Lecture Series / Brown Bag

Please join the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center on Friday, April 16, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET for a discussion on the decreased support for leftwing parties and the rise of rightwing populism in Europe. The event– co-sponsored by the Center for European Union, Transatlantic & Trans-European Space Studies (CEUTTSS) at Virginia Tech– will be based on Dr.

This talk will explore the transnational roots, debates, and conditions for the diachronic implementation of a game-changing policy: The EU’s Free Movement of Persons. Indeed, historical analysis and the normative legacies on human mobility rights can provide a deeper understanding of European integration and of current challenges related to EU migration and asylum policymaking. A Grubhub credit will be available to the first 20 people to register (only available within the U.S.)

The pandemic has hit Europe hard. Tough shutdowns and social distancing measures have caused an unprecedented drop in economic contraction, while the recovery has been slowed down by the surge in new variants. Despite a rocky start, however, vaccines are now being rolled-out and the EU is starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Large fiscal transfers and supportive monetary policy have cushioned the economic blow and the EU economy is expected to come out of this new crisis with a few scratches, but hopefully not the deep scars that characterised the European Debt Crisis.

EU DEMOCRACY FORUM – IMAGINE THE FUTURE Democracy cannot be taken for granted -- not in Europe, not anywhere. With this series of talks by experts on European politics and society we want to encourage discussion about the future of democracy in the European Union, its member states, and the neighborhood. As the EU Commission launches its Conference on the Future of Europe in 2021, we invite you to imagine this future with us. Our contributors will reflect on the EU’s achievements and challenges.

Success and Challenge for the EU External Cultural Relations with Guillaume Decot (European External Action Service), Damien Helly (Culture Solutions), Elke Selter (SOAS) Moderator: Kristin Hausler, Center for International Law, British Institute of International and Comparative Law Speakers will consider the possible opportunities in the EU-US relations offered by the new US presidency and the multi-year EU budget programming, including opportunities for dialogue and combined action in the field of cultural heritage in transatlantic relations and worldwide. #JMintheUS

EU DEMOCRACY FORUM – IMAGINE THE FUTURE Democracy cannot be taken for granted -- not in Europe, not anywhere. With this series of talks by experts on European politics and society we want to encourage discussion about the future of democracy in the European Union, its member states, and the neighborhood. As the EU Commission launches its Conference on the Future of Europe in 2021, we invite you to imagine this future with us. Our contributors will reflect on the EU’s achievements and challenges.

As part of the Year of Creating Europe, previous sessions have focused on different attempts to create unity through diversity across Europe. In this session, the focus is on Scandinavia. Our panel of experts discuss how this region created social cohesion and costs and benefits that come with it. In its efforts to make a nation that is diverse but coalesces, how has Scandinavia been able to create trust in it's institutions? Register Here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XYToCOtmTFS77ljMKleb7Q

France is often portrayed as a case of color-blind civic ‘assimilation’ despite a shift to ‘integration’ since the 1980s. However, the creation of institutions such as the High Council for Integration (1989-2013) and the first ever census-based survey on the assimilation of immigrants and their France-born children (Mobilité géographique et insertion sociale, Tribalat 1993) signaled starting from the 1990s the foregrounding of cultural differentiation in public life and the promotion of ethnic origin as a framework and primary principle of classification (Bertaux 2016:1496).

In the past year more people have become familiar with the graph of the epidemic curve than ever before. Beginnings, peaks and endings of COVID-19 occupy everyday discussions, inform policies, shape social interactions and provide bases for criticism and political action. What constitutes an ending, when that endpoint is and what might bring it about is more and more unclear, however.

#JMintheUS