Fostering EU resilience through European identity building

ended

Democracies worldwide face challenges that affect the future of the EU. De-democratisation and democratic backsliding are noticeable trends. Referring to the priorities of the European Commission, the European Democracy Action Plan and the Conference on the future of Europe initiative, I intend to foster civic engagement and political participation of European citizens. My aim is to generate debate and dialogue in the academic sphere and beyond on policy issues that are of most relevance for citizens, especially the youth. With the firm belief that European citizens shall be regarded as the most important actors in the EU’s political system, as a JM Chair I wish to approach resilience from the perspective of the individuals. My activities will focus on four target groups: 1) University students in Hungary and in Erasmus+ partner countries including students enrolled in other than EU studies 2) high school students in disadvantaged regions of the country and beyond 3) opinion leaders, influencers and the media and 4) civil servants and young professionals. The activities of the JM Chair are built around two specific objectives: (a) implementing excellent teaching, research and training in the field of EU Studies and (b) promoting debate on the future of EU related issues among university and high school students nationwide and internationally. Innovative curriculum development with interactive, debate generating methodology, supervision of PhD students, publications in peer-reviewed journals, development of a ’bEU’ digital platform, organising events and reaching out to a wider public through social media are all among the expected deliverables of the three-year long JM Chair project. Effective implementation of the tasks will be guaranteed by the Chair (a full professor with extensive research and publication record and head of the Department of European Studies at NKE), a senior and a junior member of the academic team and an experienced project manager.