis and Brexit, all in the past decade, these developments have challenged the EU’s capacity and ability to deal with them and have left Europeans and the world in doubt and anxious about the next steps. Join us for a thought-provoking debate on how the EU can move forward in these times of crises.

The event is organised following the end of the Europe Calling initiative celebrating 25 years of the Maastricht Treaty.

The roundtable is chaired by Thomas Christiansen and the speakers are:

•    Deirdre Curtin, Professor of EU Law, European University Institute
•    Edward Best, Head of Unit, European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA)
•    Graham Smith, Member of Cabinet of the European Ombudsman
•    Wolfgang Wessels, Director of the Centre for Turkey and European Union Studies (CETEUS), University of Cologne

Event Timing: 10:15 – 13:00

Event Address: C-1.03 (Colloquium room 1), Tongersestraat 53 (School of Business and Economics), Maastricht

Registration is based upon a first-come, first-served basis: registration form.

For more information, please contact us at cerim@maastrichtuniversity.nl. Follow us on Facebook @Centre for European Research in Maastricht, Twitter @UM_CERiM, and our website at https://cerim.maastrichtuniversity.nl/events for the latest updates and changes to the event

The entrenchment of expert knowledge in legal and quasi-legal decision-making is a key feature in a wide variety of areas, ranging from economic and financial governance to environment, health and safety regulation, or more horizontally as regards digital technologies and data protection At the European, transnational and international levels, expert-based decision-making processes are being shaped increasingly through a diversity of institutions and stakeholders, including agencies, private-public partnerships, think tanks, regulatory networks, or, more generally, assemblages of different actors. The direct or indirect production of legally relevant decisions by experts, and their exercise of public authority in various guises, has been recurrently considered as problematic. In particular, enabling accountability for expert-based decision-making remains a thorny issue, which requires urgent clarification.

This workshop aims at dissecting some of the salient conceptual, legal and practical problems in establishing accountability of the expert decision-maker complex. It tackles in particular the apparent ‘paradox’ whereby formal mechanisms and processes in place may have a limited potential to enable effective accountability of the expert decision-maker complex, among others because of the ‘knowledge asymmetry’ hurdle between experts and accountability fora.

The workshop brings together top academics and practitioners to reflect on the possibilities and limits of establishing accountability for expert decision-making. Contributions combine discussions at a normative and conceptual level with more concrete and targeted investigations in the following areas: (1) Economic and Financial Governance; (2) Environment, Health and Safety Governance; (3) Internet, Digitization and Data Protection. The results of the workshop will generate a more systematic understanding of similarities and differences of institutional mechanisms by which experts can be and are called to account.

The workshop is a joint activity of the Rethinking the Rule of Law in an Era of Globalisation, Privatisation, and Multiculturalisation and the Research Project Rethinking Global Technocracy: An inquiry into the Accountability of Global Regulatory Scientific Institutions (GRSIs).

Date: 30 November – 1 December, 2017
Location: Erasmus School of Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Attendance of the event is free, but registration is required! You can find the programme and registration form here (bottom of page).

In 2017 the City of Maastricht, the Province of Limburg and Maastricht University commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the Maastricht Treaty by means of a series of events under the heading Europe Calling. The debate on the role of EU agencies in the future Europe takes place  within the framework of the Europe Calling programme.

What do EU agencies do? Do EU agencies need to be controlled more or better? Do EU agencies need to be more independent? Are EU agencies sufficiently transparent? Do EU agencies need to be merged? Is the model on which EU agencies are based in terms of expertise still sufficient for the future? Do EU agencies need to be spread geographically all over the EU? Do EU agencies need to connect more to citizens? Can EU agencies bring Europe closer to its citizens? These and many other questions will be discussed during this debate.

