Eurozone

As Greece teeters and economists worry about contagion, this year's annual debate for Europaeum students is on theme of Do we still need the € ? Four Europaeum graduates are invited to take part in the debate in front of 200 participants attending the Political Forum on Open Societies, Open Economies and Common Identities at the Institute of Political Studies at the Catholica University of Portugal (IEP-UCP). The Forum brings together distinguished speakers, scholars, policy-makers, businessmen, opinion leaders, journalists and a multi-national collection of students to engage in the most topical issues of the day. This year the Europaeum will also hold its annual Academic Council during the event so that more Europaeum academics can also take part. As usual it is chaired by Dr Paul Flather, the Secretary-General, who is also speaking at the Forum.

Click here for the Debate Poster. For the full conference programme please click here.

European Parliament, Image: Matt Banks

The Europaeum organised another special graduate workshop on Europe and Leadership, hosted by Leiden University from November 11–13th 2011. Questions included: Does Europe still yearn for new 'Giants' to lead it through its crisis ? What is the role for EC President, Commissioners, Council and Parliament ? What leadership role for Europe in the world ? How has leadership failure contributed to current crises ? How should we balance Brussels and national leadership ? We also explored how Europe can best secure stability and growth based on rational leadership and decision-making strategies.

Speakers included Richard Corbett (Member of Cabinet of Herman Van Rompuy); Alain Servantie (advisor to EC President); Abram de Swaan (University of Amsterdam); Richard Griffiths (Leiden University); Prof. Dr. Alexander Rinnooy Kan (Chair of Social-Economic Council of the Netherlands); Laurens Jan Brinkhorst (former Minister of Economic Affairs, Netherlands) and Chris Bickerton (Amsterdam / Oxford Universities).