{"id":3538,"date":"2016-08-19T09:51:31","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T13:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=3538"},"modified":"2025-10-17T16:32:53","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T20:32:53","slug":"spotlight-on-europe","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/spotlight-on-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Spotlight on Europe\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Brexit. Refugees and migrants. Russia\u2019s incursions into Ukraine. Terrorist attacks in France and Belgium. The Canada-European Union trade deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although conflict in the Middle East, the candidacy of Donald Trump and the mushrooming economies in China and India remain in the media spotlight, Europe has started to attract more attention from Canadian academics, politicians and journalists in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while the continent has never lost its global or domestic significance \u2014 the European Union is Canada\u2019s second biggest trading partner, trailing only the United States \u2014 Carleton\u2019s Centre for European Studies (CES)<\/a> is poised to help us develop a deeper understanding of Europe\u2019s central economic and political entity with three new grants from the Erasmus+ Programme of the EU, which will support the centre\u2019s research, teaching and outreach activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Joan
Professor Joan DeBardeleben, co-director of the Centre for European Studies<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSome people may think other parts of the world are more dynamic or more important, but all of the news coming out of the European Union these days is generating a lot of interest,\u201d says Joan DeBardeleben<\/a>, who co-directs CES with Political Science Prof. Achim Hurrelmann<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a rapidly changing environment that\u2019s not shielded from the tensions impacting the rest of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Not all of the news is negative, she adds, citing the international leadership of European nations on climate change and sustainability issues, humanitarian assistance, and their efforts since the Second World War to develop a system of supranational law \u2014 a mechanism for countries to find solutions to common problems under a binding legal context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe EU is an extremely complicated but important body, a governance structure within which countries make decisions collectively,\u201d says DeBardeleben. \u201cI think we need more of this in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCanada has a lot in common socially, economically and politically with European countries,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe can learn a lot from how the EU\u2019s advanced industrial nations have dealt with a range of issues. Let\u2019s face it: we\u2019re probably not going to adopt policy solutions from China.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new funding will support the centre in three ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n