Event: (livestream)

12.45-13.15: Registration

13.15-13.30: Welcome by the Mayor of Maastricht and the Rector of Maastricht University

13.30-13.45: EU Agencies on the Move: The position of EU Agencies in the EU Institutional Landscape by Ellen Vos, Professor of EU law, Maastricht University

13.45-14.45: EU Agencies: Mission, Tasks and Future with presentations by:

• Berndt Körner, Deputy Executive Director, Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency
• Robert Wainwright, Executive Director, Europol
• Michael O’Flaherty, Executive Director, Fundamental Rights Agency
• Adam Farkas, Executive Director, European Banking Authority
• Alberto Spagnolli, Head of the Executive Office Unit, European Food Safety Authority

14.45-15.15: Coffee break

15.15-17.00: EU Agencies: Challenges Ahead (moderated by Ellen Vos, Maastricht University)

Round Table Discussion with directors of EU agencies and audience:

• Bernhard Url, chair of the EU Agencies Network and Executive Director of European Food Safety Authority
• Emily O’Reilly, European Ombudsman
• Jeroen Lenaers, Member of the European Parliament
• Pierpaolo Settembri, Assistant to the DG MOVE, European Commission
• Monique Goyens, Director General, European Consumer Organisation, BEUC
• Deirdre Curtin, Prof. of EU law, European University Institute
• Michelle Everson, Prof. of EU law, Birkbeck University, London University

17.00-18.00: Closing by Ellen Vos followed by a reception

EU Agencies

The European Union cannot be imagined without EU agencies; it simply cannot function without them. European agencies perform a key role in the European integration process. These agencies, denoted recently by the Council, Commission and Parliament as decentralized agencies, deal with complex technical and scientific issues by providing expertise, they introduce more, and more flexible, administrative capacity and efficiency. They facilitate, coordinate and strengthen cooperation between national authorities, (re)gain trust and credibility, improve implementation, supervision and increase networking and participation of more actors, such as stakeholders and citizens.

EU agencies adopt important legally binding decisions for both the European economy and its citizens, deciding about the registration of European trademarks, plant varieties and certain chemical substances as well as about the airworthiness of airplanes. And, where they do not have legally binding decision-making powers, they do influence EU decision making to a great extent, for example with their scientific opinions on the safety of foods and medicines, chemicals, most of which are followed by the European Commission. Even agencies that merely collect data play a key role, as this data gathering guides the EU in its policy and decision making.

EU agencies thus are critical for European integration, for the EU’s economy and the wellbeing of its citizen. With the mushrooming of EU agencies, and the agencification of EU executive governance, queries arise as regards the position of EU agencies within the EU institutional structure and their relation with the Member States; as well as their accountability, control and institutional co-ordination; all this against the background of the upcoming reform of the EU in the aftermath of Brexit.

International Relations and the European Union takes a unique approach by incorporating the study of the EU’s world role into the wider field of international relations. As the most comprehensive introduction to the EU’s international relations written by leading experts in the field, it is the key text for anyone wishing to understand the EU’s role in the contemporary world.

Beginning with an examination of theoretical frameworks and approaches, the book goes on to address the institutions and processes that surround the EU’s international relations. Key policy areas, such as security and trade, are outlined in detail, alongside the EU’s relations with specific countries, including the United States, China, India, and Russia.

Updates for the third edition include expanded discussions of three key perspectives to provide a rounded picture of the EU’s place in the international system: as a sub-system of international relations, as part of the process of international relations, and as a power in its own right.

For more information, visit the book’s website here.

Michael Geary, the current Programme Director, is leaving Maastricht University for a new position at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. Michael will remain Programme Director until the end of this calendar year.

For more information on the programme, please find it here.

The event is free and will be taking place at the Statenzaal, Faculty of Law (Boullionstraat 1-3) at 18:00 – 20:00.

