Charlotte Pauletto, a current LLB3 student, reports on a recent visit to Europe House organised by City’s ISEL (Institute for the Study of European Law). For those of you who aren’t familiar with Europe House and its function, here’s Charlotte to fill you in:

Through a study visit organised by Senior Lecturer in International Politics Dr Sara Silvestri, City politics students, and two law students (including myself), we offered the opportunity to talk, question, and discuss European matters with EU officials at Europe House.

What’s Europe House?

It’s the home to two important EU entities in the UK : the EU Parliament liaison office and the EU diplomatic delegation.

The EU Parliament liaison office deals with political reporting of UK parliamentary debates and committees on matters EU related, support individual EU delegations in the UK, and work to improve the relationship between the EU and the UK.

The EU diplomatic delegation functions like any other diplomatic mission. It is divided in four sections : a political section, a public diplomacy section, policy in economic and trade section, and a citizens section.

Europe House diplomats and officials make a point to speak with everyone: political representatives are important for diplomatic affairs but the views of EU citizens in the UK are just as important !

What was the discussion about? 

The first, and perhaps most obvious topic, was the importance of maintaining a good relationship after Brexit. We mentioned the EU-UK Withdrawal Agreement, and its importance on maintaining the status quo in Northern Ireland and the protection it affords to EU citizens in the UK and UK citizens in the EU, who suddenly became third country nationals and saw their rights significantly diminished.

We spoke about the question of war in Ukraine; the UK’s and the EU’s position on the matter, and the possibility of EU integration. The officials reiterated the EU’s support to Ukraine, especially with the policy of open-borders for Ukrainians wishing to find a refuge in a member-state visa-free and the financial and material support. They restated that Ukraine is a candidate for integration and firmly assured that there was no third country influence in that process.

Through student questioning, we addressed the rise of the far right throughout Europe. To anonymously quote one of the speakers ‘haters gonna hate’. They explained that the support for far right parties may come from a failure of current systems where people may feel excluded from progress.  However, they demonstrated that Brexit made other member-states realise the damages of leaving the EU and the political stances of certain parties had shifted from euroscepticism to eurocriticism.

They also voiced the dangerous impact of social media in an already polarised society, especially on younger generations who might be easily influenced and not fact check the information they may see. They discussed the current disinformation inquiry led by the UK’s Foreign Affairs Committee, on disinformation campaigns led by China, Russia and Iran and its relevance to the UK but also to the EU and all of its allies.

How does one get to Europe House, or the EU as a whole?

While EU officials need to be citizens of member states, traineeships are open to all ! For example, the European Parliament offers paid internships and unpaid study visits for researchers.

The speakers emphasised the importance of speaking European languages, German and French being the most important ones. They also highlighted the need for practical skills such as problem solving, which are becoming more and more relevant as more academic skills such as writing can slowly be taken over by IA. We were highly encouraged to also find a unique expertise, which might make us uniquely qualified as opposed to every other qualified person we would work with.

Finally, we were told about EPSO, the EU’s careers service. Beyond posting job listings, this service publishes competitions in multiple areas such as translation, litigation, data management, audits, and a lot more. According to the officials, who both won one of these contests, it is a perfect way to slither into the machine.

Charlotte Pauletto is an LLB3 City Law School student from France and a HELKC (Higher Education Legal Knowledge Coproduction) intern for ISEL working on EU law student experience issues and research communication. She is going on exchange to the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in her final year.