Assistant Professor of Global Energy and Climate Politics in the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)

Interests : Climate Climate Change Foreign Affairs
Countries : Belgium Netherlands

Dr Mathieu Blondeel is Assistant Professor of Global Energy and
Climate Politics in the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM),
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He specialises in the geopolitics of the
energy transition and the political economy of the oil and gas industry.

Publications
Toward a progressive geopolitical EU

Principles and recommendations

In the face of a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape, marked by global tensions and environmental challenges, this report outlines the evolution of the EU towards a geopolitical union. With the 2024 European elections approaching, the report proposes principles, which, taken together, provide for a dynamic, applicable framework that serves as a basis for practical engagement and policy formulation in fostering a progressive EU geopolitics.

Read the policy study

Political Mentor: Andreas Schieder, S&D MEP and Co Chair of Global Progressive Forum
Academic Mentor: Dimitris Tsarouhas. Professor of International Affairs. Global Fellow, The Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars

Members

Senior Research Fellow at University of Warwick, UK. 

Interests : Policy EU external relations
Countries : United Kingdom

Postdoc researcher at the the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Interests : Economy Climate
Countries : Hungary

Elected delegate to the Party of European Socialists and Vice-President of Rainbow Rose

Interests : Gender Equality Social Europe Conflict

Assistant Professor of Global Energy and Climate Politics in the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM)

Interests : Climate Climate Change Foreign Affairs
Countries : Belgium Netherlands
Publications
13/05/2024

Toward a progressive geopolitical EU

FEPS YAN Series
24/01/2024

Progressive Yearbook 2024

Looking back to look ahead
26/01/2022

Progressive Yearbook 2022

Joint PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and KU Leuven

Interests : Democracy Foreign Affairs Inequality
Countries : Belgium Spain United Kingdom

Unai Gómez-Hernández is a joint PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and KU Leuven. His work focuses on how European radical right populist parties influence the EU’s external action vis-à-vis China. He is member of the EPRG and LINES research groups at Edinburgh and Leuven, respectively. His broader research interests deal with political parties, European external action, EU-China relations, and the Liberal International Order. Before embarking upon the PhD journey, he worked in the private sector, for the Basque Environmental Cluster in Bilbao, and in the public sector, as an advisor to the Delegate of the Basque Country in Brussels. He holds a BSc in Political Science (University of the Basque Country), BSc in International Relations (London School of Economics and Political Science), and a MA in International Relations and Diplomacy of the EU (College of Europe, Bruges Campus). On his free time, Unai enjoys reading, debating politics with friends, and playing League of Legends.

Publications
Inequality and populism

In recent years, European citizens have witnessed a rise in inequality, especially socio-economic, alongside an increase in vote share for radical right populist parties. By examining case studies from Italy, Hungary, and Spain (with the comparative case of Germany), this policy study argues that the rise of populism is not only linked to economic trends but also to other constitutional changes and institutional settings characterising European countries with a focus on economic inequality as the explanatory variable for political participation.

Read the Policy Study

Political Mentor: Gaby Bischoff, MEP S&D
Academic Mentor: Eunice Goes, Professor of Politics at Richmond American University of London

Members

Doctoral Researcher in Urban Planning, Design, and Policy at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Polytechnic University of Milano

Interests : Economy
Countries : Italy

Doctoral researcher in Economics at the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE)

Interests : Democracy Social Europe Inequality
Countries : Germany

Research assistant at the Faculty of Law at the University of Zagreb

Interests : Climate Democracy Inequality
Countries : Croatia

Joint PhD candidate at the University of Edinburgh and KU Leuven

Interests : Democracy Foreign Affairs Inequality
Countries : Belgium Spain United Kingdom
Publications
15/05/2024

Inequality and populism

FEPS YAN Series

Post-doctoral researcher Maastricht University

Interests : Democracy
Countries : Belgium Netherlands Spain

Alvaro Oleart is a post-doctoral researcher at the at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of Maastricht University, and a scientific collaborator at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. He is the author of the book Framing TTIP in the European public spheres: Towards an Empowering Dissensus for EU integration (2021), published by the series Palgrave Studies in European Political Sociology. His fields of interest are the European public sphere,  the role of civil society in the EU policy-making, EU trade policy, populism and democracy in Europe, and the analysis of discourse and narratives.

Citizens’ Europe – An institutional turn for an ever-democratic union?

Publications
Future of Europe

The paper outlines a vision of the ongoing Conference on the Future of Europe (CoFoE) from various perspectives and sets out proposals regarding how it should develop in order to contribute to making the EU more democratic. First, the paper discusses further steps the Conference should take towards bridging the gap between EU and national politics.

Second, the paper analyses previous initiatives of treaty reforms which may be incorporated into the Conference on the Future of Europe. Third, the paper lays out the visions of Europe in a half-century’s time among EU Commission officials. Last, the paper discusses citizens’ involvement in shaping EU future through a broader process of European deliberative democracy, and how the CoFoE could advance such a perspective.

Read the paper:
Citizens’ Europe - An institutional turn for an ever-democratic union?

Political Mentor: S&D MEP Domènec Ruiz Devesa
Academic Mentor: Michael Holms, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Liverpool Hope University

https://www.youtube.com/embed/yHIayD_W1-s
Members

History and Policies of the European Union

Interests : Democracy
Countries : Italy
Publications
28/03/2022

Citizens’ Europe - An institutional turn for an ever-democratic union?

FEPS YAN