Europe Speaks: A TEPSA Podcast

EuropeChats – European Strategic Autonomy

In this new episode of #EuropeChats, we’re analysing the newest buzzword in Brussels: "European Strategic Autonomy". We discuss the reasons why this new term arose: we live in an increasingly hostile global environment, and we have faced multiple crises in recent years, from the subprime crisis through the refugee crisis and Brexit, as well as the COVID crisis, and these have revealed weaknesses in our system that require the EU to become more resilient, more powerful, and more autonomous. 

We also discuss what exactly does this term mean, and how does it affect the EU as it currently exists? What practical applications of the concept of Strategic Autonomy should the EU try to achieve in the fields of trade policy, medical supplies, defence and digitalisation in the next decade? 

We discover what that new resilience might look like, how it might affect policy, and what this means for the EU on the world stage. Can the EU be a serious geopolitical actor? Can strategic autonomy strengthen the defense of European values against authoritarian regimes outside Europe? Can Europe become an innovation centre on par with Silicon Valley or China? And, most controversially of all, does strategic autonomy mean the EU should have a European Army? 

We’re discussing these topics and many more! Check it out! 

EuropeChats with Jim Cloos & Mariam Khotenashvili is the flagship podcast of TEPSA and it is part of the TEPSA Podcast Channel “Europe Speaks”  

Music: Worakls, 22 September 2014, Salzburg, Hungry music 

 

DiCE Webinar - Differentiation and Democracy

In this podcast, John Erik Fossum from ARENA Centre for European Studies (part of the University of Oslo) elaborates on the concept of differentiated integration in the framework of democracy theory. He discusses key elements of the debate around differentiation, including the fact that some forms of differentiation are necessary in order for democracy to function properly, and therefore that democratic governance is functionally differentiated. Moreover, the podcast elaborates on differentiated integration in the European Union. 

This series from DiCE – Differentiation: Clustering Excellence, “DiCE Webinars” takes the full knowledge of Europe’s leading experts on differentiated integration, and presents it in an easy to digest format. 

EU History Explained - The Origins of European Integration, Part 2

In this new episode of #EUHistoryExplained, Giulia Bonacquisti, Project Manager at the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA), takes us back in time to the early 1950s. 

Last episode, we learned about Europe in the wake of war, where an intellectual background dating back to the 1920s came to the fore to foster integration in Europe. This episode, we learn how an attempted defense and political community led to the formation of the European Economic Community. We also discover the progress of military cooperation, which starts to develop in the early 1950s. Initially, this is not much more than a military alliance, first among Western European countries, and then between them and the United States. These are the origins of what we know today as NATO. 

EU History Explained is TEPSA's newest video series exploring the origins of the modern EU. If you have ever wondered how the European Union of today came to be, or what lies behind the talk of politics being shaped in 'Brussels', then this is the series for you! 

Script: Giulia Bonacquisti 
Filming & Editing: Tanguy Babled & Hugh Evans 
Music: Garrett Bevins - Infinite - Infinite (Wondershare Filmora X) 

EuropeChats - The EU’s response to the COVID crisis

In this new episode of #EuropeChats, we’re analysing the EU’s response to the #COVID19 crisis. For more than a year, the world has been caught in the grip of the coronavirus pandemic, and providing a successful response has been a significant challenge to the EU throughout. 

In this episode, we discuss how and why the initial response was made, including why mask and PPE procuration was such a significant challenge in the spring of 2020. TEPSA Secretary-General Jim Cloos was a key player in organising the mammoth Special European Council meeting of July 2020, which resulted in the adoption of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2021-2027 and the COVID Recovery Package: #NextGenerationEU. With this expertise of the famous days-long negotiation, Jim speaks about the key elements of the more than EUR 1.8 trillion total funding agreed in that meeting. 

We also discover how the EU’s research funding resulted in the record delivery of a COVID19 vaccine, as well as how the EU’s joint procuration of vaccines has resulted in a successful vaccination programme in Europe and beyond Europe’s borders, thanks to a successful vaccine export programme and the EU’s heavy involvement in COVAX. The COVID vaccine was developed and released in only one year, as of May 2021, 200 million vaccine doses have been administered in the EU, and the EU is the biggest contributor to the COVAX initiative. 

