Visit to DG RTD and meeting with Mr Jean-Eric PAQUET

On 6 February 2019, a group of students of the College of Europe visited the European Commission's DG for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) where they met with Director General and alumnus of the College Mr Jean-Eric PAQUET, as well as colleagues from DG RTD and DG ENV. The meeting was organised in the framework of the TellUs extracurricular project, a cooperation between the Department of European Political and Governance Studies of the College of Europe and DG Environment. During the course of this project, students of the departments of politics, law and economics wrote a deliverable with recommendations related to environmental policies for the next Commission mandate, which was presented in a ‘Beaulieu Café’ in April 2019.

The final output took shape in four ‘clusters’: one overarching cluster in which several challenges are identified and general solutions for governance are proposed (research and innovation, social aspects, citizen support, market based solutions, public finances, subsidiarity and philosophy) and three topical clusters (Circular Economy, Urban development and Land and Natural Resources), which each proposed between two and four practical, innovative ideas for policies fitting with the narrative set out in the overarching cluster. The meeting in the ORB building of DG RTD was organised to discuss all aspects related to research and innovation in each cluster.

A brainstorming session was organised to discuss these aspects in a joint session with the students and participants from DG RTD as well as DG ENV. Four groups (reflecting the four clusters of the deliverable) discussed simultaneously the ideas of the students working on the topics, writing down the main topics of discussion for each.

This breakout session was followed by a meeting with Director-General Jean-Eric PAQUET, who discussed the outcome of the brainstorming session with the participants, relating them to aspects of the current policies and giving further input to the students.