“Integrated education” in Europe: EU’s attempts to make European-wide universities

Views: 1087The idea of “European Universities” has become already a key building block for the European integration efforts in the continent’s education sphere. Starting with 17 EU-universities a couple of years ago, the EU-wide “university clusters” presently are enlarged to 41; they are involving 280 institutions in the EU-27 and around. The initiative is backed […]

After extraordinary July-2020 summit: a second opinion

Views: 137  The outcomes of the extraordinary EU-27 summit (17-21.07.2020) are still being discussed in the EU’s capitals. Some winners and losers have appeared already through political dialogues; the European integration has always been about giving some states advantages setting others –for a while- in a backward position, though not visible from the start.   […]

EU’s “next generation” plan: efforts in assisting socio-economic recovery

Views: 92Greatest concern in the EU member states during this July was the Union’s new multi-annual financial framework (MFF-2027), as well as the issues of the continental socio-economic recovery in the post-pandemic crisis’ period: the so-called “Next Generation EU” plan. The latter is to provide an unprecedented support for national green and digital priorities in […]

European food quality: national policies through modern challenges

Views: 58Modern European and global challenges affect all spheres of Union’s integration including such seemingly distant sectors as agro-products and foodstuffs’ quality. European food is famous in the world for being safe, nutritious and of high quality. Besides, national traditional production methods shall contribute to the EU’s objective of becoming a global leader for sustainability […]

Facing the summit: EU’s political economy discussed at an extraordinary meeting

Views: 72The first face-to-face meeting of the EU leaders in almost half a year is taking place this week-end. The summit is extraordinary, as the deals to reach are of such importance and dimension that they couldn’t be made online. Two important issues are under discussion during a first summit under German Presidency in the […]

Youth in the labour market: EU’s “bridge to jobs” initiative

Views: 67One of the biggest problems in most of the EU member states is employment and, in particular, among young people. The problem’s vital component is education and training youth to future work’s enrolment; here an EU’s support is limited to coordination and recommendation, as education is an almost exclusively the competence of the member […]

Expert comment: Germany’s Presidency of the Council of the European Union

Views: 94  Under the motto “Together for Europe’s Recovery“, the German government has formulated a very comprehensive (25 pages) and very ambitious programme regarding the focus areas for the country’s Presidency period (1 July to 31 December 2020): – overcoming the corona-virus crisis and economic recovery; – a stronger and more innovative Europe; – a […]