Volume 1 Issue 1

A television documentary on the Europaeum has been prepared by Deutsche Welle, the German equivalent of BBC World Service Television, under the title 'European Studies at Oxford'.

"The Leiden-Oxford Consultative Committee for Philosophy and other Humanities is preparing a seminar, to be held in Leiden in the coming year, on the specificity of European culture. The seminar, for selected students from Leiden and Oxford, will be taught in English by international scholars and co-ordinated by Professor Wim Blockmans of the Leiden History department.

Bologna is in the process of establishing a number of scholarships for students wishing to attend Europaeum courses at Oxford.

One scholarship will assist a postgraduate student intending to enrol in the MPhil in European Politics and Society; three are forshorter periods (one term) for students preparing the `laurea' (first degree thesis). One of the latter is sponsored by the Fondazione Schiavi of Forli, and is reserved for students taking the degree course in International Relations, based in the Forli campus of the University of Bologna.

Professor Basil Markesinis, Professor at University College London and the University of Leiden, has been appointed to the new Chair of European Law. Professor Markesinis, acknowledged as a driving force in the development of Comparative Law, will also Direct the Centre for the Advanced Study of European and Comparative Law and play a key role in the University's Europaeum initiative. He will be a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and take up his post in October.

The Chancellor of the University of Oxford, Lord Jenkins, received an honorary degree in Political Science from Europe's oldest university, Bologna, in November last year in a ceremony that reinforced bonds between these two Europaeum partners.

The citation read by Professor Paolo Pombeni, Head of Department of Politics and History, praised the Chancellor as 'a man of study and a man of politics, the Weberian individual who lives for and not by politics, someone devoted to a vision of Europe understood in terms of the common European roots of modern Constitutions'.

"Professor John Burrow, the new Flick Professor of European Thought, visited Leiden University on 24 to 26 January for discussions with Leiden faculty, including the Rector and Dr Peter Floor, about possible faculty exchanges under the auspices of the Europaeum between Oxford and Leiden. Various options were considered, including brief visits and contributions to existing taught courses, and the presentation of special Europaeum seminar courses within the identified disciplines of Philosophy, Politics and History, Law and Economics.

The Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, established more than sixty years ago to promote European peace and co-operation, will formally join the Europaeum as the fifth member of the network in a special ceremony at the University of Bonn to be held on 18 May.

The admission of Geneva as a Europaeum partner, approved by the Europaeum Committee at its meeting in Oxford last December, will provide a new focus on international relations.

Student members of the Leiden Europaeum Committee which, together with their Oxford colleagues, organized the 1994 Europaeum Student Conference, have established a new Foundation to assist with fund-raising in support of Master's and PhD level integrated courses in European Studies.

HRH Prince Constantijn of the Netherlands, who graduated in Law from Leiden recently, a founder member of the Committee, has expressed his willingness to play a part in supporting this activity.

The Europaeum network will be officially unveiled on 18 May as a new project of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat Bonn to educate future European leaders in co-operation with other major European universities, by faculty and student exchange, by organising conferences and workshops, and eventually by preparing a joint degree.

"Graduate students, twelve each from Oxford and Leiden, attended a Europaeum Law Symposium in Leiden from 4 to 6 January on the theme of 'The Place of European Community Law in the National Legal Order'.
The Oxford delegation was led by Mr Paul Davies, Chair of the Law Board, and Dr Mark Freedland, Director of Graduate Study, while the Leiden delegation was chaired by Professor Henry Schermers, Professor of Human Rights.

Five Leiden law professors -van den Burg, Zwalve, Alkema, Drupsteen and Rood - participated in the sessions.

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The University of Bologna is to host the 1995 Summer School scheduled for 13-23 September at the new Erasmus College in Bologna. The School will focus on ''The problem of political leadership between history and science''.

The University has given a further boost to the Europaeum by agreeing to ensure the future of the post of Director of the Centre for European Politics, Economics and Society – a linchpin of Oxford's current European studies work. The University will continue to seek external funding for this professorial level post currently held by Professor Jack Hayward, but the post will now be safeguarded whatever the outcome of such endeavours.

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The main Europaeum bodies, the Committee for the Europaeum, the Founders'' Council, and the Board of Management of the European Studies Fund, met in Oxford on 13 December last year.

The Europaeum Committee, chaired by Professor Sir Richard Southwood in the absence of the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, Dr Peter North, made significant progress in discussing academic developmental needs for the initiative and approved:

Secretary

Peter Floor acquired international experience initially as a geologist. His doctorate described an area near Vigo, North-western Spain. In 1972, he left the department of petrology and mineralogy to join the Leiden University offices. In 1987, he became director, charged with academic affairs, and represented his university as chairman of the Steering Committee of the the Coimbra Group, a position to which he has been re-elected several times.

Bonn's planned Centre for European Integration Research, which will focus on Advanced European Studies in Law, Economics, Political Sciences and Cultural Integration, will come into operation early next year. The University's founding committee recently completed its work on a concept for the Centre which will be put before the University Senate in May.