The Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA) organised a 5-day summer school funded by the Horizon 2020 Programme of the European Union, that takes place at the heart of EU politics: Brussels. The summer school  took place in person and offered 20 Master students and graduates an opportunity to gain first-hand insights from leading academics, EU officials and think tankers on the state of play and future scenarios for Differentiated Integration in the European Union.

Differentiated integration is a form of European integration in which not all Member States participate in all policies to the same degree and at the same time. It allows interested countries to move forward with integration while granting temporary or permanent exceptions to countries unable or unwilling to comply. Examples include the Schengen area, the Euro, or Permanent Structured Cooperation in security matters. In its external dimension, it refers to a situation in which EU rules are selectively extended to non-members. Differentiated integration is not only an academic concept – the European Commission’s 2017 White Paper on the Future of Europe identified it as one of the possible scenarios for the EU’s future (“Those who want more do more”).

Coordinated by leading Differentiated Integration expert Frank Schimmelfennig (ETH Zürich & TEPSA), the summer school offered a unique combination of theory and practice, with lectures by renowned academics, meetings with policy practitioners as well as a hands-on simulation exercise. The 21 participants were selected from the over 150 excellent applications we received from students across Europe!

FORMAT

The summer school wasa 5-day event. It was held in person in Brussels from Monday 20 June to Friday 24 June. The first four days were devoted to attending expert lectures and meeting practitioners from key EU institutions and think tanks with the objective of complementing the insights gained during the lectures. The seminar included meetings with:

• The European Commission
• The Council of the European Union
• Leading Brussels think tankers and renowned European scholars.

The last day was devoted to a hands-on exercise simulating a Council negotiation on a case of enhanced cooperation. Throughout the week, dedicated sessions for analysis and discussion in the group were provided in order to allow participants to critically reflect on the insights gained during the lectures and visits, as well as daily slots to prepare for the final simulation exercise.

Download the report of the summer school
Download the report of the simulation exercise

The summer school was organised by TEPSA under the academic lead of Prof. Frank Schimmelfennig, Professor of European Politics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich) and TEPSA Board member, and in cooperation with Prof. Michael Kaeding, Professor for European Integration and European Union Politics at the University of Duisburg-Essen. It takes place in the framework of the Horizon 2020 project “DiCE – Differentiation: Clustering Excellence”.

WATCH THE LECTURE RECORDINGS