At a recent meeting, the leaders of the European Union formally approved Ukraine and Moldova’s candidate status to join the bloc. The message is: you are welcome to join our European family in due course.

Being a Slave brings together scholars and writers who try to come to terms with the histories and legacies of European slavery in the Indian Ocean.

Sarah Giest, Assistant Professor at Leiden Univeristy, researched the topic of regulatory and market structures that affect nudge implementation by private actors, captured by the ‘budge’ idea.

Promotor: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo

On 26 June 2019, Lisa Louwerse defended her thesis 'The EU’s Conceptualisation of the Rule of Law in its External Relations: Case Studies on Development Cooperation and Enlargement'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. C.A.P. Hillion.

On 20 October 2016, a highly successful 2nd CML Rev Annual Conference took place, in Oslo. This was organized in cooperation with the Oslo Centre for European Law. The title was: Crossing Europe’s Borders: New approaches to migration in European law.

Political scientist Karolina Pomorska (Institute of Political Science, Leiden University) has been awarded a Jean Monnet Chair. The aim of her chair, entitled The EU and the World, is to promote and strengthen teaching and research in European Studies in Leiden and in The Hague.

On 21 January 2019 Barbora Budinska and Melanie Fink, researchers at the Europa Institute, spoke at the Workshop ‘Accountability and Control of European Multilevel Administration: Current Challenges in EU Administrative Law’.

How many written parliamentary questions does each party put to each minister? Political scientists Simon Otjes (University of Groningen) and Tom Louwerse (Leiden University) studied the practice in Dutch parliament and found that parties use parliamentary questions strategically as part of their ‘permanent…

From the 27th of February to the 1st of March 2018, students from four different universities attended the interuniversity workshop “A future for EU” (F4EU) in Liège, Belgium.

On Friday 29 September 2017, Frederik Behre was invited by the European Union Study Association in Leiden (EUSA) to speak about the Eurocrisis in order to shed light on the undertaken Euro reform steps and to reflect on necessary future reforms.

One of the EU's most heralded weapons against tax avoidance and evasion falls prey to political whims, is applied arbitrarily, and lacks transparency, according to tax observers and lawmakers.

On Thursday 21 October 2021, the Europa Institute held a hybrid roundtable on the legal feasibility of financing future EU policies – such as EU Green Deal measures – through debts and of thereby extending the novel funding mechanism introduced by Next Generation EU (NGEU). This roundtable was organised…

‘Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy.’ That is the title of Nikki Ikani’s book that was published last month. We asked the writer five questions about her book. Presentation: 5 & 20 April.

The European Parliament has published a study on the Commission’s Smart Border Proposal co-authored by Jorrit Rijpma, Associate Professor at the Europa Institute in Leiden.

In an essay published in three prominent European newspapers, Professor Luuk van Middelaar takes a close look at Europe’s role in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. ‘Europe shows plenty of political energy, but what is still lacking is strategic cool-headedness, in facing a nuclear power.’

After the Brexit referendum in the United Kingdom, Switzerland is worried about what this will mean for its relationship with the European Union.

The August issue of the CML Rev., Vol. 53 No. 4, is now available online.

European higher education may benefit from becoming even more international, but universities should protect European values such as participation and freedom of thought. This was the position taken by European Commissioner Navracsics on 10 November in a debate with Minister Bussemaker and students…

On Tuesday 13 February 2018, the Europa Institute had the honour of receiving HE Ditmir Bushati, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs of Albania. He delivered a speech in the Academy Building in the framework of the European Union Seminar Series, jointly organized by the master’s programme in International…

On Wednesday 28 September 2022, the Opening Ceremony of the European Law LL.M. took place on campus at Leiden Law School. Following Dr Ben Van Rompuy and Professor Jorrit Rijpma’s warm words of welcome for the incoming students, Dr Vasiliki Kosta presented two student prizes from the preceding academic…

How can novel bioimaging technologies and vertebrate model species be used to gain a better understanding of early cellular behaviours with the ultimate goal to increase our understanding of human development and disease processes?

Between January and April 2017 Armin Cuyvers (Assistant Professor of European Law) will be a Visiting Fellow at the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC), the in-house think-tank of European Commission President Juncker.

