The workshop on CHINA IN EUROPE: ECONOMICS, POLITICAL AND GEO-STRATEGIC CHALLENGES was organized with great success by the Institute for Political Studies of Universidade Católica Portuguesa and the EUROPAEUM, a consortium of 17 European universities based at Oxford. The event was supported by the Municipality of Mafra and took place on February 12-14. The EUROPAEUM brings together 17 of the oldest European universities, including Sorbonne, Oxford, Leiden, Jagiellonian (Kraków), Karlova (Prague), and Universidade Católica Portuguesa, among others. Please click here to learn more about the Europaeum.
Thirty students from various European universities on an intense academic journey
Thirty MA and doctoral students from several universities of the Europaeum were selected through application and participated in this workshop presenting papers, and discussing essays from professors and researchers from IEP-UCP (Professors Francisco Proença Garcia, Nuno Sampaio, Sónia Ribeiro and William Hasselberger) and engaging in a very lively and pluralistic debate. This workshop, which took place at the Hotel Vila Galé Ericeira, had as a corollary in the last session the presentations of the different groups of students with their reflections on some of the most prominent geopolitical issues of the relationship between Europe and China, which had been mentioned and discussed throughout the various panels of the program. Please click here to see the programme of the event.
Conference by José Manuel Barroso at the Mafra National Palace on “Europe and Asia”
One of the highlights of this program was the conference of the Director of the Center for European Studies at IEP-UCP, and former President of the European Commission, José Manuel Durão Barroso. To an audience of about 200 people, José Manuel Barroso addressed the relationship between Europe and Asia in the context of the world order, having pointed to the rise of China as the most relevant geostrategic change and challenge in the last four decades. This conference was chaired by the Mayor of Mafra, Hélder Sousa Silva, and was attended by Vice-Rector Miguel Athaíde Marques, representing the Rector of the Portuguese Catholic University, Isabel Capeloa Gil. The event was also hosted by the director of the Europaeum, Hartmut Mayer (also director of the European Studies Center at St. Antony’s College, Oxford) and the director of IEP-UCP, João Carlos Espada. Please, click here to learn more about the Mafra National Palace.
Sublime musical moment
After the conference and before the dinner (that brought together students, academics, mayors, diplomats, officers of the Armed Forces, businessmen and many others interested in this very current and relevant topic), the participants had the grateful opportunity to attend a magnificent concert of the six recently restored Organs from the Basílica of the National Palace. The concert, the lecture and the dinner took place at Royal Palace of Mafra, which in 2019 was classified as World Heritage by UNESCO.
At the end of the two-day program, all participants expressed emphatic thanks to the IEP executive team that ensured the exemplary and smooth operation of the whole programme (Michelle Lobo, Cátia Silva, Raquel Gatta and Inês Gregório), as well as the Chief of Staff of the Mayor of Mafra, Judite da Silva Duarte.
Please click here to see the photo gallery.
