24 students from the Department of Politics, International Relations and Philosophy took part in the Brussels Trip 29-30 March 2023 in a group led by Giacomo Benedetto (Jean Monnet Chair) and Nicholas Allen.

Royal Holloway's study group on the way to Brussels

The group visited and heard talks from officials at the European External Action Service (which is the EU’s foreign and security policy institution), the European Parliament, where we witnessed a debate on Rule of Law in one of the Parliament’s plenary sessions, and the Foundation of European Progressive Studies, a publicly-funded centre-left thinktank, where we heard about the role of thinktanks in the EU’s policy-making process. (For balance, next year, we intend to visit the Wilfried Martens Centre, which is the thinktank associated with the centre-right European People’s Party.)

The trip was organised by the Jean Monnet Chair for EU Cred, and it was co-funded by the European Union.