EuropeChats with Jim Cloos & Mariam Khotenashvili is the flagship podcast of TEPSA and it is part of the TEPSA Podcast Channel “Europe Speaks”  

Music: Worakls, 22 September 2014, Salzburg, Hungry music 

EU History Explained - The Origins of European Integration

In this first episode of #EUHistoryExplained, Giulia Bonacquisti, Project Manager at the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA), takes us through the earliest years of European integration after the Second World War. 

In the wake of war in Europe, and with an intellectual background dating back to the 1920s, the origins of the modern EU formed. In this episode, we are looking at the timeline from the end of World War Two until the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, with the Marshall Plan, the Hague Congress, and the Schuman Declaration along the way. 

EU History Explained is TEPSA's newest series exploring the origins of the modern EU. If you have ever wondered how the European Union of today came to be, or what lies behind the talk of politics being shaped in 'Brussels', then this is the series for you! 

Script: Giulia Bonacquisti 
Filming & Editing: Tanguy Babled & Hugh Evans 
Music: Garrett Bevins - Infinite - Infinite (Wondershare Filmora X) 

DiCE Webinar - Explaining Differentiation: Concepts and Theories

This brand new series from the DiCE – Differentiation: Clustering Excellence, “DiCE Webinars” takes the full knowledge of Europe’s leading experts on differentiated integration, and presents it in an easy to digest podcast format. In this first podcast, Frank Schimmelfennig from ETH Zürich explains concepts and theories of differentiation, and answers such questions as: 

• What is differentiated integration? 
• What are the modes of differentiated integration, and what are multi-speed, multi-tier, and multi-menu differentiation? 
• What are the causes and conditions of differentiated integration? 

• What are the building blocks of differentiated integration? 
• What is the difference between instrumental and constitutional differentiation? 

This series from DiCE – Differentiation: Clustering Excellence, “DiCE Webinars” takes the full knowledge of Europe’s leading experts on differentiated integration, and presents it in an easy to digest format. 

EuropeChats - What is the European Interest?

In Episode 2 of EuropeChats, Jim Cloos (TEPSA Secretary General) & Mariam Khotenashvili (TEPSA Executive Director) discuss whether there is such a thing as a common European interest and, if so, what it is, and how it is created.

The discussion kicks off discussing the origins of the European interest and continues by looking at how it historically evolved and how positions of national interest change or clash in relations to the common European interest.

EuropeChats with Jim Cloos & Mariam Khotenashvili is the flagship podcast of TEPSA and it is part of the TEPSA Podcast Channel "Europe Speaks".

TEPSA Website - Twitter - Facebook - LinkedIn - Instagram

Music: Worakls, 22 September 2014, Salzburg, Hungry music

DiCE Webinar - A Short History of Differentiated Integration

In this podcast, TEPSA Secretary-General Jim Cloos gives a short history of differentiated integration.

Jim explores five different examples of differentiated integration: the accession of new Member States, the Schengen Area, the Euro, the Social Chapter of the Maastricht Treaty, and European Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). Jim makes three conclusions: that DI is a natural phenomenon, that it is a tool rather than an ideology, and that a permanent periphery is not a solution.

This series from DiCE – Differentiation: Clustering Excellence, “DiCE Webinars” takes the full knowledge of Europe’s leading experts on differentiated integration, and presents it in an easy to digest format.

EuropeChats - What is the EU?

In Episode 1 of EuropeChats, Jim Cloos (TEPSA Secretary General) & Mariam Khotenashvili (TEPSA Executive Director) tackle the origins of the European Union and debate the main events which led to the EU as we know it today.

The discussion explores the European Coal and Steel Community, the division of powers within the EU institutions and the Member States, the complexity of democracy in a supranational Union and the role of the EU in times of crisis.

EuropeChats with Jim Cloos & Mariam Khotenashvili is the flagship podcast of TEPSA and it is part of the TEPSA Podcast Channel "Europe Speaks".

TEPSA Website - Twitter - Facebook - LinkedIn - Instagram

Music: Worakls, 22 September 2014, Salzburg, Hungry music