Agenda

The Finnish Institute of International Affairs will launch its new flagship event FIIA Forum on the 30 of September 2020. The topic of FIIA’s main event of the year is geoeconomics: FIIA and the guest speakers will look at how the emerging tech and trade wars are taking us towards a Geoeconomic World Order.

“The key to security and wealth in our time is no longer the geopolitical control of physical territory, but the ability to control the economic links that connect the world,” says Dr. Mikael Wigell, the Director of the Global Security Programme at FIIA (pictured).

“In this age of hyperconnectivity, geoeconomics has become the new power politics. Western strategic lenses have yet to adjust to this new situation, in which interdependencies are weaponized for the pursuit of power politics.”

The event’s speakers include Dr. Thomas Wright from the Brookings Institution, Director Victor do Prado from the World Trade Organization, Visiting Research Professor Carla Norrlof as well as Programme Director Mikael Wigell from FIIA.

30 September 2020

During this two focused half-day hands-on workshops participants learn how to find their way through the ‘jungle’ of EU-related websites and discover how to identify official vs unofficial and reliable vs unreliable EU information sources.

1-2 October 2020

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CONFERENCE TALK, followed by Q&A

Welcome address by Rector Federica MOGHERINI 

Introductory remarks by Professor Dr Inge GOVAERE, Director of the European Legal Studies Department

The event is compulsory for all LAW students and will be livestreamed for all other students and staff in Bruges and Natolin (including interaction Q&A), and for external guests (without Q&A). The link for the livestream will be made available on the website of the College of Europe before the event.

Learn more here.

The European Union’s diplomatic efforts and external representation are inherently different from the Member-States’ external policies. The EU, with its strong background in peace mediation and public diplomacy, can be considered a unique diplomatic entity and a fascinating study-object.

This three-day interactive course is designed for the participants to learn about EU diplomacy, to share experiences and to improve their diplomatic skills. After a short introduction to the EU's external affairs and the European External Action Service (EEAS), the course will focus on relevant diplomatic skills. Practical sessions and exercises on political reporting, effectively communicating across cultures, and political analysis will add to the participants’ knowledge and skillset.

All modules are delivered by high-level experienced professionals in the field of European and national diplomacy, reporting, communication and negotiations. The programme is designed to be as interactive as possible; active participation is required and networking opportunities are strongly encouraged throughout the course.

5-7 October 2020

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How to navigate the EU’s diplomatic waters? Reporting, communicating and negotiating

The College of Europe Development Office is organizing a specialized training course on the main policy issues of EU external relations, at the Bruges campus on 5-7 October 2020. To provide participants with valuable insight into the workings of the EEAS, the seminar will cover the complexities of EU external affairs through a dynamic and comprehensive approach, offering workshops, case-studies and debates. It will be delivered by a faculty of excellence, consisting of distinguished academics and practitioners.

Learn more here.

In the framework of the Master of Arts in Transatlantic Affairs (MATA) programme, offered jointly with The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, the College of Europe organises its fourth (virtual) High-Level Lecture on Transatlantic Affairs on 9 October 2020.

The lecture will be delivered by Dr Fiona HILL, who is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council. Prior to joining Brookings, Hill was director of strategic planning at The Eurasia Foundation in Washington, D.C. From 1991 to 1999, she held a number of positions directing technical assistance and research projects at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, including associate director of the Strengthening Democratic Institutions Project, director of the Project on Ethnic Conflict in the Former Soviet Union, and coordinator of the Trilateral Study on Japanese-Russian-U.S. Relations. Among many other publications, she is the co-author of Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin (Brookings Institution Press, 2015).

Dr HILL will address the topic: "Resetting Transatlantic Relations". Her lecture will be transmitted live from Washington, DC.

The lecture will be preceded by a Welcome Address by the Rector of the College of Europe, Federica MOGHERINI.
Rector MOGHERINI will also kick off the debate about the lecture, before opening the floor for a Q&A session.

Students and staff of the College of Europe can follow the event from the auditorium, but need to register to reserve a seat. These are limited, so when full, please register as an "other participant" using the link below.
Other participants are cordially invited to participate in this event remotely via WebEx. This also requires prior registration.
Both the participants in the auditorium and the online audience will be able to submit questions to the speaker.

The registration deadline is 6 October 2020, 10:00.

Learn more here.

This interactive course is delivered by  experienced professionals and designed for participants to learn about EU economic governance, and how fluctuations in the financial markets in recent years have impacted the economies of the individual countries of the euro-area as well as its central governance at EU-level.

Online, 12-14 October 2020

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In 2018, on the occasion of its 40^th anniversary, the Journal of European Integration inaugurated the practice of inviting a leading scholar to give the JEI Annual Lecture. Previous lectures were given by Dr Nathalie TOCCI (IAI Rome, 2018) and Professor Kalypso NICOLAIDIS (Oxford University, 2019).

The 2020 JEI Annual Lecture will be given by Professor Sven BISCOP on 15 October 2020 at the College of Europe (Bruges) and via a dedicated livestream. The event will be organized jointly with the organisers of the “EU in International Affairs” conference whose 2020 event was originally intended to include the annual lecture as a keynote address. The title of the lecture is: “No Peace from Corona: Defining EU Strategy for the 2020s”.

Learn more here.

The annual high-level "EU Diplomacy Lecture", organised by the EU International Relations and Diplomacy Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges, will look at the role of the European Union in peace processes. Ambassador Roland Kobia, EU Special Envoy for Afghanistan, will share his insights on how peace processes really work in practice, with their achievements and their failures, and the lessons to be learned. Rector Federica Mogherini will deliver a welcome address. External participants can follow the event via the livestream provided on the event’s website:

Learn more here.

This four-day seminar gives a thorough introduction to trade law and policy and the WTO. The programme includes a broad overview of the sources and basic principles of international trade law, as well as its main actors and subjects. It offers participants a comprehensive analysis of the types of bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements as well as EU’s trade policies in a geopolitical sense.

Online, 19-22 October 2020

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The programme is recommended for officials, lobbyists, consultants, translators, information and communication managers and other professionals wishing to become more efficient in finding, discerning, and understanding information on the EU.

Online, 29-30 October 2020

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Towards effective negotiations with and within the EU

The purpose of this seminar is to train professionals to become strategic and effective negotiators. It will enhance negotiation and communication skills that are used in interactions of different actors both between and within EU institutions, by means of interactive training sessions, workshops and simulation games.

Learn more here.