June is always a bittersweet month at the College of Europe. It represents the end of another academic year, but it is also the start of another busy and exciting summer. In fact, every year, in the months of June and July, the College of Europe Development Office runs it Executive Education training courses.
Professionals from all over the world, and from different backgrounds, come to Bruges to attend one of the yearly summer training programmes designed and run by the Development Office. Four Executive Education courses took place this summer: the Intensive Seminar on the EU; EU Competition Law (coupled for the first time with a course on IT Markets); the first edition of the Energy Union Summer School; and the EU Transport and Railway Affairs (ETCR) course.
The Intensive Seminar on the EU gives a full overview of the EU’s structure and decision-making process, as well as an insight into selected policy areas. The participants can register for either 3 weeks, 2 weeks, or 1 week, depending on their prior knowledge about the EU. This year, a total of forty-two professionals attended, making the most of the lectures, study visits, exercises and extra-curricular activities on offer.
During the same period, twenty participants took part in a one-week advanced course on EU Competition Law. They learned how the law governs business practices that may restrict competition in economic markets through private and public enforcement, and analysed how competition law can curb anticompetitive activities. Seven of these participants stayed on for a three-day course on IT Markets and Competition Law. This was run for the first time and will be repeated next year too.
This summer also marked the launch of the Energy Union Summer School – a two-week programme designed to cover the current EU energy-climate policies as well as the various components of the EU Energy Union. In addition to lectures, exercises, and simulation games, the participants had the opportunity to meet EU officials in Brussels and to visit an LNG terminal in Zeebrugge.
Last but not least, the Executive Education course on EU Transport and Railway Affairs also took place at the College, and was attended by twenty-four professionals from the railway sector in Europe. The two-week programme focused on developments within the railway sector on a European level and included a study visit to the EU institutions in Brussels and one to the port and railway station in Antwerp.
Finally, in addition to these four courses, over thirty Chinese officials from competition and anti-dumping authorities came to the College for a tailored course on EU competition law. This is the fourth edition of this customized summer school and, this year, it was organized as part of the EU-China Competition Cooperation in the framework of FWC COM 2011 – Lot 1 (2016-2017), in partnership with AETS.
For more on our Executive Education courses, please visit: www.coleurope.eu/executiveeducation
For more on our tailor-made courses, please visit: www.coleurope.eu/tailormadecourses