Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence

(Recent Events Below)

The EU's Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture has awarded the University of Edinburgh a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. This award is in recognition of the leading role played by University of Edinburgh academics in the study of the European Union. The University of Edinburgh is the only Centre awarded in the UK for the 2010-13 period and one of only ten awarded in the EU for this period. The application was prepared by David Howarth, the Jean Monnet Chair, with the help of the Europa Steering Committee.  Dr. Howarth chairs the Centre of Excellence and manages its funds in coordination with the Europa Institute. The EU provides 75,000 euros of funding to the Centre over the three year period. While the Centre is distinct from the Europa Institute, its funds will be used to support and build upon the existing activities of the Institute, including the organisation of conferences, workshops, visiting speakers, visiting scholars and out-reach events.

In the 2011-12 academic year, funds will be earmarked to support the organisation of a conference on Island territories in the EU and beyond, academic workshops on Developments in Internal Market Law and the Europeanisation of Central and East European regions, and a PhD workshop on critical reflexions on EU Security.

Recent Events

Seminar on the Euro Crisis (audio podcast available)

Sponsored by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence in association with the European Parliament Office and the European Movement.

17.30 – 19.00 Wednesday 9 November 2011, Faculty Room North, David Hume Tower, George Square. Reception to follow.

The aim of the seminar was to consider how and why the Eurozone has arrived at the situation in which it now finds itself, to assess what is at stake and, looking ahead, to consider what economic and political consequences might follow different possible courses of action that Eurozone leaders might take.

Speakers:

John Purvis CBE, Conservative MEP 1979-84 and 1999-2009, former Vice Chairman of the European Parliament Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee (2001- 9)

Dr Jacques Cailloux, Chief European Economist, Royal Bank of Scotland

Professor Jacques Mélitz, Professor of Economics, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, formerly Professor at Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Paris.

Dr David Howarth, Jean Monnet Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Edinburgh University’s School of Social and Political Science.

Sub-national island jurisdictions in the European Union and Beyond

An international workshop was convened at the University of Edinburgh on 8-10 September 2011, to discuss the role of independence parties and movements in sub-national island jurisdictions in an age of European integration and globalisation. The workshop was funded by the Jean Monnet Chair and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence. The workshop brought together political activists and leading academics to discuss the strategies, modalities and dynamics of independence movements in the 21st century. There were 15 speakers, including academics from Australia, North America and Europe, an independence party official from Sardinia (Italy) and a Member of the Scottish Parliament for the Highlands and Islands. The workshop considered the opportunities and challenges to independence in the contemporary times, and compared and contrasted these with different expressions of sub-national jurisdictional autonomy. The papers first presented at this workshop, which have been revised for a Special Issue of the journal Comparative & Commonwealth Politics, investigated the role and impact of (nascent) nationalism in the context of domestic politics, as well as a broader political and economic federalism and supranational integration such as European integration. Further information about the workshop can be found here.

For further information on forthcoming Europa Institute events, please click here or contact Shirley Fraser, Europa Institute Administrator, or David Howarth.

Previous events / activities
In the 2010-11 academic year, funds were earmarked to support the organisation of a workshop on France and the European Union, a conference on EU environmental policy, a PhD conference on the political economy of European Integration, and two major visiting speakers, Martin Rhodes, from the University of Denver, and Waltraud Schelkle, from the London School of Economics. 

Further information will be added shortly.