The “EU Studies Summer Course” organised by the Kyushu University EU Centre (Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, Kyushu), which had been held every year during the summer vacation, was conducted online for 3 days from the 6th to 8th in September 2021 due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. 14 students from four universities across Japan, studied intensively about the EU (Kyushu University, Waseda University, Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin University, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies).

The lectures were provided by teachers who are leaders in each EU Studies field, and some of these lectures were also given in English. It was our first attempt to provide special videos and slides for pre-learning created by the teachers, and it was designed so that students could acquire a general basic knowledge by learning these educational materials by the starting day of the course.
On the second day of the programme, we welcomed Mr. Takafumi Kikuchi from the Climate Change Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The lecture titled “European Green Deal and Japan’s Decarbonization” was delivered as a Jean Monnet Seminar “MoFA Diplomacy lecture” for the participants of this summer course. Mr. Kikuchi talked in detail from the standpoint of negotiating on-site about EU-Japan policy talks on climate change issues. After the 60-minute lecture, career guidance was also given as a “round-table discussion.”
On the final day, the main and customary programme “Simulation of the European Council” was held. Divided into four representative country groups, Poland, Germany, France, and Sweden, based on the characteristics of economic conditions, natural environments, and energy policies in accordance with this year’s theme “European Green Deal”, they stated and exchanged opinions enthusiastically with various proposals for effective policies to solve problems from the standpoint of each representative country. They summarised the measures that the EU and EU member states should pursue to achieve the goals of the “European Green Deal”, while the chairperson played a key role.
Finally, a “Certificate of Completion” was sent to each student, and this year’s EU Studies Summer Course ended.

Lecturers

• Prof. Kenji Iwata (Director of Kyushu University EU Centre)
• Prof. Mark Fenwick (Kyushu University)
• Ms. Machiko Hachiya (Advisor to the Kyushu University EU Centre)
• Prof. Tamio Nakamura (Waseda University)
• Prof. Yuichi Morii (University of Tokyo)
• Lecturer, Haruka Takasaki (Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin University)
• Mr Takafumi Kikuchi (Climate Change Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs)