T I M E STowards a common research culture

Academics shaping EU energy policy

A new chapter for the EU’s historical archivesPROFILES OPINIONS EVENTS

Spring 2013

times.eui.eu

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Welcome to the second edition of EUI Times, the quarterly electronic magazine pro-duced by the  European University Institute in Florence.In the first feature article, Dean of Graduate Studies Rainer Bauböck discusses the challenges of an international academic environment. In the second piece, we speak to those behind the THINK project about their innovative approach to advising the European Commission on energy policy, and the future of energy consumption.  Fi-nally, we focus on the Historical Archives of the European Union, which has recently been relocated and has a new director at its helm. In exploring the future possibilities for the Archives, including the digitisation of documents, we speak to the person behind its establishment nearly 30 years ago and those involved today.In this issues’ profile section, Professor Lucy Riall discusses how history can help explain Italy’s present-day political leaders. Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, who received a PhD grant from the Spanish government, talks about her work on violence against women and the rights of migrants. Alumnus Janos Volkai, now part of the World Trade Organization’s legal team, discusses his role and how his time at the Institute shaped his career choices.EUI Times’ expanded opinions section covers politics and war in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Lorenzo De Sio, former EUI Jean Monnet fellow, discusses the results of the Italian elections and what the country’s political instability means for the EU. Following the UK government’s promise of a referendum on EU membership, Professor Ulrich Krotz examines the impact an exit would have on the country and the Union as a whole. The director of the Migration Policy Centre, Philippe Fargues, asks why the EU is not doing more to welcome Syrian refugees. Olivier Roy, professor of Mediterranean Studies, takes a critical look at French intervention in Mali.In our events listing, we include details of a migration conference in Turkey and three in Florence which focus on international institutions, the euro zone and the current state of the EU. We also include the programme of summer schools offered by vari-ous departments and projects at the Institute.Lastly we turn our attention to EUI publications, highlighting among others two recent and two forthcoming books by Professor Donatella Della Porta.We hope you enjoy the spring issue of EUI Times and welcome your thoughts. Comments can be sent to times@eui.eu

Stephan AlbrechtskirchingerDirector, Communications Service

T I M E S

Features

4 TOWARDS A COMMON RESEARCH CULTURE An interview with EUI Dean of Graduate Studies Rainer Bauböck

Features

7 ACADEMICS SHAPING EU ENERGY POLICY An insight into a €2 million research project advising the European Commission

Features

10 A NEW CHAPTER FOR THE HISTORICAL ARCHIVES OF THE EU Innovative ideas for storing the history of Europe

Profiles13 Faculty

CREATING POLITICAL HEROES OVER 150 YEARS Lucy Riall

Opinions18 ITALIAN ELECTION RESULTS

- A CHALLENGE TO EU POLICY

Lorenzo de Sio

Profiles17 ALUMNI

INSIDE THE WTO Janos Volkai

22 Events

25 The State of the Union 26 Publications

Profiles15 Researcher

PROTECTING THE VULNERABLE WITH INTERNATIONAL LAW Dorothy Estrada-Tanck

Opinions19 BRITISH FLIRTATIONS WITH

DISTANCE AND EXIT IN A EUROPE OF CRISES

Ulrich Krotz

EUI TIMESSpring 2013

Director: Stephan Albrechtskirchinger Writing: Rosie ScammellEditing & Layout: Jackie GordonWeb: Francesco Martino and Federico GaggeroOnline: times.eui.euEmail: times@eui.eu

T I M E STowards a common research culture

Energy academics shaping EU policy

A new chapter for the EU’s historical archivesPROFILES OPINIONS EVENTS

Spring 2013

times.eui.eu

on the cover: Mensa terrace, Badia Fiesolana

Spring 2013

Published in March 2013 by the European University Institute© European University Institute, 2013

European University InstituteBadia Fiesolana - Via dei Roccettini, 9 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) - Italy+39 055 4685266 www.eui.eu

Opinions21 MISGUIDED INTERVENTION

IN MALI Olivier Roy

Opinions20 NOW IS THE TIME FOR

EUROPEAN NATIONS TO OPEN THE DOOR TO SYRIAN REFUGEES

Philippe Fargues

4 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Features TOWARDS A COMMON RESEARCH CULTURE

Between coordinating the European Union Democracy Observatory on Citizenship (EUDO) and working as a professor of

social and political theory, Rainer Bauböck acts as the EUI’s dean of graduate studies. During his three-year term, which started in October 2012, he aims to reshape the rule book and introduce a more versatile funding model. In recent months Bauböck has been consolidating the rules of the four departments; “an attempt to merge academic cultures, not just across disciplines but from very different origins,” he says. The challenge is to have everyone agree on a common set of rules on everything from supervision styles to the final thesis defence. While standards can be set for the departments, Bauböck remains aware that some researchers will face difficulties which mean the rules must be adaptable. “It’s more about keeping rules flexible enough and then addressing the individual cases as they come up,” he says, “Dealing with individual cases probably takes up most of my time; researchers that are in difficult situations, somehow miss deadlines and then if you look into the case you find there is a really big problem.”Although open to revising deadlines for researchers who face personal or professional difficulties, one area on which Bauböck is resolute is plagiarism – deemed “the ultimate sin in academic life”.“It’s worse than cheating at an exam. If you plagiarise then you are in the wrong place if you want to be an academic; this is what they have to internalise.” Although technology now exists to detect cases of plagiarism, Bauböck says researchers must be taught its ethical gravity on arrival because people intent on

plagiarising can always bypass checks. The diversity of researchers further complicates the handling of plagiarism cases, as what may be acceptable in some European countries may be deemed unacceptable in others. Bauböck refers to the recent case of German Education Minister Annette Schavan, who resigned in February after the University of Düsseldorf revoked her PhD for plagiarism: “When she wrote her dissertation some people would have said that what she did was still acceptable – taking ideas form other people without really quoting them and revealing her sources; while creating the impression that these were her ideas.“So we have to watch where the standards go and develop our own, and hope that ours are among the higher ones, because it will become tougher [to detect plagiarism] in the future.”

Diversity in research and fundingThe variety of backgrounds of researchers and faculty may make creating a common academic culture more challenging, but Bauböck also sees it as beneficial to the Institute. “We are very unique in terms of the background of our researchers and faculty, and we have one feature which is extremely unique which is that professors don’t have tenure. That creates problems, for example in supervision, but it’s also a source of innovation.

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“It brings in fresh ideas and fresh research from fields that we haven’t had before. This rapid turnover and extreme diversity of origins is both an asset and a liability; I have to look at this and see how we can

make it mostly an asset when we compare ourselves to the top doctoral programmes in the world.”Given the European focus, the majority of EUI researchers are from EU member states. Yet in his role Bauböck has found the Institute attracting a specific type of European academic: “We find people more and more that have gone through the academic loop already, not just Erasmus but those that have come from an Eastern European country but have had a fantastic undergraduate education in the UK, the Netherlands, Scandinavia or somewhere else and realised that they are a mobile academic. This is what we have to promote.”The EUI currently has 20 member states which award grants to researchers, in addition to a number of agreements with additional countries including

“We find people more and more that have gone through the academic loop already [...] and realised that they are a mobile academic. This is what we have to promote.”

Rainer Bauböck

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Norway and Switzerland. Bauböck is keen to attract more academics from recent member states of the Institute, notably those in eastern Europe, both in terms of researchers and faculty.But he is aware that the EUI’s financial structure, which sees researchers funded by their state for the first three years and the Institute for the fourth, needs to evolve. “To a certain extent the national grant system has become a straightjacket. We need to keep it because that is how we get a basic recruitment from a wide diversity of origins, but we need to go beyond this,” he says.“We desperately need more non-national grants, so that we can individually target researchers outside the national grant system that fit into our research programmes. This is already happening to a certain extent,” he says. Faculty members have won a number of European Research Council (ERC) grants, through which they can fund researchers who are recruited the same way as those applying for national grants. If a new faculty member has already recruited researchers, they must also go through the EUI’s selection process.

Part of Bauböck’s role is to ensure equality among researchers: “Researchers complain that there are two types of researchers; those linked to big research projects and those recruited individually on the national grant system. Inequality in the student body is always a big source of tension, so we have to make sure that the same rules apply to everyone.”While the Institute provides guidance on living costs in Florence, each national authority sets the amount of its own grant. “We have to compete in the domestic markets of each country; for that we need grants that are

roughly comparable to what researchers would expect to get in their domestic universities,” says Bauböck. “We cannot really strive for averaging out these grants; the national authorities wouldn’t agree and it would greatly damage our chances of recruitment in some of the wealthier European states.”

Teacher trainingWhile the dean is animated about finding stable sources of funding for research, he is conscious that the Institute must go beyond this to meet the needs of PhD candidates. “It’s terribly important that you [as a researcher] show that you are not only very good at research but that you also have teaching skills. If you want to be hired, this is what the selection committee will look at,” Bauböck says.As the EUI is a postgraduate institution, PhD researchers do not have the opportunity to teach undergraduates at their place of study. “This has been a handicap in the past and we are trying to overcome this in various ways,” says the dean, “One is by making arrangements with universities nearby or abroad, where they can go in the final stages of their PhD on teaching missions.” Local partners include New York University’s Florence campus, situated in a villa not far from the EUI campus.In addition to developing researcher teaching skills, plans are being put in place by EUI President Marise Cremona to make the EUI a hub for academic training. The aim is to develop a curriculum on the topic, says Bauböck, having an impact that goes beyond the Institute: “We have this unique advantage of being a very international doctoral school, so we could learn how to use these resources to develop teaching skills for people who will then go to other places that are similarly diverse and international. The whole side of teaching and communicating about our research is something that needs to be developed. That’s a project for the next few years,” he says, which will likely go far beyond his term as dean.

“Inequality in the student body is always a big source of tension, so we have to make sure that the same rules apply to everyone.”

7 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

ACADEMICS SHAPING EU ENERGY POLICYFeatures

A €2 million project on energy policy is coming to an end at the EUI after three years. The THINK project, part of the

Florence School of Regulation, has brought academia and energy practitioners together to advise the European Commission as it implements the Energy Roadmap 2050.“THINK is a new type of research initiative,” says Jean-Michel Glachant, director of the Florence School of Regulation (FSR) and holder of the Loyola de Palacio Chair on EU Energy Policy. “We know that academics do research quite spontaneously, self-selecting the topic and methodology and judging the results by themselves. Decision-makers are not involved and are not able to use the research.”When DG Energy made a call for proposals in 2009, it was looking for policy guidance with a new approach. “We promote different energy policies but we realised that sometimes we were in too much of a hurry and did not take into account additional challenges which can come up,” says Norela Constantinescu, policy officer at DG Energy. Constantinescu explains that the Commission needed to go beyond member states and industry, gaining advice from a pool of experts that was quickly accessible.The greatest challenge for Glachant and his team was to come up with a proposal without knowing the energy topics they were to advise on. “I had never seen something of that kind because it did not exist. We wanted it to be multidisciplinary; however we wanted to have a solid methodology and the participation of industry. We answered [the call for proposals] with a new concept of a research project,” he says.

The result was a research team of six based in Florence, and a Scientific Council of 22 academics from across the EU. Twenty-three energy companies sit on the project’s expert panel, “to guarantee that it is relevant and that what we do is really where the problem is,” says Glachant. Every six months THINK produces two reports, on topics decided by the Commission which have included building refurbishment, electricity storage and offshore grids.THINK’s scientific coordinator, Leonardo Meeus, says the majority of topics are related to the Energy Roadmap 2050 vision. This aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to between 80 and 95 per cent of 1990

Jean-Michel Glachant

8 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

levels; a significant target following the 2020 aim of 20 per cent. “In Europe we have a lot of legislation in place to meet our 2020 targets, which already includes 20 per cent renewables. But after 2020 we know that we are much more ambitious and it’s much less clear what the policy framework will be,” says Meeus.The FSR project helps to structure all the information currently available, says Constantinescu, through regular consultations. Two months after the THINK team begins working on a given topic, it meets with industry experts to gain their feedback. As the topics change, academics that are not part of the Scientific Council are also invited to give their expert opinions. A further two months of writing are followed by a meeting with a wider pool of leading academics in the Scientific Council meeting, before the report is refined and sent for public consultation. “Between meetings we work only with three people from the Scientific Council, the project leaders and advisors who visit us in Florence,” says Meeus. Of the 12 reports, the last two of which will be submitted to DG Energy at the end of May, a number are already having a notable impact on EU energy policy.

Reporting success“With the CBA [Cost benefit analysis in the context of the energy infrastructure package] we are really part of the implementation of a new set of legislation on energy infrastructure,” Meeus says of the report published in January 2013. “Within the legislation it’s foreseen that an official body created by the European

Commission has to develop a new method. Once this is in place, all energy infrastructure projects will be evaluated according to this method to prioritise which should get EU support.”A report on electricity and natural gas tariffs, submitted a year earlier, was presented at the Madrid Forum in May. The DG Energy gas regulatory forum has been running since 1999 and usually involves member state governments, national regulatory authorities, the Commission and industry and consumer organisations. Academics are not usually involved, so THINK’s participation was seen as a great achievement by Meeus. For Constantinescu, the second report from January 2012 stands out: “In the report regarding the north offshore grid they managed to identify weak points and the policy options we can take to overcome these; regulatory issues but also technical issues.” She also praises the team for a June 2012 report on electricity storage, through which Constantinescu says THINK was able to structure the information in a way that made it easier for DG Energy to take decisions.

Testing new toolsGiven its innovative approach, the three-year project has also been a learning process for both FSR and the Commission. “Gradually we have become better at helping them and they have become better at using us for their ongoing work,” says Meeus.Realising the limitations of academic dissemination, the THINK team began running webinars last year. “Now we have up to 500 people attending our webinars, either online or offline,” says Glachant. “We still do the classic stuff [such as publishing in academic peer-reviewed journals], but we have entered this very dynamic digital and online context because it works.” Reports are also distributed with a short explanatory online video, with a member of the team explaining the key findings of the research. Constantinescu says the project has improved over time, with THINK grasping the energy policy landscape well and utilising their strong network of experts. The Commission would like this type of

“In Europe we have a lot of legislation in place to meet our 2020 targets [...] but after 2020 we know that we are much more ambitious and it’s much less clear what the policy framework will be.”

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work to continue, she says, with developments such as pulling in a wider pool of experts including the ICT community. But THINK must participate in a second call for proposals rather than be granted an automatic contract renewal.Having experimented with online and interactive tools in the first three years, Glachant is keen to make this an integral part of THINK’s new proposal. “We want to get webinars, interviews and interactive courses accessible. This should be supported by links to complimentary documents or links to the whole set of knowledge we have accumulated here; we have more than 500 pieces of work already in the school. Then we have to combine all of this in a dissemination platform,” he says.The recent proposal has also seen a revised Scientific Council, says Meeus, with emphasis placed on early-career energy experts and achieving greater gender equality: “We thought we needed a new generation.

When you look at the new generation in energy you automatically improve your gender balance. [For example], the research team has more women than men.”THINK is due to receive an evaluation of its proposal in April, and if successful will begin another three-year project in January 2014. But the team is already thinking far beyond the next three years, to a new approach to energy consumption in the EU. “We will have to look at energy not as something which is coming out of a plug or a fuel station and we just pay a price. We really have to think about how our consumption is organised,” says Meeus. “These are all consumer issues that will lead to a more engaged demand in the energy sector.”

Leo Meeus

10 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Features

The Historical Archives of the European Union has a new home and a new director, who is implementing a digitalisation project and working with Brussels to draw up a fresh agreement after nearly three decades.The Archives opened its doors at Villa Salviati in October, after weeks of transporting decades of documents up the Tuscan hillside from its former home. The Renaissance villa has retained its original structure through the renovation, while inside state-of-the-art facilities have been installed to store the archives. These include automatic gas extinguishers that remove oxygen in the case of a fire, temperature control and acid-free boxes to avoid ink being destroyed by the papers’ acidity. For 27 years documents have been brought from Brussels by road, financed by the European Commission, to be stored in Florence and consulted by academics or members of the public. In January a new director arrived at Villa Salviati who will steer the Archives through a new period of public engagement.

“Particularly in times of crisis and European scepticism, I think it’s important to hold the flag of Europe and promote this spectacular idea,” says Dieter Schlenker, who spent three years in UNESCO’s Bangkok office before returning to Europe. When the Archives opened its doors in 1986 it housed documents from the European Coal and Steel Community, the European Economic Community and the European Atomic Energy Community, but its remit has widened substantially as the European integration has deepened. Villa Salviati now houses documents from institutions including the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank, while organisations such as the European Space Agency have also deposited in Florence. Institutions which are yet to join include the European Court of Justice, which will deposit in the future on a voluntary basis. “The unique character [of the Archives] comes from the multiple organisations that transfer their

A NEW CHAPTER FOR THE EU’S HISTORICAL ARCHIVES

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archives here. It’s a unique set-up; normally the archives of living organisations are based with the organisation. There’s nothing comparable as far as I know,” says Schlenker.

The Archives’ originWhile Italy offered to provide a home for the Archives, it was the British Deputy Secretary-General of the Commission of the European Communities who proposed the idea in the 1970s. “I had an extremely close intellectual relationship with Emile [Noël, Secretary-General of the Commission] and I said, ‘Why don’t we set up an archive and open it up?’. I had the task of negotiating with the institutions of the archivists and the nine other member states,” says Sir Christopher Audland.“There were of course nine different approaches from different member states, all of whom had their own

ideas. It was quite a lengthy, technical negotiation. The archivists were all united on the main aim,” he says. Both Noël, who went on to become EUI president, and Audland have deposited their private archives in Florence. During his term the Historical Archives’ former director, Jean-Marie Palayret, build up a substantial collection of private archives from people who played a significant role in European integration. He also put together an oral archive of 800 interviews, transferred from various institutions.

Sourcing the story of EuropeThe new director is keen to continue this practice which he says enriches the main archival holding: “The private papers of people very much involved in European Union work gives a little more heart to these elements; that’s why we’re keen on getting private collections from those people.”

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These include the documents of François-Xavier Ortoli, president and vice-president of the European Commission during the 1970s and 1980s, whose archives were deposited in Florence by his family in 2009. “The most interesting documents are the ones that are linked to stories,” says his daughter Emmanuelle Ortoli. “We have the story of the first director-general [of the Commission]; it’s really the story of the Commission and Europe. We also see European crises and summits – he used to take notes during the summits – and both his institution and personal vision.“The story of Europe is still in action. Many of the problems he had we have now; I think the archive could be very useful today,” she adds. “The more people that go the better it will be for European policy.”

A digital futureThe Ortoli fonds, which span more than eight decades, were recently digitised and are available online. Digitalisation is one of the Historical Archives’ main activities, seen by Schlenker as key to its longevity: “As you can see over the past few years, the number of physical visitors in libraries and archives worldwide is stagnating. But where you have exponential growth is in the online world. We can see this; with every collection we put online there is an explosion of access.”This is a practice being implemented across European archives, in order to engage more EU citizens. “Transparency comes through access,” says David Iglesias Blanco, archivist at the European Council. “I think the best way to improve the external access is through a web portal with digital resources; PDF files and so on.”His colleague, Elodie-Cecile Marrel, says the process of digitalisation supports the EU’s wider aims: “I think all European institutions seek to have better-informed citizens. Better access to archives could help them understand that what was decided in Brussels was decided by their politicians.”While the Historical Archives’ main partner in Florence is the EUI, with the Institute’s central building just a few hundred metres away, Schlenker plans to

engage the wider public through online activities and encouraging day visitors to Villa Salviati. Archival documents can be booked on site and an extensive library on the history of European integration can be openly viewed in the reading room.The Archives already has links with Italian universities such as those in Florence and Padua, while the team is also planning local initiatives such as school visits and an exhibition in Florence.

Additionally, Schlenker is keen to build a broader association of European academics. “We want to create a network of international universities that will send their researchers regularly; we can propose interesting themes and subjects which are related to the fonds we have. Particularly some of the new collections; people have never worked on them so there are many secrets to be revealed.”In addition to a new home and a new director, the Archives is also undergoing a change in its relationship to Brussels. “We’ve been developing a strategy to reinforce the role of the EUI for the Historical Archives,” says Peter Handley, head of the European Commission’s document management and archives policy. “Over two years we’ve been building an agreement with other institutions, to change from an annual contract where we treat Florence as a contractor to being a real partner. This allows for more planning and more of a relationship of equality.”The Commission made the proposal in August, Handley says, which is now being discussed in the Council and Parliament and will likely enter into force next year. Handley sees broad support for the measure, which will ensure the future of the EU’s archives in Florence: “We need to leave a legacy of what we’re done and justify our actions; it’s part of accountability and transparency. We need to make sure that the future can discover the past.”

“We need to make sure that the future can discover the past.”

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Profiles FacultyCreating political heroes over 150 years

After nearly 20 years at Birkbeck, University of

London, Professor Lucy Riall moved to the EUI in September 2012. A specialist in Italian and modern European history, she deciphers the country’s present-day politics from its founding 150 years ago. “There is the weight of history that can help explain the political situation,” she says. “There is a tradition of charismatic leaders, and a pattern that is the result in part of the way in which Italy was unified and the way political parties developed.” In 2007 Riall authored ‘Garibaldi - Invention of a Hero’, which explores the cult of the 19th century leader whose success in battle led to the creation of the Italian state. Strong leaders continue to dominate the Italian political sphere, yet Riall says that the other extreme also exists: “There are always countervailing tendencies. You have Garibaldi but then you have the anti-Garibaldi figure, Cavour, who was equally important.”“Nowadays you’ve got Berlusconi and Grillo [Leader of the 5-Star Movement] , but just as Photo by Francesco Filangeri

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interesting is Bersani [leader of the Democratic Party] who really is the anti-Berlusconi figure. Berlusconi is not only a charismatic, larger-than-life figure, who represents a kind of hyper-masculinity. Then you have Nichi Vendola,” she says, referring to the gay leader of the Left Ecology Freedom party and president of Italy’s Puglia region.Looking beyond the façade of these figures is vital, says Riall. “We have got to ask why and what’s actually going on behind the scenes; to ask what Berlusconi’s actually up to. With Garibaldi, what I was really interested in asking was why, where did this figure come from, and what was he doing.”Riall describes Italian politics as a “strong, spectacular, sometimes violent sphere of activity,” which plays out in markedly different ways depending on the region. “Somewhere between Florence and Rome, Italy changes quite drastically,” she says. “Italy looks different from the perspective of Tuscany. Italy from the perspective of Palermo, rather sadly, looks fairly disastrous.”The professor has spent substantial time in both Rome

and Palermo, the capital of Sicily, to conduct research. In January she published ‘Under the volcano: empire and revolution in a Sicilian town’, a history of the revolt of Sicilian town of Bronte in 1860. Presenting the book in recent weeks, Riall has been struck by the level of interest from across the social sciences and humanities. “The ideas of peasant revolt and social movements seem to be something that has come back; in the current crisis these protest movements have assumed significance. I’d particularly like to talk about it with researchers because they have a perspective on it which is different and new,” she says.Writing ‘Under the volcano’ has also led Riall to turn her attention to Italy’s place in the Mediterranean, southern Europe and the wider world. While her

work has always taken a broad and comparative perspective, she is keen to now concentrate on an area that she says is overlooked in northern Europe. “We’ve all been obsessed, since 1989, with the relationship between western and eastern Europe. But now the relationship that I think we’ve all got to address is between the south and the north, and what’s going on in southern Europe.”Given the Department of History and Civilisation’s comparative approach and international crop of academics, Riall intends to start this conversation at the EUI: “What people in Greece and Spain are saying is very worrying. There’s a sense in northern Europe that that doesn’t matter, and I find that very disturbing. This is something we can talk about at the Institute.”

“The ideas of peasant revolt and social movements seem to be something that comes back; in the current crisis these protest movements have assumed significance.”

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Profiles ResearcherProtecting the vulnerable with international law

After years working on human rights in Mexico,

for the government and UN, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck decided to relocate to the EUI to pen a law thesis which would inform both practitioners and academics.Estrada-Tanck’s work examines human security and human rights under international law, focusing on violence against women and the rights of undocumented migrants. “The idea is to study risks and threats that affect people; not only violations of their rights, but structural situations that make people live in a constant situation of risk,” she explains.“Since undocumented migrants have an irregular status, they live in legal limbo – an empty space where neither their state of origin, nor the state in which they are living, is adequate to protect them,” Estrada-Tanck added. Female migrants are more vulnerable to sexual violence and exploitation, which Estrada-Tanck describes as “a threat that is constantly haunting them in their everyday lives”.Before joining the EUI, Estrada-Tanck worked at Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Office

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of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission, giving her first-hand experience of the limitations of national and international law. Over the past decade Estrada-Tanck has seen the situation for migrants in Mexico deteriorate significantly, exasperated by the country’s drugs war which has left an estimated 60,000 people dead since 2006: “Mexico was the promoter of the UN convention of the rights of migrant workers, but now we have the double situation of violence against [Mexican] migrants in the US, and the violations suffered by migrants from Central America in Mexico.” In her thesis Estrada-Tanck looks at legal frameworks within the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the Council of Europe and the EU, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and the UN. While she found positive rulings in the various courts, it was the Inter-American Court which stood apart: “It has been more progressive in granting

reparations which try to fix the structural situation. Not only ordering the responsible to pay the victim, but there’s a whole set of collective measures which try to address the structural situation to prevent further violations.”She points to the ‘González et al. (‘Cotton Field’) v. Mexico’ case, in which the state was held responsible for the disappearances and deaths of one woman and two girls in the northern city of Ciudad Juárez, as a key example. In its November 2009 judgement, the court ordered the state to take specific actions on the Cotton Field case while also taking numerous steps to prevent future instances of gender-based violence. These included erecting a monument to victims in Ciudad Juárez, creating a national database of disappeared girls and women, and implementing a permanent education and training programme on human rights and gender. “These are exemplary cases which go to the heart of the problem,” says Estrada-Tanck.

“Human rights are individual and legal architecture is made for the individual. All that is necessary but because these problems are so widespread, you really need public policy to be informed by human rights and broad approaches.”Migration, and violence and insecurity are two of the six priorities set out by the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights for 2012 to 2013. Estrada-Tanck hopes the proposals put forward in her thesis will contribute to this ongoing debate, moving towards structural changes in the legal system: “We have a great responsibility to do much more; I think the law has to serve the people and not the other way round, the legal structures are there for the people.”

“Human rights are individual and legal architecture is made for the individual. All that is necessary but because these problems are so widespread, you really need public policy to be informed by human rights and broad approaches.”

17 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Profiles AlumniInside the WTO

“You can plan things but you need to be ready for the opportunity”

Since complet-ing his PhD in law at the EUI, Janos Volkai has spent more than a decade

at the World Trade Organiza-tion. Having joined the EUI in 1997, Volkai left three years later for an internship at DG Competition before moving to Paris to work at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).The move to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Geneva headquarters in 2002 had not been part of his plan while a PhD researcher, he says: “I had six options in mind – working in academia, a law firm or competition authority, either in Hungary or abroad.“Paris was still part of the competition policy perspective; it had moved outside of the six options but I started to like the objectivity, the independence and the issues. Although you are not as free to say what you want as an academic, or as aggressive as someone in a law firm.”Volkai first worked in the intellectual property (IP) division, dealing with

the WTO’s TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) Agreement, which requires all member states to comply to a set of IP standards. Along with trade in goods and trade in services, the TRIPS agreement is one of the three pillars of the WTO.After three years in the IP area, Volkai took advantage of the WTO’s mobility programme to move to the legal affairs division. Within the team of 14 he provides legal advice to member states and works on the organisation’s dispute settlement system.“The legal questions that come up on these agreements are the ones we’re trying to help out members and colleagues with; that’s a very rewarding experience,” he says. Although Volkai enrolled at the EUI with a quite different career path in mind, he advises current researchers to keep an open mind: “We try to plan but then things turn

out differently. I had not imagined working in anything other than competition law and policy, but I ended up working in a related field. You can plan things but you need to be ready for the opportunity.”He recently visited the EUI to speak about career opportunities in international organisations, as part of the annual Alumni Weekend. While the majority of EUI researchers go on to work in academia, many follow careers in international organisations, EU institutions, national governments or the private sector.“The EUI was directed more towards an academic career, but in many ways it prepared me for an international career or one in civil service. The multiculturalism of the Institute prepared me for being more sensitive and delicate on different issues and gave me a love for multilingualism,” Volkai says.He recalls a common scene in the corridors of the EUI, with one research speaking to another in Spanish, calling out to a friend in Italian while others walk past chatting in French. “I find it astonishing; I couldn’t go back to a unilingual or bilingual environment,” he says.

