Published on by Tamas Matura | Comments Off on Central Europe and China: what does the next generations of leaders think?
A contribution by Tamas Matura (ESSCA Budapest). Even though the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and most Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries established diplomatic relations as soon as 1949, the Cold War made them drift away from each other. Only the last decade has brought new momentum to the bilateral relations between the two sides, […]
Published on by Albrecht Sonntag | Comments Off on Schengen and the Refugee Crisis: Lessons for the East African Commmunity
A guest contribution by Moses Onyango and Jean-Marc Trouille. In many parts of the world, geopolitics are confronted with two anti-nomic trends. On the one hand, numerous countries are engaged in a process of regional economic integration, epitomised by the more advanced model of the European Union (EU), and which requires ‘internal’ borders between participating […]
Published on by Albrecht Sonntag | Comments Off on More than a car accident
The Volkswagen emissions scandal has many dimensions, some of which have not even started to unfold yet. The sheer perversity of the software used by the company with the aim of hiding the real level of nitrogen oxide emissions of its cars is most likely to become a textbook case of corporate hubris and cynicism […]
It is difficult not to be impressed by the remarkable breadth and multidisciplinary outreach of contemporary European Studies that was exposed at the UACES conference in Bilbao. Paper and panels were fed and underpinned by the political sciences, but also by economics, law, sociology and anthropology. Yet the newspapers read during the return flight from […]
I have been crossing the river Rhine north of Strasbourg between Iffezheim (Germany) and Roppenheim (France) for as long as my driving licence can remember. In the late 70s and early 80s, passport control and the usual question whether there was anything to declare were part of the ritual (although in a much more relaxed […]
Published on by Albrecht Sonntag | Comments Off on An antidote to any nostalgia of ‘grandeur’ or ‘glory’
There’s of course nothing wrong with the commemoration of historical battles. Quite the contrary: each time I took students to the D-Day landing beaches in Normandy, they got a better idea of why European integration might actually be a good idea. And most of the four-year-long commemorative flow on World War I is produced, if […]
Published on by Frauke Austermann | Comments Off on 40 years – the age of maturity?
These days, the People’s Republic of China and the European Union celebrate the 40th anniversary of their diplomatic relationship. At the age of 40 one might assume that this relationship has indeed ‘grown up’ by now. But has it, really? Here are three indicators supporting this view and three against it: FOR: China established diplomatic relations in 1975 with the […]
Published on by Albrecht Sonntag | Comments Off on Brussels will be ‘sexy tomorrow’!
At least that’s the forecast of ‘The Supplement’, a popular Sunday afternoon programme on French television (Canal+). Each week, it includes a trendspotting clip named ‘sexy tomorrow’, introducing a someone or something that may become a game changer. In the edition of 26 April, the game changer was ‘Politico’, the American news site that just […]
Published on by Albrecht Sonntag | Comments Off on Undiscouraged, but also uninspired
This is the second of two blogposts on Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The first one is available here. Ten years after the premature death of his constitutional treaty, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, now aged 89, is still an undiscouraged believer in the European project. Concerned by the current crisis of the European Union, he proposes in a […]
Published on by Albrecht Sonntag | Comments Off on 10 years ago: Giscard defends the constitutional treaty at ESSCA
Ten years ago, in mid-April 2005, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing came to Angers in order to exchange with ESSCA students. Just six weeks before the French referendum on the constitutional treaty his visit was part of a campaign for an increasingly uncertain ‘yes’ vote. Given his role in chairing – with diplomatic skills and political know-how – the European Convention […]
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