News & events - EU Studies - Faculty of Humanities

Small states cannot ignore the fact that EU decision-making is becoming more intergovernmental,. Howvere, a small state cannot go back to how things were, but must adjust to the new situation

With the G20 meeting in London behind him, Drs. Wepke Kingma, director for European Integration at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, addressed the European seminar on the question of power and the strategy of small states in a time when the ‘community method’ of decision-making was becoming less relevant.

“Where we stand and where we are going” – New U.S. foreign policy under the Obama Administration –

On the 20th March, the European Seminar welcomed Mr. William Drozdiak, President of the American Council of Germany to give a lecture on the new U.S administration`s foreign policy approach and the state of transatlantic relationships.

Nout Welling on Central Banks and the global financial crisis

Dr. Nout Welling, President of the Dutch Central Bank on his return from a meeting in Basel assured the European Seminar, “Central bankers are doing things they have never done before. We are doing things I did not learn at school. In fact we are doing things that we were taught Central Bankers were not supposed to do.”

Common Agricultural Policy “black sheep” of EU policies?

Mr Ate Oostra confessed that European Union experts often look at the Common Agricultural Policy as the “black sheep” of EU policies. Its mechanisms and even more, the question of its budget have been greatly debated by both the academic and the political arena throughout the past decades of European integration.

“Everything is changing: economy, politics and ideologies. Keynes is alive again!”

Ms. Ieke van den Burg – Chair of the European Parliament Delegation of the Dutch Labour Party – opened the first European seminar of the second semester.

The Dutch may have voted 'no' to the draft constitutional treaty but knowledge of, and interest in, the EU is low

After the 2005 referendum, when the Dutch said “no” to the new EU Constitution, the academic world started to wonder about the reasons and the road that led to this fairly surprising event in the history of European integration.

Minister of European Affairs, Frans Timmermans, opens the Conference on the EU Neighbourhood Policy

On Friday 10 and Saturday 11 October 2008, an international conference on the EU Neighbourhood Policy was held in the Hague.

In the World of Sovereign States, the EU cannot remain a butterfly

The Second meeting of European seminar on 12 September in Campus Den Haag was addressed by the former the Minister of Economic Affairs and of Agriculture Professor Laurens Jan Brinkhorst, currently professor of International and European Law in Leiden. The subject of his address was The Need for the Quick implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, with special reference to the crisis in Georgia.

Dr. Bernard Bot opens the Academic Year

On 5 September 2008 Dr Bernard Bot (Director of the Netherlands Institute of International relations and former Foreign Minister) opened the academic year by conducting the first of the annual series of European Seminars.