CIVICA European Week kicks off at IE University with a focus on Europe’s competitiveness in a multipolar world

Catherine de Vries, Vice Dean of IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs and head of the Political Science Area at IE University, inaugurated the lectures at the CIVICA European Week, today at the IE Tower. The professor of Political Science provided a proactive session for students coming from CIVICA universities. During the session, she reinforced the advantage that it is for states to join the European Union, in exchange for certain sovereignty. "You can be more sovereign if you collaborate together", de Vries argued, in what regards European Competitiveness. 

In the first day of the CIVICA European Week at the IE Tower, Catherine de Vries provided a comprehensive overview on the institutional ecosystem of the European Union, focusing on the functioning of European democracy. According to the Vice Dean, the reason why states are willing to give away a certain degree of sovereignty due to the benefits of the supranational organization. "The advantage of the EU is the scale; there is a stronger bargaining power, less of a coordination problem, also in terms of defense", she explained. In fact, de Vries, argued that "The European Union often gets blamed for things it has no control over; it is simply easier to blame Brussels." She signaled the importance of the report "Much more than a market" by Enrico Letta (Dean of IE School of Politics, Public Affairs and Economics), to which Francesc Martínez later resorted. 

Professor de Vries’s intervention was the first in a series of lectures that complement immersive experiences, which include a visit to the European Commission Office in Madrid. Her lecture was followed by Francesc Martinez Bailac, Alternative Investments Director at Orilla Asset Management and former Director in Telefonica Group, and Laurence Romani, Director of the Center for Responsible Leadership and professor from the Department of Management and Organization at the Stockholm School of Economics. Martínez completed de Vries’s view on European competitiveness by providing an economic overview of the EU in the world. He guided students in the understanding of how finance goes beyond markets. "At the end of the day, economics is a social matter", he explained. He pushed for greater investment and internal cohesion, as Enrico Letta argues in his report, and called for the next generation of European leaders, reunited at the IE Tower for the CIVICA European Week, to pave the way. 

The CIVICA European Week is an annually organized experience that provides a week-long academic event for undergraduate students. Its latest edition at IE University has brought together eighty students from universities like Bocconi, Sciences Po or LSE, five students from Ukrainian partner universities and ten high school students. IE University had already participated in its previous edition, at The National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (SNSPA) in Bucharest. This year, IE University hosts ten expert lecturers on the topic of European Competitiveness and challenges participants to create a communication campaign directed towards European citizens. 

The objective of this years’ training is to put into value Europe in an increasingly multipolar world, for which students receive guidance from specialists, also including Odysseas Konstantinakos, Research Fellow at the IE Competitiveness Hub in Brussels and a PhD candidate in Political Economy at the European University Institute; Tullio Ambrosone, Coordinator of the IE Competitiveness Hub and Director of Arel Single Market Lab; Gemma Bedia, Senior Climate Change Project Manager at alinnea (the climate action think tank based at IE University); and Asier Hernando, former Regional Director for Latin America at Oxfam and professor of persuasion, advocacy, and development and international cooperation at IE University.