Villa Vigoni, in collaborazione con
l’Europa-Universität Flensburg;
l’Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II;
l’Università del Salento, Lecce;
l’Universität Hamburg;
l’Università Bocconi – BLEST, Milano
The seminars will cover the political and historical processes of European integration that have most contributed to shaping the European Union as we know it today. Particular attention will be paid to investigating how wars and conflicts have contributed to changing the EU political and institutional arrangements. Indeed, looking back in time, the Second World War contributed to the birth of the Western Europe of the founding countries. Decades later, the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall contributed to the birth of a new Europe, enlarged towards the East. Today it is important to ask which Europe will arise after the war on Ukraine. The school activities will be divided into three macro sections. The first section “Europe after World War II” will deal with the historical and political framework behind the first European Economic Communities, analysing the economic and social interests that initiated the European integration process. The second section, “Europe after the Cold War”, will deal with the further developments of the European Union by investigating the political and institutional transformations after the geopolitical upheavals of 1989-91. In this context, both the political processes that led to the birth of the single currency and the institutional changes that led to a significant shift in the EU’s scope of action with the Maastricht Treaty will be addressed. The third section “Which Europe after the War on Ukraine? The Future of the EU” will tackle the geopolitical question imposed by the war on Ukraine with respect to the development of the EU not only in terms of a possible enlargement to the East but also in terms of a more effective institutional design of political integration.