Conference Report 13th HEIRS conference: “The Informal Construction of Europe”

13^th History of European Integration Research Society Conference, 23-25 March 2017, Luxembourg

The 13^th annual conference of the History of European Integration Research Society (HEIRS) raised the important topic of ‘informality’ in the history of European integration. While the majority of historical or political science research on European integration has focused on the formal institutions and the diplomatic procedures of establishing them, informality has played a crucial role in European integration. While indeed, treaties, laws and EU institutions constitute the formal fundaments of European integration, informal activities on the European intergovernmental, supranational and transnational stage have often been a necessary precondition for concerted action leading to binding agreements and political change. The theme of this conference invited scholars to elaborate on the role of informality in European integration in various guises. The aim of the conference was to bring together PhD students and several senior researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds ranging from history to political sciences to discuss their research on informality in European integration. The conference was held at the Historical Archives of the European Parliament and the Maison Robert Schuman in Luxembourg and was organized by the HEIRS members Mechthild Herzog (University of Luxembourg) and Lennaert van Heumen (Radboud University Nijmegen).

Programme 13th HEIRS Conference: The Informal Construction of Europe

Luxembourg-Ville, 23-25 March 2017

Keynote speakers:

• Dr. N. Piers Ludlow, LSE:
  Of treaties, conventions, and habits: How formal integration interacts with informal
  
• Prof. Dr. Christine Neuhold, Maastricht University:
  Trying to capture and study the ‘invisible’: Informal governance in the EU

This year’s HEIRS conference focuses on the informal construction of Europe. Although treaties and laws constitute the formal fundaments of European integration, informal activities on the European intergovernmental, supranational and transnational stage have often been a necessary precondition for concerted action leading to binding agreements and political change. National delegations met not only at negotiation tables when drafting new Community treaties or negotiating legal texts, but made decisive bargains in informal settings. Members of supranational institutions, such as notably the European Court of Justice, the European Parliament and, more recently, the European Central Bank, went far beyond the framework of tasks and responsibilities initially provided for them, and thus decisively shaped their own role as well as European policy areas. Interest groups have aimed to exert influence on decision-makers by way of informal strategies ranging from argumentative persuasion to political pressure.

CfP 1st EUI/RICHIE/HEIRS Graduate Conference

European University Institute, Florence, 18-20 September 2017

The Annual Graduate Conference on the History of European Integration is a joint initiative between the Alcide De Gasperi Research Centre at EUI and the two European associations of young researchers, RICHIE (Réseau international de jeunes chercheurs en histoire de l’intégration européenne) and HEIRS (History of European integration research society).

International colloquium: “Forms of Europe: of the European Union and of other organisations”

Université de Lausanne, 21 and 22 October 2016

This colloquium was organised by the Fondation Jean Monnet pour l’Europe, in collaboration with HEIRS and RICHIE and supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. The theme was Forms of Europe: of the European Union and of other organizations.

 

1st HEIRS-RICHIE Conference: Capitalism, Crises and European Integration from 1945 to the present

European University Institute, Florence, Italy, 26-28 May 2016

The severe multidimensional crisis that has been affecting Europe since 2008 calls for a critical rethinking of European integration history. Europe’s present difficulties highlight both the importance of crises in shaping European integration and the role of European governance in asserting a certain form of capitalism. Crises have punctuated and defined European integration history from the start – the mushrooming of integration and cooperation projects sixty years ago were responses to the chaos of post-­‐war Europe. The present crisis also raises questions about the nature of the European ‘project’, which appears today to differ in many ways from what it was at its inception. Arguably, European integration took ot in a moment of exception in the history of capitalism, when inequalities were at a historical low –in sharp contrast with the present era of globalised ‘neoliberal’ capitalism and record inequalities. This conference will explore the interconnections between European integration and the history of capitalism and its crises, in an effort to highlight the shifting nature of the European integration process.

4th HEIRS Conference: European integration without integration of European societies?

Institut d’Etudes européennes, Université Libre de Bruxelles, 11-12 April 2008

The Fourth HEIRS Conference was arranged by Flavia Cumoli, Mazyar Khoojinian and Nicolas Verschueren and took place in Brussels in April 2008. It aimed to discuss problem posed by the apparent lack of the integration of European societies as part of the broader European integration process.