18 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Opinions

Lorenzo De Sio is an assistant professor at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome. From 2010 to

2011 he was a Jean Monnet fellow at the EUI, working on the research project ‘Are less-involved voters the key to winning elections?’ The results of the recent Italian general elections challenge many existing equilibria, both in Italy and in Europe. Results show a system of three extremes, far different from the bipolar structure of the past. The largest three parties - the leftist Democratic Party (PD), led by Pier Luigi Bersani; the 5-Star Movement (M5S), founded by comedian Beppe Grillo; and Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PdL) - all received vote shares between 21.6 and 25.6 per cent. Prime Minister Mario Monti’s challenge has essentially failed, as he reached little more than 10 per cent.Along with Monti’s failure, other aspects point to the application of austerity measures requested by the EU, and to the decisions on how to distribute the burden of such measures, as important determinants of the result. Grillo’s

M5S is not radically anti-EU, but wishes to call a referendum on the euro and is fiercely against the EU’s austerity policy. Berlusconi has enjoyed relative recovery after heavily criticising EU countries supporting austerity. Finally, the PD appears to have paid a price for supporting the heavy austerity measures promoted by Monti’s technocratic government. As a result, the formation of a stable government is now not an easy task. With its large House majority, the leftist PD is leading the game, with two main potential scenarios. The first is a large coalition with Berlusconi’s PdL, giving the new government a large majority also in the Senate. However, such a government would hardly take action in any field, given the strong ideological and policy differences between the two parties. It would likely lead to new elections in a matter of months, and even greater success for Grillo given that cooperation between PD and Berlusconi would enrage most PD voters. The second scenario would be a PD leftist government supported by M5S. This might be viable in terms of popular support and policy

convergence, as the two parties share common policy ground in areas such as reduction of political costs and renewable energy. However, Grillo has so far excluded an official alliance with the PD, stating that M5S MPs would only support specific bills. As a result, such a government might perhaps be more effective in passing legislation, but it would be extremely unlikely to last a full term.In both cases, it is clear that Italian political elites across the political spectrum have realised the univocal message conveyed by this result: the push to steer EU economic policy towards a more growth-oriented agenda. It will now be up to EU institutions and other European governments to understand the critical warning that comes from the Italian result. Dismissing it as just an irrational surrender to populism would be misleading. Along with a need for change in political elites, Italians appear to have clearly expressed a claim for democratic scrutiny of key economic decisions. And it is likely that any new government will raise such issues at the European level.

ITALIAN ELECTION RESULTS - A CHALLENGE TO EU POLICY

19 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Opinions

BRITISH FLIRTATIONS WITH DISTANCE AND EXIT IN A EUROPE OF CRISES

Ulrich Krotz is joint chair in international relations at the EUI.In January British Prime

Minister David Cameron promised to hold a referendum on EU membership. A British exit would not be the death knell for the European project. Nor would it decisively aggravate or alleviate the most severe problems that plague Europe today.A British exit would affect the character of the EU and its politics. Some intergovernmental areas may run more smoothly in a post-British Union. Much of the EU’s supranational business would be little affected, while areas which the UK never joined (including the euro zone and  Schengen) would largely remain the same. The single market would become smaller, but most economic and regulatory policy domains would change in size but hardly logic. The historically influential Franco-German relationship could become yet more important. But if France fails to reform its economy, a British exit may lead to a more hegemonic

role for Germany. Germany and the other more market-oriented member states would lose an ally against those more sharply inclined toward protectionism and economic interventionism. France would lose an ally to softly balance a stronger German role within the EU, especially in the economic and monetary domains.Given its military strength, a UK departure from the EU may weaken European foreign,  defence and security policy. But European cooperation in these domains will remain largely intergovernmental, meaning that collaboration between a breakaway UK and EU member states may not entirely undermine the EU’s expanding role in the world.The implications for the UK would mostly depend on the set of arrangements between Britain and a post-British Union. The remaining EU member states are unlikely to cushion Britain’s exit. They would resist British cherry-picking. An exit indeed would make the UK more independent, and thus, in some sense, more free. The price, however, could be high. In Europe, it would certainly render the UK politically less influential. In the world, probably

less relevant. At home, very likely, poorer.While the economic costs and benefits of EU membership for the UK are difficult to quantify and remain contested among economists, Britain’s membership in and access to the EU’s single market is the backbone of the UK’s economy. Although the UK has avoided the euro zone troubles, mounting domestic political challenges, including demands for greater Scottish independence and a foundering economy, have weakened Britain’s global role, save for the City of London’s financial clout. Whether expansion of the ‘special’ relationship with the US could offset what Britain would give up through an EU exit, especially politically, is questionable. Leaving the EU would foreclose an entire set of political and economic options for the UK across practically all policy domains.The UK’s flirtation with the idea of leaving the EU, therefore, is indicative of the many crises that cut to the core of the European project today. Its move to redefine the relationship with the EU ought to encourage and command basic thinking about Europe and its possible futures.

20 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Opinions

P h i l i p p e Fargues is director of the Migration Policy Centre at the Robert

Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the the EUI. Now is the time for European nations to open the door to Syrian refugees.After two years of a conflict that has claimed 70,000 lives, put 4 million people in need of assistance, displaced 2 million internally and more than 1 million externally, can Europe do whatever is in its power to respond to the consequences of the Syrian civil wars? Contrasting with a strong humanitarian and political commitment, Europe’s overcautious dealing with the refugee crisis unfolding at its external border is puzzling. On one side the EU and its member states have already allocated €423 million in aid to the Syrian people, not including the €172 million pledged at the international donors conference in Kuwait a month ago. They have taken the lead in advancing the political

agenda, including the Friends of Syria group of states that recently met in Rome. In addition, the 27 EU member states have collectively accepted only 30,000 refugees from Syria since the beginning of the conflict, i.e. 3 per cent of the total. Refugees flee insecurity in their country, so they naturally go to the closest shelter from where they await better days to return to their homes. It is unsurprising to find most of them just the other side of Syria’s borders: an estimated 320,000 in Lebanon, 300,000 in Jordan, 180,000 in Turkey and 100,000 in Iraq, and none in Israel, a state at war with Syria. But some went further away to reach Egypt (28,000) and Algeria (7,000). So why is it that apart from Germany, which accepted 11,370 Syrian asylum seekers, and Sweden 7,390, all other EU member states took so few of them? It is important to ask why long-established Syrian communities in Europe did not attract more of those fleeing their homeland; why Syrians crossing to Europe with no visa could be sent back to the Turkish shore of the Evros river or the Aegean sea.

