On 27-31 March 2017, TEPSA successfully organised the second edition of the PONT Working Europe Seminar. 17 Master and PhD students from different national and disciplinary backgrounds attended a series of high-level lectures and panel discussions, gaining first-hand insights from researchers, EU policymakers and officials, NGO workers and business representatives on the current top priorities and trends of EU policy and politics in the fields of climate, energy and the environment, with speakers from Bruegel, the European Commission, the Committee of Regions, the Council of European Energy Regulators, Business Europe and Greenpeace, among others. The seminar also included visits to the Council, the European Parliament and the European Commission’s DG Clima, with the Commission’s head of negotiations for COP 21.
On the last day of the seminar, students combined the theoretical and practical insights gained during the week in a simulation game led by Prof Dr Johannes Pollak, Academic Coordinator of the PONT Project. The exercise simulated European Council negotiations on a crisis in energy security, in which students performed the role of member state and EU representatives.
The seminar was organised by TEPSA and led by Prof Dr Jaap W. de Zwaan, Emeritus Professor of European Union Law at Erasmus University Rotterdam and Secretary-General of TEPSA.
The Working Europe Seminars (taking place once a year) are part of the PONT (Professional Training on EU Affairs) project, a project that aims at building a bridge connecting postgraduate students and young academics with EU practitioners, in order to improve their employability.
PONT enhances teaching and training activities in selected policy fields, with the objective to give postgraduate students and young academics the opportunity to develop their professional skills and prepare them for taking up a job in public administration, the EU institutions, NGOs, academia or think tanks across Europe. PONT is co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union.
The seminar report will soon be available on TEPSA’s website. Photos of the seminars are available on TEPSA’s facebook page.