Summer School – Call for applications

Press release — 16 January 2012

Call for Application

CEURUS Summer School
“EU and Russia Transforming: Implications for the Relationship”

The Centre for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu organizes a Summer School on EU-Russia relations from 23-28 July 2012 in Tartu, Estonia.

While many experts describe the EU-Russia relations as stagnating, internally both players are going through dramatic changes. The eurozone has been hit by the debt crisis, which presents a grave danger to the very existence of the single European currency. The scale of the financial problems, which the European Union is now facing has pushed the EU governments towards far-reaching political and institutional reforms, which might lead to the emergence of a much more coherent and robust political actor to replace today’s rather loose confederation. Russia, for its part, demonstrates an unprecedented degree of political stability and continuity, and yet there are numerous indications that the tensions continue to accumulate within the economy, the state and society. There seems to be a consensus for the need to modernise the country, but various elite groups and the wider society increasingly diverge as to the most basic goals of political and societal development.

In sum, the EU and Russia are entering an interesting time of major transformations, which can make them much stronger, but can also lead to a collapse of their current social, economic and political structures. The goal of the 2012 CEURUS Summer School is to help students get a better grasp of the scale and interconnectedness of the various challenges that the EU and Russia are facing today, and to estimate the potential impact of these challenges on the future EU-Russia relations.

CEURUS invites all interested MA students as well as advanced undergraduate students to apply for participating in this event. Moreover, the Centre also welcomes professionals with a keen interest in the EU and Russia.

Applications, including a short letter of motivation should be ssubmitted latest by 4 June 2012. Applicants will be notified by 14 June about acceptance into the programme.

For more information about the Summer School, application requirements and costs, please visit the CEURUS Summer School website