DISCUSSANTS:

Prof. Bruno de Witte: Professor of European Union Law, Maastricht University

Prof. Aalt Willem Heringa: Professor of (Comparative) Constitutional and Administrative Law, Maastricht University

Prof. Jure Vidmar: Professor of Public International Law, Maastricht University

CHAIR:

Prof. Hildegard Schneider: Dean of the Faculty of Law, Maastricht University

On 28 September 2017, the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) and the Centre for European Research in Maastricht (CERiM) jointly organised a conference on “Thinking Europe Forward”, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Treaty of Maastricht. Bringing together politicians, academics and some 200 students from Maastricht University, the conference provided an opportunity to discuss current issues and future challenges confronting Europe.

The highlight of the day was the keynote lecture by EU’s High Representative and Vice-President of the European Commission, Federica Mogherini. In her speech, Ms. Mogherini shared her thoughts on the issues that the European Union has to face but also touched upon her personal experiences as a student. Her message to the UM students in the audience was about the importance of taking action and being engaged with European issues.

The conference was opened at the Gouvernment of the Province of Limburg, by Kings Commissioner, Governor of the Province of Limburg, Mr. Theo Bovens, and the Vice President of Maastricht University, Dr. Nick Bos. The former President of the European Parliament and current president of the KAS, Dr. Hans Gert Pöttering, gave the welcome speech on the importance of the European idea and the positive role of Europe’s youth.

The second part of the conference took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and consisted of four parallel workshops on some of the key issues of European affairs arising from the Maastricht Treaty and still remaining on the top of the agenda today: the reform of the Eurozone, the common foreign policy of the EU, the rise of populism, and role of the youth in the future of Europe. The debate in each workshop was introduced by an eminent speaker – Dr. Katharina Gnath (Senior Project Manager of the Bertelsmann Stiftung), Mr. René van der Linden (Former President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe), Prof. Gianfranco Pasquino (Professor Emeritus of Political Science University of Bologna) on populism, and Mr. Jeroen Lenaers (Member of the European Parliament) – who then discussed with the students how best to tackle the issues arising in these fields.  

After the workshops, a roundtable, chaired by CERiM Co-director Thomas Christiansen, brought the invited speakers together to debate the issues arising from the workshops with the audience. This engaging discussion concluded a day which provided unique opportunities for UM students to meet and actively debate the future of Europe with current and former decision-makers.

The conference was closed by Dr. Hardy Ostry, the Head of the KAS European Office in Brussels.

Snapshots of the Conference (Courtesy of KAS)

At the heart of his lecture, titled “Heroes and villains in European integration: The battle between Jacques Delors and Margaret Thatcher – and its meaning today”, Mr. Teasdale highlighted the struggle between former President of the European Commission (1995) and former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher on their views regarding the future of Europe as a united and democratic community. In response to Delors plans to instate the European Parliament as the democratic body of the European Community, among other plans to extend the Commission and the Council of Ministers’ powers over the 12 members of the European Community, Thatcher is famously remembered for answering with a resounding “No, no, no!”. Mr. Teasdale, whose professional career included being the Special Adviser to Sir Geoffrey Howe, the British Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, was present for the last three years of Thatcher as prime minister to witness the tumultuous struggle between what he considered “the two of the most important figures in the shaping of contemporary European integration and the European Union as we know it”.

Much like the issues raised around Brexit regarding sovereignty of nation states, democratic governance, the challenges of the single currency and market, and Europe as a united entity, Mr. Teasdale pointed out that such themes and topics are nothing new and that they have been debated since the 1950s when Jean Monnet started developments (Treaty of Rome, the European Communities, and sp forth) that eventually became the foundation for the European Union. Furthermore, these issues were also heavily debated between Delors and Thatcher. In some ways, Brexit can be seen as a continuation of competing visions between the European Union and the United Kingdom.

The lecture ended with a question-and-answer session with students and staff and Dr. Martin Westlake, a previous Jean Monnet speaker, was also present to respond to Mr. Teasdale. Professor Michael Shackleton gave the closing speech and announced the next speaker will be the former Prime Minister of Finland and current vice-president of the European Investment Bank, Alexander Stubb. The lecture will take place on Thursday, 23 November. The location will be announced shortly.