About - Portal2EU

Europaeum

The Europaeum is a network of 19 of European leading universities connecting students across disciplines, cultures and countries. For the past three decades the Europaeum has specialised in bringing students from the member universities together in multidisciplinary groups to discuss European issues and to problem-solve in the interests of Europe. Working with its members and with external bodies ranging from the European Parliament to multiple NGOs, Europaeum’s events take place across Europe.

Our team members embarked together on the 3rd cohort of the Europaeum Scholars Programme in March 2022. This Programme, is designed for promising doctoral candidates and helps to equip them with the competences to be future leaders of Europe. The Scholars are split into sub-groups and tasked with producing a policy proposal. This proposal will be presented to a panel of experts at an international conference.

How we decided to do this?

We decided on this topic after the second module in May 2022. During this module in Brussels, we visited different EU institutions. It was here where we inquired about the Conference on the Future of Europe, which sparked our interest in public consultation processes. Upon deeper investigation, we wrote a report outlining possible shortcomings and suggesting improvements for the 'Have Your Say!' platform. Our goal is to streamline the consultation process, and make it more accessible to EU citizens.

Interdisciplinary contributions

We are an interdisciplinary team. Claudia brought specialist knowledge on cybersecurity, user experience, and software engineering: her contribution was pivotal for determining the accessibility and usability of the platform. Our political scientists (Keith, Carolina, and Hasan) brought crucial perspectives on the issue and challenges of digitalization regarding consultation processes, and insights about democratic legitimacy and accountability. Our international lawyers (Kseniia and Cyprian) focused on the regulatory background of our project with a focus on EU law and policy documents concerning public consultation processes. Jan, our modern historian focused on outreach and institutional set-ups, and added insights to questions of lobbying and policy-making. Finally, Natalie, communication researcher and Florence, the classicist on our team focused on themes like gender equity, and accommodating people with disabilities.

Our journey!

March 2022: Pembroke College, University of Oxford

After our acceptance into the Europaeum Scholars Programme, we finally got to meet each other at Pembroke College, one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Over the course of the module, we learned more about contemporary European policy issues.

May 2022: KU Leuven & Brussels

During our stay in Belgium, we visited different EU institutions. It was here where we inquired about the Conference on the Future of Europe, which sparked our interest in public consultation processes.

September 2022: University of Luxembourg

Key issues from the media world, such as journalistic protections, the rule of law infractions against journalists, and the impact of social media on political discourses, were discussed in Luxembourg. We developed our project further and decided to focus on the 'Have Your Say!' platform.

December 2022: Catholic University of Portugal

In Lisbon, we worked tirelessly on articulating our project area and formulating a clear research question. Furthermore, we received several professional training sessions that helped us with our policy projects.

April 2023: University of Bologna

This time, our fellow scholars and distinct speakers discussed important issues such as populism, democracy capacity building and promotion, and election interference. Romano Prodi, former Prime Minister of Italy and the President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004 paid us a visit. We continued on our group work.

June 2023: Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva

The focus of this module was on multilateralism and global governance. We undertook a visit to the World Trade Organisation to learn more about the organization. We also partook in lectures from renowned academics on the Impact of the Ukraine War and US–EU relations. On the final day, we received media training from former BBC correspondents.

August 2023: University of Helsinki

The Lammi research station in offered our group just a perfect environment to finalise our policy paper. We received feedback on our project and started preparing for our final presentation.

September 2023: Freie Universität Berlin

In the final module, we will present our Portal2EU policy project at a conference organised under the auspices of Freie Universität. Academics and policy makers in relevant fields shall be among the audience.

About us

Our story

Multiple disciplines, one goal