European Union

Chinese and Russian officials stood shoulder to shoulder with Kim Jong Un as they reviewed North Korea's latest nuclear-capable missiles and new attack drones at a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korean state media showed on Friday (28 July).

Sacrificing the EU’s agriculture productivity on the altar of its sustainable farming ambitions risks creating tensions on the global stage as the rest of the world cannot compensate for a reduction in the bloc’s output, according to a United Nations (UN) expert.

Ukrainian forces pressed their counteroffensive through the Russian-occupied southeast on Thursday (27 July), capturing the village of Staromaiorske in a campaign to drive a wedge through Russian defensive positions.

For the first time, campaigners have proclaimed Friday 28 July 2023 as the date when the amount of plastic produced globally exceeds the capacity of waste management systems to absorb it, a move aimed at raising awareness about the issue.

The EU has no money in the budget and no clear way to help finance the extra transport costs Ukrainian grain exports will face with the end of the Black Sea deal, leaving an opportunity for Moscow to cash in.

Representatives from various African and Caribbean entities joined forces at a historic event this week in the capital of Barbados, Bridgetown, to demand reparations for slavery and its legacy in today's society.

US President Joe Biden met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni at the White House on Thursday (27 July), vowing to deepen economic ties and strengthen cooperation on challenges posed by China, but skirted differences over LGTBQ rights.

The sudden toppling of the EU's main ally in the Sahel has punctured Western schadenfreude on Russia's Africa-summit flop.

A leading French artist rights organisation has expressed solidarity with 160,000 US actors on strike and fears about Artificial Intelligence taking their jobs, in an open letter to the Ministry of Culture.

EU lawmakers have accused the European Commission of ignoring ‘grave violations’ of human rights in its ‘cash for migrant control’ agreement with Tunisia in a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen published on Thursday (27 July). 

Reforms undertaken as part of the European Green Deal, including the recent update of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), are helping to accelerate the EU's decarbonisation, write Gabriel Papeians and Stefan Feuchtinger.

The European Central Bank raised interest rates for the ninth consecutive time even as the risk of recession is growing.

In this extremely hot summer, wildfires are raging in many countries across our continent, especially in the south. We usually blame them on climate change and extreme weather.

DRAFT REPORT on the implementation of the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument – Global Europe
Committee on Foreign Affairs
Committee on Development
Michael Gahler, Pedro Marques, Charles Goerens, Tomas Tobé

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

July 2023 is expected to become the warmest month ever recorded, with global temperatures approximately 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels. And this is just a "foretaste of the future", the World Meteorological Organization warned.

The new German hydrogen strategy takes itself and the EU closer to the front of the pack, but to close the deal, European Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic is needed, writes Jorgo Chatzimarkakis. Jorgo Chatzimarkakis is the CEO of the industry...

The German government has adopted a regulation extending the scope of the country’s mandatory origin label for meat after agriculture minister Cem Özdemir said the European Commission did not deliver on its promise for an EU-level proposal.

The EU has given the green light to Berlin to provide €40 million in state support to construct the country’s first on-shore LNG terminal that will increase security of gas supply and is expected to operate into 2044.

Germany wants to ramp up export credits for climate-friendly technologies while cutting back support for polluting ones, but without phasing out public funding for fossil fuels entirely, prompting criticism by environmentalists.

 

Between March and June 2023, I completed a RENPET-funded research stay at the KU Leuven Faculty of Social Sciences, within the Leuven International and European Studies department” (LINES). By embarking on this residency halfway through my PhD, I sought to get more acquainted with the top-tier research carried out at LINES and gain access to KU Leuven’s outstanding facilities all over Belgium, which include extensive bibliographic resources. 

 

During my stay, I took advantage of the institution’s proximity to Brussels: I conducted interviews with public officials from EU institutions and attended various international academic conferences and research seminars. My residency was very rewarding – and even surpassed my expectations. 

 

A Variety of Experiences

 

Additionally, I had the opportunity to experience KU Leuven’s dynamic academic life, including the Research Day of the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Doctoral Programme. I also delivered a guest lecture with bachelor students from American University, as part of a joint programme involving this institution and KU Leuven. My lecture addressed the evolution of global health governance and the EU’s interaction with it, paying particular attention to the effect of crises like COVID-19. This complemented the programme’s overall focus on the EU’s responses to external shocks.  

 

Closer to the end of my stay, I presented a draft of a book chapter – which will be one of the components of my PhD – at a “LINES session”, in which early-career scholars affiliated with the department discuss their work in progress in an informal setting. I also engaged with LINES researchers and other RENPET members at the 2nd RENPET annual conference, which took place at my home institution (IBEI) in late May-early June. This event allowed me to obtain additional feedback on my research.  

 

My RENPET residency at KU Leuven has been instrumental in propelling my PhD forward. During my stay, I finalized my first PhD article and submitted it to an academic journal, completed the first draft of a co-authored book chapter, and started working on the third component of my PhD – a journal article within a Special Issue to which other LINES and RENPET researchers will also contribute. In more formal terms, my three-month research stay in a prestigious university abroad will render me eligible for an International Mention, an honorary qualification awarded in the Spanish system that will add value to my PhD diploma. 

 

My gratitude goes to…

 

I am very grateful to Dr Kolja Raube (my host at the LINES department) and Dr Katja Biedenkopf (the coordinator of LINES) for warmly welcoming me and assisting me at every step, including in the months prior to my arrival. Special thanks also go out to Charlotte Debeuf (my wonderful office mate), Franziska Petri (my friendly office neighbour and fellow commuter from Brussels), and the rest of professors and colleagues from the LINES department. I would also like to extend my appreciation to Ingrid De Wachter, Greet Louw and Amin Mirabdollah for their kind and resourceful support in various capacities. Finally, I would like to thank UACES and RENPET for their generous sponsorship and for presenting early-career scholars with this valuable opportunity, among many others. 

 

More About the Author

 

Óscar Fernández is a PhD candidate in the program Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, under the supervision of Dr. Robert Kissack. He obtained a predoctoral contract from the H2020 research project ENGAGE (Envisioning a New Governance Architecture for a Global Europe). His fields of interest are the European Union’s external action, global health governance, international security, and conflict management. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Pompeu Fabra University, a Master’s degree in Advanced European and International Studies from the Centre International de Formation Européenne, and a Master’s degree in Internationalization from the University of Barcelona. Prior to joining IBEI, he was senior researcher at the EsadeGeo Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics and junior researcher at the World Health Organization. 

 

 

The RENPET network invites applications from PhD students and Early-Career Researchers (within 5 years of their PhD) working in EU Foreign Policy, EU external relations or related fields to apply for bursaries to support an extended residency (2-3 months) at one of the network institutions. Find out more on the RENPET website. Apply for a residency via the UACES website.  

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