Standing Group SISP sull'Unione Europea

The Epoka University of Tirana, in cooperation with other universities from Albania, UK, Turkey, USA, Italy, Greece, Bosnia, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Azerbaijan, organizes the 4th International Conference on European Studies(ICES ’13) on «Social, Economic and Political Transition of Balkans», which will take place on 8-9 November 2013 in Tirana, Albania. The Conference Organising Committee invites academics, scholars, professionals and students to submit their papers/posters, projects, proposals, and demonstration for the Conference.
English will be the language of the Conference, but there may be a session in Turkish and Albanian language too, if there are enough presenters that want to present their papers in these languages.

Important dates and deadlines

Abstracts should be submitted by e-mail no later than June 30, 2013, with a clear indication of the authors, affiliations and contacts in the separate page, to allow for the blind review process.
Contact authors will be notified only upon acceptance of their abstract by July 21, 2013. The deadline for the submission of the full papers will be September 1, 2013 and a notification of full paper acceptance will be sent to the authors by October 11, 2013.

Further information can be obtained from the Conference’s homepage or via e-mail.

The University of Minho of Braga, Portugal, is organising a «Summer School on Democratization and Political Transitions in the Arab World: Actors, Challenges and Policy Options for the EU», 17-19 July 2013. The Summer School intends to increase insights, find new inroads and illuminate the complexity behind the many transitions that are taking place in the Arab world. The Summer School offers participants a unique opportunity to experience a highly stimulating, intellectual environment by attending lectures, panel debates, working groups and engaging in in-depth debates.

The Summer School integrates various formats, alternating between panel discussions and working group sessions. As to the working group sessions, four groups will be held: the first dealing with “The Arab Spring: Revolutions or Stalemate?”, the second with “Challenges during Political Transitions and Comparative Lessons for the Middle East and North Africa”; the third with “The Fall of Authoritarianism and the New Actors in the Arab World: The Challenges of Political Inclusion” and the fourth with “A New Mediterranean Democracy Agenda for a New Mediterranean Political Setting”. Every participant is expected to deliver a presentation of 15 minutes (a paper of around 5000 words) during the working group session on one of the four thematic blocs.

The Summer School is specifically aiming at recent graduates, PhD and master students and young scholars. Applicants should have an academic background in the fields of political and/or social sciences and be interested in the topics outlined in the programme. The Summer School’s participants will be selected on the basis of their academic achievements, relevant civil and political activities, and language proficiency (working language is English). Special emphasis is placed on adequate representation of participants from Arab countries.

All abstracts need to be presented in English by 1 June 2013. The maximum length of abstracts is 300 words. Abstracts can be sent as an attachment to nepasproject@gmail.com. The following information should be included in the application email: name, institutional affiliation and a short CV, and contact information (including preferred email address). More details about the programme, selection process, and available funding scholarship are available in the Summer School’s call for papers.

Tra il 7 e il 12 maggio 2013 tornerà a Firenze il Festival d’Europa, un’occasione di riflessione sull’Europa di domani, laboratorio della comunicazione tra Unione Europea e cittadini, vetrina delle attività dell’Unione e dei suoi Stati membri.

Nell’ambito dei lavori del Festival, mercoledì 8 maggio 2013 si terrà, con il patrocinio della Scuola di Scienze Politiche “Cesare Alfieri” e il coordinamento scientifico di Valeria Fargion, il convegno «L’Europa in bilico: la scienza politica italiana di fronte alle attuali sfide».

Il convegno avrà inizio alle ore 9.00 e si articolerà nel lavoro di tre panel:

• Sfide e opportunità dell’integrazione politica: verso una cittadinanza attiva, coordinato da Mario Telò (Université libre de Bruxelles e LUISS Guido Carli, Roma);
• Le frontiere dell’UE, coordinato da Marco Mascia (Università degli Studi di Padova);
• L’UE: attore globale?, coordinato da Francesca Longo (Università degli Studi di Catania).

Seguirà alle ore 16.30 una tavola rotonda, dal titolo «Quo vadis Europa?», coordinata dall’europarlamentare Niccolò Rinaldi, vice-presidente del gruppo parlamentare ALDE. Parteciperanno alla tavola rotonda l’On. Giuliano Amato, Sergio Fabbrini (Università degli Studi di Trento), Philippe C. Schmitter (EUI Florence), Vittorio Emanuele Parsi (Università Cattolica di Milano) e Mario Telò (Université libre de Bruxelles e LUISS Guido Carli di Roma). Seguiranno il dibattito e le conclusioni del convegno.