Depending on which member state they reach, the same Syrian refugees could be granted protection or face detention, following a cumbersome asylum application process. Granting prima facie admission to people seeking shelter from a highly perilous conflict at its door has not yet been put on the EU agenda. The European Parliament has at the same time urged member states to provide financial support to countries bordering Syria so that they can keep their border open, but stopped short of recommending that Europe opens its own borders.The only response one can find is that in a period of severe economic crisis, Europe’s governments, politicians and public opinion confuse two distinct realities, asylum and immigration. The obsession to control and contain immigration - for the founded or unfounded fear that new comers will compete with local populations on labour markets already plagued by unemployment - translates into closing, or not opening, the door to persons in need of protection. This forgets fundamental European values.

NOW IS THE TIME FOR EUROPEAN NATIONS TO OPEN THE DOOR TO SYRIAN REFUGEES

21 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Opinions

MISGUIDED INTERVENTION IN MALI

Olivier Roy is joint chair in Mediterranean Studies at the EUI. Was the

decision to launch a military operation in Mali a wise one? The rationality of a war is first defined by its objectives. The French government gave two rationales: 1) fighting terrorism 2) restoring Mali’s territorial integrity. The problem in this case is the relationship between both objectives. First the ‘terrorists’ are not defined: are they the people affiliated with al Qaeda, or any armed group claiming to impose sharia on the local population? The Bush administration made extensive use of the expression ‘war on terror’, which led to confusion by lumping together al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban and Iran. This had the consequence of precluding any political approach to the complex situation, and left actors resting on moral and ideological statements. The second problem is to ignore that the threat for the territorial integrity of Mali does not come

from sharia-related issue, but from a structural ethnic divide of Mali between Tuaregs (and groups associated with them), and African populations of the south. This divide will not be solved by a military operation against ‘terrorism’. And thirdly, restoring territorial integrity to Mali supposes a stable and legitimate central state, with a regular army devoted to the nation. Neither exists: the state has almost collapsed, the army is more prone to perpetrate coups d’état and handle the north as an occupied territory, fuelling the resentment of the local population. Rather than restoring a viable state for all Malians, the French intervention risks exacerbating ethnic tensions. The Mali case represents a now classical combination of various factors explaining what is perceived as an ‘Islamic threat’. First an ethnic divide, second a tribal society in mutation, thirdly a surge of a religious fundamentalism (let us call it ‘salafism’), where the call for implementing sharia is seen as a way to bypass the ethnic and tribal segmentation of the society. Added

to the development of an economy based on smuggling and hostage-taking and you have an explosive situation. Al Qaeda’s groups, coming from abroad, parasitically feed off these local conflicts, with the aim of trapping Western troops in protracted local wars, while they themselves could at any time leave their so-called ‘sanctuaries’ to go anywhere else.To wage a territorial war against de-territorialised groups does not make sense. One should make a clear distinction between international groups (al Qaeda) and local actors, who, even when they are fundamentalist, have a local agenda. The priority is to have a political approach, not a pseudo moral and highly ideological conception of the ‘just war’.

22 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Events

THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEDITERRANEAN RESEARCH MEETING (MERSIN, TURKEY)

The Mediterranean research meeting brings together scholars from across the region to discuss their work, focusing on economic, historical, legal and socio-political issues in the Middle East, North Africa, southern and south-eastern Europe. The 2013 meeting will be hosted by Mersin University in Turkey, which is organising and financing the meeting with the EUI’s Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. The seventeen workshops organised during the event will cover a broad range of topics, from military engagement to social media.

FROM THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS TO THE UNITED NATIONS: NEW APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL

INSTITUTIONS

This three-day conference will bring together academics from various disciplines to discuss the development of the study of international and global institutions. The event is organised by the EUI’s Global Governance Programme, part of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, along with the Max Weber Programme for Postdoctoral Studies and the Department of History and Civilisation. In addition to looking at historical perspectives on the League of Nations, the UN and empires, the conference will also examine present-day issues such as peacekeeping, statelessness and international law.

20-23 MARCH 2013 21-23

MARCH 2013

23 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

POLITICAL, FISCAL AND BANKING UNION IN THE EURO ZONE?

The euro zone conference is co-organised by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Financial Institutions Center, the EUI’s Department of Economics and two elements of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies; the Global Governance Programme and the Pierre Werner Chair. Academics and business practitioners will come together to discuss the euro zone, with speakers including Tony Barber, Europe editor at the Financial Times, and Andrea Enria, chairperson of the European Banking Authority. “We believe that an open discussion on this timely and important topic is needed for a better understanding of the future development of the euro zone and of the European Union as a whole,” says co-organiser, Professor Elena Carletti.

THE STATE OF THE UNION 2013

For the third year running the EUI will host The State of the Union conference, an opportunity for high-level reflection on the European Union. The conference will bring together leading academics, policy-makers, civil society representatives and business and opinion leaders to discuss the current situation and future prospects of the European Union. The 2013 event will be divided into two plenary sessions - focusing on institutions and democratic governance, and migration and citizenship – which will be expanded upon in lunchtime sessions. The event will be held at Florence’s historic city hall, the Palazzo Vecchio, and organised within the framework of the city’s Festival of Europe.

