2021
Report on European values and emotions (in English and French)
We have now published a report on European values and emotions that you can
download here in English or in French.
This report offers a summary of the international conference that the chair co-organized
on ‘Europe and its values at the heart of conflicting emotions’ on 5 March 2020.
Guest seminar Kris Grimonprez “Case4EU@school” (April 2020 and April 2021)
In April 2020 and in April 2021 the Chair in European Values at UCLouvain welcomed Kris Grimonprez to exchange views on European values with students about her ongoing project “Case4EU@school” (KU Leuven). Due to the Corona-crisis this scheduled guest-seminar was replaced by an online exchange with the students of the interdisciplinary seminar “Rethinking Europe” (LEUSL2051). In her project Kris Grimonprez uses cases from the European Court of Justice to stimulate reflection in schools about the European Union in general and European values in particular. You can read more about her project here.
Talk on the History of European Values (2021)
In February 2021 Wim Weymans gave a talk on ‘a critical history of European values’ for an international and interdisciplinary group of experts who want to translate the results of the latest European Values Study (EVS) for policymakers and a wider public through a book and a series of workshops. The workshop was hosted (online) by the University of Vienna (Universität Wien).
2020
In memoriam Maurice Velge (1935-2020)
On 4 October 2020 Maurice Velge passed away at the age of 84. Almost a decade ago, he came up with the idea of a Chair in European Values and he helped convince two universities, the UCLouvain and the UAntwerp, to each create a Chair in European values. These two chairs were inaugurated in 2015 and they were mainly sponsored by the Baillet Latour Fund. Velge himself also continued to sponsor them and also followed their activities with great interest. You can find an obituary (in French), written by Professor Bernard Coulie, who helped create the chair at UCLouvain, here.
Photo credit: Sophie Kaisin
New researcher Nicolas Arens
In September 2020 Nicolas Arens obtained a 3-year post-doctoral grant from the FNRS to do research at UCLouvain, where he will be affiliated in part to the chair in European values. He will do research on the relationship between democracy, populism and the European Union.
Guest seminar on European values at the College of Europe (Bruges, July 2020)
In July 2020 Wim Weymans gave a 2-hour guest seminar on “European values” at the College of Europe (Bruges) as part of their yearly one-week “intensive seminar on the EU” training program. The seminar was entitled “The potential and limitations of promoting European values” and involved lively discussions with the participants.
Guest seminar Kris Grimonprez “Case4EU@school” (April 2020)
In April 2020 the Chair in European Values at UCLouvain welcomed Kris Grimonprez to exchange views on European values with students about her ongoing project “Case4EU@school” (KU Leuven). Due to the Corona-crisis this scheduled guest-seminar was replaced by an online exchange with the students of the interdisciplinary seminar “Rethinking Europe” (LEUSL2051). In her project Kris Grimonprez uses cases from the European Court of Justice to stimulate reflection in schools about the European Union in general and European values in particular. You can read more about her project here.
2019
A presentation of the Chair appeared in a newsletter of the Fondation Louvain (April 2019)
In April 2019 a page was devoted to the Chair in the newsletter of the Fondation Louvain, click here.
2018
New Chair-holder (September 2018)
Wim Weymans succeeded Luuk van Middelaar as the Chair-holder. Like his predecessor, he studied philosophy and history, focusing on political philosophy. He already published on European values such as human rights, liberty, equality and democracy. Before becoming the new Chair-holder he taught history and theory of human rights (New York), philosophy (Leuven & Kortrijk) and philosophy of law and human rights theories (Antwerp). He studied in Belgium (Leuven & Antwerp) and the UK (Cambridge) and did research in the US (Centers for European studies of Berkeley & Harvard), France (Sciences Po) and Germany (Köln & Mainz).