What challenges is the European Union currently facing and what are possible counterstrategies? These questions are addressed by a research network led by the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), which will be funded as part of a Jean Monnet Policy Network (JMPN) from January 2024 for three years with 1.2 million euros in funding from the EU Commission. The project entitled “ValEUs. Research & Education Network on Contestations to EU Foreign Policy” involves 20 partner institutions from 17 countries on five continents.
The research network “ValEUs” focuses on investigating the foreign policy of the European Union and the attacks of its values. While researching promising counterstrategies to the contestation of EU values on a global scale, the discussion around the role of universities as laboratories for democracy and partners for endangered regions, such as Ukraine, will be an integral part of the “ValEUs” project. “And it is not just about the violation of European values from outside. We are also particularly interested in whether and how the EU deviates in its behavior from the values that it has prescribed for itself and others. In its migration and asylum policy, there seems to be a systematic deviation from human rights standards the EU has signed or even set up, as in the Charter of Fundamental Rights. Another example would be the enlargement process, where the EU often demands more from potential members than it can implement within the EU,” says Prof. Dr. Timm Beichelt, Viadrina Professor of European Studies and principal investigator of the network.