Report: European Summer School 2021 "Europe's Pandemic Recovery”

In July 2021, EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy organized already its 18th annual European Summer School in Prague. This year’s programme was focused on the European pandemic recovery and its perception as an opportunity for sustainable development and future resilience.

This year´s summer school ran under the title “Europe´s Pandemic Recovery - An Opportunity for Sustainable Development and Future Resilience” and was attended by students from various countries, coming to Prague from all over the world.  During seven intensive days, our students attended seven lectures, two excursions, two interactive workshops, and also took part in many exciting free-time activities.

The academic programme started on Monday with an excursion at the Prague castle premises, followed by a meeting with Petr Pirunčík, a representative from the Office of the President. In the afternoon, our students attended a lecture delivered by Aleš Chmelař, the Deputy Minister for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic,who introduced our students to the policies and perspectives of the Visegrad countries, discussing the future potential of the V4 cooperation format.

Tuesday morning began with a lecture by Danielle Piatkiewicz, EUROPEUM´s Research Fellow, which focused on the status of transatlantic relations under the new Biden administration. The afternoon belonged to the topic of climate change and green transformation, which was introduced with a lecture by Kateřina Davidová and followed by an interactive workshop on future European sustainability led by Klára Berg. Next up, we continued on Wednesday with a lecture from Tereza Novotná, a Korea-Europe Center Fellow at Free University Berlin, who spoke to our students about European strategic autonomy. In her lecture, Tereza explained which various EU policies have become interconnected with this quest and why. In the afternoon, our students met with Daniel Volf, Deputy director of the Foreign Policy Analysis and Planning Department at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who explained them the framework of his work and of the Czech foreign policy.

On Thursday, we visited the premises of the Offices of the Government and also met with its representative, Štěpán Černý. Later on, we held two more lectures, one by Zuzana Stuchlíková, an officer at the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, who spoke about economic recovery of Europe and described work on national recovery plans. In the afternoon, we were joined by three experts, Jonáš Syrovátka from Prague Security Studies Institute, Dominik Presl from Semantic Visions and Petr Vlasák from Nelež, who spoke about the disinformation threat and various ways on how to cope with it.

We ended the week by a lecture led by an honoured guest, the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, who discussed with our students the issue of rule of law and protection of European values. Our students also had an opportunity to improve their presentation and debating skills during the workshop with Tereza Vicková, former president of a Debate club of the Charles University.

European Summer School 2021 was organized under the auspices of the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic and in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. Hereby, we would like to kindly thank our partners for cooperation and support.

For further information regarding the programme of the upcoming European Summer School, please visit our website www.essprague.eu

This year´s summer school ran under the title “Europe´s Pandemic Recovery - An Opportunity for Sustainable Development and Future Resilience” and was attended by students from various countries, coming to Prague from all over the world.  During seven intensive days, our students attended seven lectures, two excursions, two interactive workshops, and also took part in many exciting free-time activities.

The academic programme started on Monday with an excursion at the Prague castle premises, followed by a meeting with Petr Pirunčík, a representative from the Office of the President. In the afternoon, our students attended a lecture delivered by Aleš Chmelař, the Deputy Minister for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic,who introduced our students to the policies and perspectives of the Visegrad countries, discussing the future potential of the V4 cooperation format.

Tuesday morning began with a lecture by Danielle Piatkiewicz, EUROPEUM´s Research Fellow, which focused on the status of transatlantic relations under the new Biden administration. The afternoon belonged to the topic of climate change and green transformation, which was introduced with a lecture by Kateřina Davidová and followed by an interactive workshop on future European sustainability led by Klára Berg. Next up, we continued on Wednesday with a lecture from Tereza Novotná, a Korea-Europe Center Fellow at Free University Berlin, who spoke to our students about European strategic autonomy. In her lecture, Tereza explained which various EU policies have become interconnected with this quest and why. In the afternoon, our students met with Daniel Volf, Deputy director of the Foreign Policy Analysis and Planning Department at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who explained them the framework of his work and of the Czech foreign policy.

On Thursday, we visited the premises of the Offices of the Government and also met with its representative, Štěpán Černý. Later on, we held two more lectures, one by Zuzana Stuchlíková, an officer at the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade, who spoke about economic recovery of Europe and described work on national recovery plans. In the afternoon, we were joined by three experts, Jonáš Syrovátka from Prague Security Studies Institute, Dominik Presl from Semantic Visions and Petr Vlasák from Nelež, who spoke about the disinformation threat and various ways on how to cope with it.

We ended the week by a lecture led by an honoured guest, the Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, who discussed with our students the issue of rule of law and protection of European values. Our students also had an opportunity to improve their presentation and debating skills during the workshop with Tereza Vicková, former president of a Debate club of the Charles University.

European Summer School 2021 was organized under the auspices of the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic and in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University. Hereby, we would like to kindly thank our partners for cooperation and support.

For further information regarding the programme of the upcoming European Summer School, please visit our website www.essprague.eu

Miroslava Pisklová
Project Manager

Expertise: European security and defence, hybrid threats, Transatlantic relations, Slovak national and foreign policy