L’evento avrà luogo presso il Polo delle Scienze Sociali, Auditorium del Polo delle Scienze Sociali (Edificio D6 – via delle Pandette, 9), Firenze. Ulteriori informazioni sul convegno sono disponibili nel programma ufficiale dell’evento. Altri dettagli sul Festival d’Europa possono essere reperiti, invece, sul sito internet della manifestazione.

A call for papers is now open for a panel on «The European Parliament as an international actor» at the upcoming Florence European Festival (7-12 May, 2013).

The contents

The international role of the European Parliament (EP) is gradually in the academic literature. Be it through the empowerment of parliamentary bodies or through the growth of Inter-parliamentary Institutions (IPIs) worldwide, or through the increased external powers that the Lisbon Treaty has specifically provided the EP with, its role in world affairs reaches now well beyond the mere scope of the external dimension of European integration.

The EP includes a number of specific institutions dealing with external relations (Committees, Delegations, etc.), but also a unique feature it has been developing over time such as its Inter-parliamentary Assemblies (with ACP countries, the Mediterranean, Latin America or its Eastern Neighbourghood). The EP also produces an Annual Report on Human Rights in the World and awards its now prestigious Sakharov Prize. It has now established its own Office for the Promotion of Parliamentary Democracy in order to provide demand-driven parliamentary development support in new and emerging democracies. Whenever necessary, additionally to its usual working groups, it sets up special units, such as the one established in 2011 as the EP’s Monitoring Group on the Southern Mediterranean. The EU has also now just set up an Inter-parliamentary Conference on CFSP and CSDP. In addition, on many international conflicts, the EP has developed its own stance, as was the case over Libya in 2011. In spite of all the above, the international role of the EP remains a neglected area of academic study.

The Call for Papers will invite in particular empirical papers to complement the more theoretical and conceptual round-table that will open this Panel. However, more conceptual and theoretical papers will also be accepted if they cover for instance comparisons with other regional parliamentary institutions. The following academic disciplines are welcome in order to foster an inter-disciplinary discussion to reflect the complexity of the topic under study: Political Science, Political theory, Law, History, Sociology, European Studies, Comparative Politics, Area-Studies, and of course International Relations).

Details of the call

Abstracts (about 250 words) should be sent before February 15, 2013, to the Panel Coordinator, Dr. Stelios Stavridis (ARAID, University of Zaragoza) at this address. The panel organisers include Stelios Stavridis, Zlatko Šabič (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), Sergio Fabbrini (LUISS Roma, Italy), and Nicola Lupo (LUISS Roma, Italy). Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by February 25, 2013. All costs are to be covered by the participants and/or their own institutions. More information about the call is available at this link.

The call for papers is now open for the Panel «The internal/external continuum in transnational organised crime» at the next ECPR General conference, which will take place in Bordeaux on September 5-7, 2013. The panel is coordinated by Francesca Longo and Daniela Irrera and will be embedded in the conference section sponsored by the ECPR’s Standing Group on the European Union, “Transnational Organised Crime in a Globalised World”.

The panel aims at investigating the implication of the external dimension of JHA for the European security concept with particular focus on the reliance of the TOC issue in the process of interlinking EU domestic and external security.

Potential paper givers should send an abstract no longer than 250 words and the indication of your full institutional affiliation to the panel coordinators. Positions as panel discussants are also currently available. The deadline for abstract submission is Monday, January 28, 2013, at 18.00.

The ReSHAPE Annual Workshop is a discussion and study event for researchers and professionals concerned with the advancement of scientific and policy-oriented knowledge about the EU’s response capabilities and policies towards emergencies like natural disasters, humanitarian crises and systemic risks, within and outside Europe.
The Workshop will take place at the Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Catania, on June 6-7, 2013. More information about the event are available on the Workshop’s website.

Funding & Grants
The workshop is financed by the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission. A limited number of grants is available for paper-givers. The grant consists in free accommodation, and the reimbursement of the travel costs up to 400 Euros.

Application
Please send a 150-200 word abstract of your paper to the Coordinator (Prof. F. Attinà) by March 15, 2013. Include the following information: name, mailing address, telephone numbers and e-mail address, academic affiliation, paper title, and the grant request where conditional. Accepted paper proponents will be notified by March 30. The no-grant participants will be assisted to make out hotel accommodation.