On 13 February 2020, President Karel De Gucht delivered a speech on the future relationship between the EU and the UK at the University of Warwick’s premises at the Shard in London, where this prestigious UK university’s Business School is located. In his speech, Mr De Gucht put to the audience that even though few people expected the road to withdrawal to be as long and as bumpy as it actually was, that was the easy part. The really difficult question that lies ahead is the one about the future relationship between the EU and the UK, as these two parties in the negotiations are bound together by history, geography, culture and common interests. The President touched upon a number of elements in the debate, including economics and trade, security and defense, and values and governance.
Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the University of Warwick are both a member of the EUTOPIA alliance of six European universities,which in 2019 was chosen by the European Commission as one of the seventeen pilot projects for developing a ‘European university’. As a result, the Institute for European Studies (now: Brussels School of Governance) and the University of Warwick are offering a Double Masters degree, combining the MA programmes of Warwick’s Department of Politics and International Studies (PAIS) and the Advanced Master in European Integration at the Brussels School of Governance.