Combined hormonal contraceptives (CHC) are associated with an increased risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE). In 2013, a review was published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). In this review, the authors concluded that the risk of VTE varies by the type of progesterone in the CHC. Subsequently,…

On the 12th of May, Stefan Norbruis successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Stefan on this achievement!

This year The Netherlands once again chairs the EU Council. In the book ‘Fit for the Future’ Leiden researchers reflect on the priorities that the Dutch presidency has put forward for 2016 and raise the question: is the EU fit for the future?

Moritz Jesse, Associate Professor of European Law at the Europa Institute, presented at the annual conference of the Global Legal Network, which took place in November in Tallin (Estonia).

On the 10th November 2016, The Hazelhoff Centre for Financial Law organised a symposium on “Ethics and Moral Hazard in the Banking Union” in the historic Academy Building of Leiden University.

On 29 November 2019, Christa Tobler gave a lecture in Brussels on the new case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union in the field of gender discrimination.

Book launch

Hungary belongs to the EU, but democracy is being seriously and systematically threatened there. Does the rest of the EU have the means and the political will to deal with member states that are out of step? Antoaneta Dimitrova, professor of 'Comparative Governance' at the Institute of Security and…

On Thursday 16 November, the Europa Institute had the honour of receiving HE Jana Reinišová, Ambassador of the Czech Republic to the Netherlands. She delivered a speech in the framework of the European Union Seminar Series, jointly organized by the master’s programme in International Relations, the…

On 5 April 2017, Prof. Christa Tobler gave a guest lecture at the Centre for European Studies of the O.P Jindal Global University in Delhi on the topic of „“Brexit“ - what is it about and what could it mean for India?“

Research in the History and International Studies 1900-present specialisation addresses the interconnectedness and interdependence of contemporary global political, economic and cultural developments from a multidisciplinary perspective which is rooted in the humanities.

How can The Netherlands, France and Germany cooperate more closely on issues such as European security and defence. Join the kick off of The European Strategic Dialogue Series, an initiative by the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and its partners in France and Germany. Joachim Koops tells more…

The subject of this thesis is Alverata, a twenty-first-century typeface whose design was inspired by the shapes of Romanesque capitals such as those found in inscriptions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries.

CML report 192

This special issue of Contemporary Levant critically explores, at a micro and macro level, the structural role and religious, cultural and political interactions of the Greek-Orthodox, Melkite and Syriac communities in late Ottoman and Mandate Syria and Palestine.

Would it be possible for local and traditional European forms of parrhesiastic theater—by which Eleni Kamma means events, actions, and performances staged by characters who courageously speak their minds through scenes of excess and laughter, that take place in public view and incite the spectator’s…

“The union’s 60th birthday is not a moment for gifts and cake, but for reinvention around three new strategic idea. (…) The new Europe must protect, improvise and tolerate opposition”. This is what Prof. Luuk van Middelaa, Professor of Foundations and Practice of the European Union and its Institutions,…

How did African actors engage with the idea of Eurafrica?

On Tuesday 10 September 2019, the opening of the Master European Law took place in the Old Observatory. Ms Catherine De Bolle, Europol Executive Directeur, presented the opening lecture.

Nikki Ikani, Assistant Professor Intelligence and Security at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA), has recently published her latest monograph 'Crisis and change in European Union foreign policy' with Manchester University Press.

Impressions by Wouter Baas and Caroline Schep

A team of three Leiden tax law students have reached the finals of the most prestigious worldwide moot court competition in the field of international and European tax law.

On the 22nd of April 2021, the students of the LL.M. European Law had the opportunity to virtually visit the European Commission.

Lecture, Seminar

Moritz Jesse, associate professor for EU Law at the Europa Institute, and Daniel Carter, PhD candidate at the Europa Institute presented the paper, entitled ‘Back to the Market Roots for ‘Legal Residence’ of Citizens of the Union – Is the Court of Justice Really Scaling Back Rights?’ at the 2016 European…

On 8 September the students of the European Law Master gathered in the Lorentzzaal for the festive opening of their programme.