Jean Monnet Project
“Understanding the Future Visions of the EU:  Perspectives of Young Researchers”
(619907-EPP-1-2020-1-CN-EPPJMO-PROJECT) (2020.09 - 2022.11)

让-莫内研究项目“理解欧洲一体化的未来愿景——青年研究者的视角”（619907-EPP-1-2020-1-CN-EPPJMO-PROJECT)

Summary: The EU is ushering to the seventieth anniversary of its founding in 2020. It is quite crucial for the EU to look back at its past and look forward to its future. Since its establishment, the EU has made great achievements in many ways, not least in the fields of peace and development, which are the top two purposes of the European project. Nevertheless, it cannot be denied, and actually it is widely believed, that these two ultimate purposes are being challenged in present environment. Issues, such as Brexit, an upsurge in nationalism, diffidence about governments etc., are increasingly threatening EI process. Meanwhile, all these issues have produced some negative impact on the EU’s international reputation, image and capability. As a result, international actors, in particular EU partners, might lose their belief and confidence in the EU as a regional hegemony. One instance indicating that the EU is of less importance is that research propositions on EU Studies are much reduced (e.g. in the case of China). Therefore, the primary goal of this proposal is to share young researchers’ knowledge of future of the EU, because the proposers do believe that a strong EU is an indispensable prerequisite of promoting EU Studies in the rest part of the world. This is why this proposal aims at understanding how young researchers construct their prediction of future EU and how they would promote EU Studies while sharing their knowledge in respective domestic spheres. The proposal will try: to understand how young researchers position EU Studies in international relations studies or regional studies; to understand how young researchers perceive the EU as an international player; to understand how young researchers view the capability of the EU to address multiple crises and hybrid challenges, and how they construct visions of a (better) future EU; to understand the extant and would-be difficulties in promoting EU studies and how to improve the promotion in a more effective way.
Project Coordinator: Prof. Dr. Zhuyu LI
The events held during September 2020 - November 2022:
1. September. 4, 2020, co-organized with JM projects 619906, 619923，the “2020 JM Projects Kick-off Meeting & the Impact of COVID-19 on European Integration” was held at Chengdu.  https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/1776.htm   
2.On December 22, 2020, a joint online conference was held by Prof. LI, the coordinator of Project No. 610097, SCU, China and Dr. Hoang, the coordinator of Project No, 621079, Vietnam.  https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/1813.htm   
3. June 25-26, 2021, a roundtable on "The Future of EU and the Development of EU- China Relations" was heled at Kangding, Sichuan.  https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/1893.htm    
4. November 19-20, 2021, the international conference on "Understanding the Future Visions of the European Integration"was held at Chengdu, both offline and online.   https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/1923.htm   
5. May 9, 2022, a roundtable on "The Future of European Integration" was held at Chengdu.  https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/1953.htm     
6. August 19-20, 2022, a roundtable on “Possible Impact of Russia-Ukraine Conflict on Sino-European Relations” held in Chengdu. https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/1983.htm    
7. November 10-11, 2022, the international conference on “Understanding the Future Visions of the European Integration” was held both offline and online.  https://esc.scu.edu.cn/info/1013/2043.htm