Jean Monnet Chair in Parliamentary Democracy and European Integration
The seventh edition of the Jean Monnet Chair in Parliamentary Democracy and European Integration newsletter.
News
We are delighted to welcome Mr Luc Tholoniat, Director for the co-ordination of economic policies of the member states in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs and former member (2014-19) of Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker's cabinet, to the Chair's Advisory Panel. He tweets at @LucTholoniat
Recent events
The first three events of this academic year were focused on a diverse set of issues. The first took place on 20 September 2022, was co-organised by Dr David Styan of Birkbeck's Dept. of Politics and focused on Europe's ports, bringing together established as well as younger scholars.
The second took place on 24 and 25 November 2022 and was an author's workshop on the politicisation of EU executive leadership selection. This international collaborative project is directed by Matilde Ceron (EUI), Thomas Christiansen (LUISS Guido Carli, Rome) and Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos (Birkbeck). Scholars from several European universities gathered at Birkbeck to present the first versions of their papers and receive feedback on them. The corresponding book will be published in early 2024 by Palgrave/Springer. But prior to that the final versions of the papers will be presented at the second and final workshop at Birkbeck on 24-25 April 2023. The latter event will be accessible (subject to registration which will be free but required) live via the internet.
On 14 January 2023 we also held the annual Saturday School on Parliamentary Democracy and European Integration for Politics and Government A-level pupils and their teachers.
Forthcoming events
Our next event is organised jointly with Birkbeck's Centre for British Public Life and will take the form of a public lecture on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement which is largely based and builds on the two countries' (then) membership of the EU. It will be delivered by Prof. Katy Hayward (QUB) on 23 March 2023. Reservation is free but also required. The link to the booking page will be circulated shortly via our Twitter account.
Plans for the events that will take place during the summer term will be announced in the next edition of our newsletter. They include (but are not limited to) the second authors' workshop of the aforementioned research project (24-25 April) as well as the 3rd annual Jean Monnet lecture that will be delivered by Enrico Letta, Prime Minister of Italy from 28 April 2013 till 22 February 2014, who is currently the Secretary (Leader) of Italy's Partito Democratico and President of the Jacques Delors Institute – NOTRE EUROPE, the think tank founded by the French former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors. He tweets at @EnricoLetta. His lecture will be entitled In defence of the Spitzenkandidaten system. Registration for both events will be free but required. The link to the booking page will be circulated shortly via our Twitter account.
Teaching
A total of 11 students registered to attend the first two Jean Monnet modules ((namely Comparative European Politics: Europeanisation, Contestation, Integration at the undergraduate level, and one, The Political System of the European Union at the postgraduate level) this year. Teaching on the first of these modules was completed on 16 December 2022 with students reporting very high rates of satisfaction with our provision. As of this year, our postgraduate provision is split into two so as to fit in Birkbeck's new mode of module delivery that entails 10-week as opposed to 18-week modules. Student numbers have dropped as part of a broader recruitment problem at Birkbeck but they appear to be higher for the two modules that are taught in term 2 of this year.
Research
Dr D. G. Dimitrakopoulos has continued his work on the Spitzenkandidaten system and, in particular, how each European party federation selects its Spitzenkandidat. This is part of the aforementioned collective project that he co-directs along with colleagues from EUI and LUISS and will be presented at the forthcoming workshop that we will host at Birkbeck on 24-25 April 2023.