European integration is the result of a series of policy initiatives with strong voluntaristic features. By far the most important of those initiatives was the adoption of the euro as a common currency for the 17 countries-members of the euro zone. The European edifice was designed for normal conditions and not for crisis situations. The budgetary and financial crisis of the recent years led necessarily to the adoption of an extraordinary system of economic governance of the euro area with entirely intergovernmental- and not community- features. While the countries in crisis are predominantly in the European South, Evangelos Venizelos, President of PASOK, argues that the notion of the European South is a political and not a geographic concept.

The Brazil Institute with the Institute for Advanced Studies at USP hosted a private seminar to discuss the creation and implementation of the Rainforest Continent Business School

This conference seeks to strengthen the profile and advance the research agenda of the Humanities and qualitative Social Sciences within the framework of Horizon 2020. Ireland’s presidency of the European Union provides an ideal platform to promote this section of the EU’s flagship research and innovation document, with particular reference to the delineated thematic challenge of ‘Inclusive, innovative and reflective societies.’

The race to build the Southern Energy Corridor to bring Caspian natural gas to Europe is in its final stages. The Shah Deniz consortium in Azerbaijan is set to once and for all decide the long-pending "Nabucco question". How will this improve European energy security? Experts from Baku's Center for Strategic Studies and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan gather to discuss this, as well as other pertinent questions at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by the Global Europe Program and the Kennan Institute.