The biennial Interdisciplinary conference on European Advanced Studies (IDEAS) is a three-day scientific event organised by the Institut d’études européennes of the Université libre de Bruxelles (IEE-ULB) in collaboration with the Institute for European Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (IES-VUB) and the Politics and International Studies Department at the University of Warwick (PaIS-UoW).

The next edition will take place in Brussels from May 11 to 13, 2022 and will be entitled (Dis)Integration from an (in)equality perspective. 

Inequality has many facets which test a wide range of institutions and policies associated with the EU. Increasingly, it has emerged as one of the central and transversal concerns shared across EU institutions and national public opinions.

Academic and political debates addressing (in)equality and (dis)integration have gained momentum following both the 2008 financial crisis, and the current COVID-19 pandemic. Increasingly, broader debates surrounding equality, non-discrimination and solidarity are homing in on the distinctive role of the European level. The IDEAS conference will be a forum to present and discuss cutting-edge research investigating inequality in relationship with European politics and policies. It will bring together scholars interested in how the EU has been a driver of inequality or, on the contrary, how it has attempted to tackle them in a number of policy domains.

The provisional version of the programme is available here (link), and we would like to draw your attention to two special events that will take place in the framework of the conference:

• Opening Keynote (link)

  On May 11, 2022, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights and UCLouvain Professor Olivier de Schutter will inaugurate the IDEAS Conference on (Dis)Integration from an (in)equality perspective with the keynote “Combating horizontal and vertical inequalities in the EU: the role of non-discrimination in a market integration perspective”.

• Policy Panel : “Policy Measures for a Just Transition: Ideas for Designing a Structural Transformation to Reduce Inequalities” (link)

This policy panel is co-organised with the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) in the context of the Interdisciplinary conference on European Advanced Studies (IDEAS).

The structural transformation of our economic systems to a state that no longer inflicts harm on climate and environmental systems provides opportunities to also tackle multidimensional inequalities. Some observers have suggested that environmental destruction and increasing inequalities stem from the same causes, policies and ideas. In this context, inequalities are not only limited to economic issues but can also pertain to unequal access and visibility with regards to decision making in climate policies and to the unequal suffering of adverse effects from the climate crisis and environmental degradation. Policy discussions in Europe and across the world have started to incorporate the inequality dimension through concepts such as the “just transition” and “climate justice”. Notably, these concepts go beyond compensatory measures and consider the reduction of inequalities as a necessary condition for climate action. At the EU level, proposals for a Social Climate Fund and Just Transition Mechanism seek to integrate an inequality focused perspective by including policies such as investments in affordable energy and transport systems as well as industrial and labour market policies that aim at providing low carbon employment. Currently, these initiatives are, however, still being debated and contested. Hence, there is value in further specifying the design and the interplay of policies that can be both environmentally friendly and help reduce inequalities. The panel will look at climate policies that help reduce inequalities across multiple levels of governance and integrate perspectives from policymakers, academics and civil society.