Outside
contacts
European Economic Policy
Concerning EEP we have the following in mind. As we have
explained in the programme outline, each course will be organized around a
specific report which has been seminal for the development of the EU or which is
in the centre of a debate. Examples are reports like “One Market, One Money”,
the Sapir-report, the Treaties of Maastricht and Amsterdam, the yearly reports
about labour market performance in the EU. For each course, we aim to have an
opening lecture where the report is introduced and discussed by a representative
of the EU or the ECB. The focus in these lectures must be on the policy issues
that follow from the report. Additionally, we regularly invite researchers who
are heavily involved in discussions about European economic policy both
international (Buiter, De Grauwe, Sapir, Mitchell, Saint-Paul, Sawyer/Arestis,
Atkinson) and national (Eijffinger, Kool, Soete, Tang) to list just a few names.
The aim of this part is to sharpen student’s notions about the theoretical
framework that is behind EU policy and to discuss alternative views. Finally, we
also intend to invite Members of the European Parliament or the European
Commission to present the politicians’ point of view and to discuss the ideas of
the students concerning the policy issues. It is for example possible that the
MOP discusses students’ papers that they have written during the course.
Social Economics
The SE track aims at investigating day-to-day economic and
social problems. To give students an idea of these issues we invite local
political actors to give insight into their problems. For example, Gert Leers
(major of Maastricht) can tell about his plans to legalize soft drugs in and
around Maastricht; Ivo Opstelten should be able to give an overview of
neighbourhood segregation; and employees of the Ministry of Social Affairs or
Education could lecture about new social security laws and the social costs of
dropouts. We also aim to use our international academic network and invite
scholars who are well established in using particular set ups to come to policy
analysis, such as natural experiments or field experiments. Finally, inviting
theorists, who are concerned with social problems, to provide lectures about
their work is useful in explaining students the importance of their IES studies.
Alumni
For both tracks, we aim to create an academic community among
the students and alumni. One way to implement this is to organize yearly
workshops/conferences for students and alumni. We consider update sessions to
discuss with alumni recent developments in economic theory and research in the
field.
It is clear that this set-up demands a large and high quality
network. Alumni of the Faculty who work at the EU, the ECB or other relevant
organisations will be approached to cooperate in the programme and to help
developing the network, in particular for people from the EU and from the
European Parliament. We also consider cooperation with EIPA, which organizes
periodically workshops and conferences with top-level civil servants from the EU.
In addition, we will explore whether the European Journalism Centre in
Maastricht can be involved as well.
For students this set up has the advantage that
they can easily get in touch with alumni and other employees of the EU. For the
coordinators, frequent contacts with alumni and other employees of the EU/politicians
help to determine relevant discussions and relevant reports and to discuss the
programme with potential employers. In that sense, these participants serve as a
sort of implicit programme board.
Back to
Home Page
