24 March 2014
Bilbao Campus
entitled Ampliación y renovación institucional: ¿hacia una mayor legitimidad democrática e integración política de la Unión Europea?, this meeting will be this first public event scheduled by the University of Deusto’s Jean Monet Centre of Excellence in European Union Law and International Relations. It will take place on 24, 25 March. Six experts on European issues will meet to examine the key institutional political changes facing the EU in 2014.
With Croatia's entry in July 2013, the number of EU member states has risen to 28. Citizens from these countries will be called to the polls on 25 May 2014 to choose their representatives to the European Parliament.
This election coincides with major institutional changes together with the enormous challenge of widespread indifference caused by the economic recession and the social consequences of budget cutbacks.
The international JMCE meeting scheduled for this month at the University of Deusto aims to analyse and raise debate on these political and institutional challenges which will mark the immediate future of the EU.
The programme for the event is as follows:
24 March
The opening address will be given by José Luis Ávila, Dean of the Law Faculty, and Maite Asensio de la Villa, Director General of Property Register and Services, Treasury and Finance Department, Biscay Regional Council.
Beatriz Pérez de las Heras, Jean Monnet Chair in European Integration, will introduce the speakers and moderate the debate.
The first talk is entitled Negotiating process of Croatia for the membership to the EU, its specifics and methods and its political and institutional impact, by Jasna Ognjanovac, Ambassador of Croatia in Ireland.
The next speaker will be Izaskun Bilbao, European Parliament member, who will speak on: Construyendo la Unión: hacia un verdadero federalismo europeo.
El Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea y los jueces nacionales en la consolidación del espacio de libertad, seguridad y justicia will be the subject of the talk by David Ordoñez, European Legal Network Magistrate.
These talks will be followed by a debate.
25 March
Mª Luz Suárez, Director of the Institute of European Studies, will introduce the speakers and moderate the debate.
Ángel Boixareu, Director General, General Secretariat, Council of the European Union, will speak on Los retos institucionales del Consejo.
The next talk is entitled The European External Action Service: The new institutional centrepiece of EU diplomacy, by Steffen Rasmussen, Lecturer in Public International Law and International Relations, UD.
Los nuevos equilibrios interinstitucionales y entre la Unión y sus Estados miembros en la UEM post-crisis, will be the subjects of the talk by Ignacio Molina, Principal Researcher for Europe at the Elcano Royal Institute. His talk will close the second day of this meeting and will also be followed by a final debate among the speakers.