25 APRIL 2013 9 MAY

2013

24 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Events

SUMMER SCHOOLS 2013

CMPF Summer School 2013 for Journalists and Media Practitioners13 - 17 May 2013 Application deadline: 22 March 2013

Florence School of Regulation (FSR) Summer School on Energy Policy and EU Law23 - 28 May 2013 Registration deadline: 15 April 2013

Global Governance Programme Young Scholars Lab 20134 - 7 June 2013 Applications deadline: 20 April 2013

FSR Summer School on Regulation of Energy Utilities10-14 June 2013 Registration deadline: 3 May 2013

IX Migration Summer School: Theories, Methods and Policies17 - 28 June 2013Application deadline 15 April 2013

Academy of European LawSession on Human Rights Law 17 - 28 June 2013Session on the Law of the European Union1 - 12 July 2013Application deadline for either session: 10 April 2013

Summer School on Methods for the Study of Political Participation and Mobilisation16 - 27 September 2013Application deadline: 15 April 2013

Summer School in Comparative and Transnational History: Theories, Methodology and Case Studies23 - 26 September 2013Application deadline: 30 May 2013

25 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

A one-day conference bringing together politicians from governments and European institutions, prominent academics, and opinion and business leaders, to discuss the future of the EU. The 2013 event will focus on institutions and democratic governance, and migration and citizenship.Attendance is by invitation only.The EUI is a unique international organisation for doctorate and post-doctorate studies and research in the social sciences, located in Florence.

www.eui.eu sou@eui.eu #sou2013

9 MAY 2013PALAZZO VECCHIOFLORENCE-ITALY

JOSÉ MANUEL BARROSO

President of the European Commission

TONY BARBER

Europe editor,Financial Times

EMMAMARCEGAGLIA

Chief executive officer of

Marcegaglia group

WITH THE SUPPORT OF

KNOWLEDGE PARTNERS

CECILIA MALMSTRÖM

European commissioner for home affairs

MARTINSCHULZ

President of the European

Parliament

DAVIDMILIBAND

Member of the British Parliament

JOSEPHWEILER

President elect of the European

University Institute

NAJATVALLAUD BELKACEM

French minister of women’s rights

26 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

Publications

By mid-2013, Donatella Della Porta will have published an encyclopedia and three books. Key themes of the so-ciology professor’s work are social movements, political violence and the crisis of democracy. Meeting Democracy – Power and Deliberation in Global Justice MovementsPublished in January, ‘Meeting Democracy’ examines the workings of social justice groups in France, Germany, It-aly, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. For two years Della Porta and her colleagues followed 14 groups to analyse their practices, including the extent to which they put their plans into action. The book is part of a se-ries from the 2004 to 2008 Demos project, on democracy in Europe and the mobilisation of society, coordinated by Della Porta. The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social and Political Movements The three-volume encyclopedia includes “400 entries about every possible movement you could think of,” says Della Porta. Released in January, the encyclopedia includes information on movements in Africa, Asia, Eu-rope and Latin America. The majority are from recent times, but historically significant movements such as the French Revolution and the anti-slavery movement are also included. Co-editors are based at the University of California, Irvine; Stanford University and VU Univer-sity Amsterdam.

Can Democracy Be Saved? Participation, De-liberation and Social MovementsDue out in April, ‘Can Democracy Be Saved?’ looks at the current stresses on democracy such as globalisation and the financial crisis. Della Porta appeals to academic theory and empirical research to look at both historical cases and present-day movements, including the Arab Spring and Occupy Wall Street. While mistrust in the political process is on the rise, the author finds that dis-satisfaction can have a positive impact as citizens become more actively engaged in the political process.Clandestine Political ViolenceIn this volume, forthcoming in May, Della Porta builds a theory based on research on left-wing, right-wing, eth-no-nationalist and religious fundamentalist groups that engage in political violence. “While they start as political groups, once they go underground they tend to become more military and sect-like; they lose their relationships with the social movements,” the author says. Political violence is not on the rise overall, but trends are evi-dent. While left-wing violence was more common in the 1970s, Della Porta argues that a greater risk now comes from right-wing groups. In addition to the above, Della Porta is currently com-pleting a book comparing the social movements of au-thoritarian regimes in Eastern Europe with the Arab Spring. A methodological book is also on the horizon, giving guidance on how to study social movements.

PROLIFIC WRITER'S POLITICAL PUBLICATIONS

27 EUI TIMES | Spring 2013

PublicationsD'Albis, Cécile.Richelieu (Armand Colin, 2012)

Glachant, Jean-Michel; Hafner, Manfred; De Jong, Jacques; Ahner, Nicole; Tagliapietra, Simone (eds). A New Architecture for EU Gas Security of Supply (Claeys & Casteels, 2012)

Krotz, Ulrich; Schild, Joachim.Shaping Europe : France, Germany, and embedded bilateralism from the Elysée Treaty to twenty-first century politics(Oxford University Press, 2013)

Paster, Thomas. The Role of Business in the Development of the Welfare State and Labor Markets in Germany: Containing Social Reforms (Routledge, 2012)

Delmas, Adrien; Penn, Nigel (eds). Written Culture in a Colonial Context. Africa and the Americas, 1500-1900(Brill, 2012)

Heritier, Adrienne; Moury, Catherine; Bischoff, Carina S.; Bergström, Carl-Fredrik. Changing rules of delegation: a contest for power in comitology (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Langford, M.; Vandenhole, W.; Scheinin, M.; Van Genugten W. (eds). Global justice, state duties: the extraterritorial scope of economic, social, and cultural rights in international law(Cambridge, 2013)

Riall, Lucy. Under the volcano: empire and revolution in a Sicilian town. (Oxford University Press, 2013)

Gerster, Daniel.Friedensdialoge im Kalten Krieg: Eine Geschichte der Katholiken in der Bundesrepublik 1957-1983(Campus Verlag, 2012)

Kriesi, Hanspeter; Lavenex, Sandra; Esser, Frank; Matthes, Jörg; Bühlmann, Marc; Bochsler, Daniel (eds) Democracy in the age of globalization and mediatization (Palgrave Macmillan, 2013)

Lazaroms, Ilse Josepha. The Grace of Misery: Joseph Roth and the politics of exile, 1919–1939 (Brill, 2012)

Viola De Azevedo Cunha, Mario. Market integration through data protection: An analysis of the insurance and financial industries in the EU (Springer, 2013)

SELECTEDEUI BOOKS

cadmus.eui.eu

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-AJ-12-001-EN

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ISSN: 1977-799X