The Riga Graduate School of Law Jean Monnet Summer School “European Union’s Fundamental Values in Times of Crisis” ended yesterday, 13 August, with the debate on the future of EU values with panelists Lolita Čigāne, Head of the Resilience Program at the Center for Geopolitical Studies Riga, Sintija Broka, Head of the Middle East Research Programme at the Latvian Institute of Foreign Affairs, and Dr. Toms Rostoks, Director of the Centre for Security and Strategic Research, Latvian National Defence Academy, moderated by Dr. Aleksandrs Potaičuks, RGSL Bachelor programmes Director.
The summer school explored the EU’s approach to crisis management and the effect of the challenges on the consolidation of values. In addition to examining past experiences, the course discussed possible future crises and examined the available instruments to counter them.
The summer school had 25 participants from 9 universities – Háskóli Íslands / University of Iceland, Mykolas Romeris University, Riga Graduate School of Law, Stockholm University, University of Eastern Finland, University of Iceland, University of Latvia, University of Tartu and University of Turku.
It was organized as a study course consisting of lectures, seminar sessions, and study visits and covered topics like protecting Fundamental Rights in the Age of AI, the response of the EU's External Action on crises outside the EU borders, the types, causing factors, frequency, and implications of financial crises, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the security of Europe, and EU enlargement. Lectures will be given by RGSL faculty members as well as international experts.
The students participated in a workshop on European Commission policy priorities and discussed the topics of the EU and Families regarding a potential conflict of values, potential signs of crisis in the EU, and the rule of law.
The students visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, the Constitutional Court of Latvia, and the European Commission representation in Latvia.
Participants received a certificate of attendance and 4 ECTS.
The summer school was organised within the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet academic project “EU Fundamental Values in Times of Crisis.”
Thank you to the Summer school organisers and lecturers Dr. Inga Jēkabsone, Viktorija Soņeca, Dr. Aleksandrs Potaičuks, Dr. Ilze Rūse, Dr. Nataļja Točelovska, Dr. Aleksandrs Fillers, and Dr. Mārtiņš Hiršs.