EU Fundamental Values in Times of Crisis

ended

Riga Graduate School of Law (RGSL) proposes to organise a summer school, addressing a broad topic of “EU Fundamental Values in Times of Crisis”. The summer school builds on the specific crises that the EU has encountered, including the 2014 refugee crisis, terrorist attacks in 2015 and 2016, COVID-19 crisis, and others. The summer school will be organised as a coherent study course, consisting of 16 sessions and a final policy debate. The course will address both internal (intra-EU) and external challenges. More specifically, it will discuss the EU experience in responding to crises, examining available legal and political crisis management instruments as well as crisis prevention mechanisms. The proposed project promotes excellence in teaching and research by bringing together academics with different backgrounds to conduct research and prepare a course programme. The course will offer, inter alia, EU law, international humanitarian law and European human rights law perspective on the crises under examination to ensure a multi-dimensional approach. The project facilitates dialogue between the policymakers and civil servants and the young generation of students as the programme of the summer school envisions study visits to state institutions (e.g., the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia and the European Commission’s representation in Latvia). The project’s core aim is to increase the knowledge on EU fundamental values and to contribute to the effort of bringing the EU closer to the public by raising general awareness about the European principles and standards.