European Union

Spokespersons for Parliament and for political groups will hold a briefing on the 2 - 5 October plenary session on Friday at 11.00, in Parliament’s Anna Politkovskaya press room.

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

NATO and Ukraine's industries will meet in the war-torn country on Friday (29 September) to hammer out a joint plan for producing weapons for the battlefield, as Kyiv is increasingly struggling to replenish its stocks.

Dear readers, Welcome to EU Politics Decoded where Benjamin Fox and Eleonora Vasques will bring you a round-up of the latest political news in Europe and beyond every Thursday. In this edition we await the white smoke of an agreement...

On 2 October, ENVI Committee, in association with AFET, DEVE and ITRE Committees, will hold the hearing of Mr. Wopke Hoekstra, Commissioner designate for Climate Action, as part of the process to replace Executive Vice- President Frans Timmermans, following his resignation from the European Commission on 22 August.
During the hearing, Members will ask a series of questions to Mr Hoekstra, in order to evaluate his qualifications to carry out the specific tasks assigned. As a new member of the College, the hearing will also evaluate his general competence, European commitment and personal independence.
Live streaming Wopke Hoekstra hearing
Meeting agenda
Documents related to the evaluation of Wopke Hoekstra as commissioner-designate for Climate Action
Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

Undertaking a research project is a pleasurable and yet sometimes solitary enterprise. You spend much of your time reflecting on your ideas, reading your way through libraries, writing down your conclusions and putting everything together in a single document. Researchers, even in collective projects, often do this process on their own. This is a style of working that I got used to since starting my PhD at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris in September 2021 and that I learned to enjoy intellectually.  

In the wide world of academia, there is another specific moment which I equally learned to adopt and enjoy: conferencing and in particular international conferencing. In that regard, UACES has been a great help. A few weeks after attending the Graduate Forum in Barcelona, UACES provided me with financial support via its Microgrant programme to participate in the 2023 European Consortium for Political Research General Conference. 

The ECPR General Conference brought together around 2,000 academics from around the world in Prague for a few days to discuss a variety of contemporary political science research topics. I was selected as a presenter for the panel ‘Parties under Pressure: Party Divisions and Party Change’ chaired by Kristina Weissenbach. My paper ‘Johnson and “Let’s Keep Brexit Done”: The Impact of Conservative Party Management on the UK’s Policy on Europe’ covered elements of my PhD and specifically dealt with one of the statecraft theory dimensions by Jim Bulpitt that underpins my theoretical framework. 

 

My participation at the conference enabled me to present parts of my PhD to an international audience. The feedback received at the panel and subsequent informal discussions provided input to guide the further reflection for this paper and more widely for my PhD. It greatly complemented comments already received at other academic events and helped to identify the strengths as well as the current weaknesses of my approach that still need to be addressed.   

On a more personal note, the participation at this conference also allowed me to discover Prague. It was my first time in the city, and in Czechia, but I was so impressed by the history, architecture, culinary scene, and lifestyle that I will gladly come back. My recent transfer to Berlin means that Prague is reachable by train in under 5 hours. The ability to combine work and leisure only made this conference more stimulating. 

For all these reasons, I am particularly grateful to UACES for this Microgrant that made my participation at the ECPR 2023 General Conference possible. The funds helped me to complement the logistical costs and allowed me to fully focus on participating in the event. As a PhD student, I am thankful for this opportunity and I am happy to be able to contribute to such international conferences. They are really intellectually, professionally, and personally a major perk of academic life. 

 

 

More about the Microgrant Scheme:

The UACES Microgrant scheme is aimed at supporting research for our Early-Career and Individual Members.

The microgrants scheme will provide grants of between £100 and £500 to UACES members to assist them to cover the costs of undertaking their research. The grants are designed to recognise the challenges facing researchers at this time.

 

 

The post International Conferencing and the Perks of Academic Life appeared first on Ideas on Europe.

US Senator Bob Menendez pleaded not guilty on Wednesday (27 September) to charges of taking bribes from three New Jersey businessmen, while calls for his resignation from fellow Democrats are growing.

Newsletter - 2-5 October 2023 - Strasbourg plenary session

Source : © European Union, 2023 - EP

In Europe and in countries where coffee, cocoa, rubber, soy, palm oil, wood, beef and leather are produced, supply chain actors are busy preparing for the upcoming European Deforestation Regulation (EUDR)... Or they should be.

Belgium has launched a call for proposals to prepare its ports to import massive amounts of green hydrogen as part of its efforts to become a 'hydrogen gateway', Belgian Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten announced.

A few dozen companies from across NATO countries and partners have come together to address the growing threat to the alliance - the use of drones to hit military and infrastructure targets - as demonstrated by the events in Ukraine.

Ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh said on Thursday (28 September) they were dissolving the breakaway statelet they had defended for three decades, where more than half the population has fled since Azerbaijan launched a lightning offensive last week.

The declining rate of vaccinations for children in Amsterdam is causing concerns among policymakers, who are still puzzled as to whether this trend is related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Germany on Thursday (28 September) signed a deal to acquire the Israeli-made Arrow 3 hypersonic missile system that will become a key part of Europe's defence against air attack.

Austria has made a renewed push to support EU enlargement to the Western Balkans, naming possible policy areas for advancing 'gradual integration', according to a non-paper prepared for next week's informal EU summit in Granada, seen by Euractiv.

As the European Union finalises its hydrogen and gas rulebook, key issues remain on how to remunerate network operators for building and maintaining Europe’s future hydrogen grid.

The demand for sustainable mobility is growing rapidly while at the same time, the fight against climate change and atmospheric pollution has emerged as one of the paramount challenges for the European transportation sector.

The European right is leading agriculture to its grave, writes MEP Christophe Clergeau, calling for the immediate launch of a citizens' conference on the future of agriculture and food to reconsider the EU's farming policy.

Vasco Alves Cordeiro, president of the European Committee of the Regions, is advocating a revamp of the EU's regional policy so that it better supports all regions in addressing major challenges such as the green and digital transitions.

Slovakia's parliamentary elections on Saturday could bring former prime minister Robert Fico back into power. The populist politician, who is under investigation on suspicion of criminal activities, has vociferously positioned himself against support for Ukraine. Fico's Smer party has a narrow lead in the polls over liberal Progresívné Slovensko led by MEP Michal Šimečka. Europe's press stresses the importance of this vote.