The Institute for European Union Studies at SUNY was founded in 2002 by the SUNY Office of Global Affairs and a group of SUNY faculty dedicated to educating New Yorkers about the European Union. The IEUSS was designed to be a SUNY-wide network of faculty and graduate students devoted to teaching and engaging in scholarship about the European Union. This network includes IEUSS fellows. The IEUSS is governed by a board of SUNY faculty and administrators (with representation of EU scholars from European universities). The IEUSS Board Chair and its Director report the Institute's annual activities to the SUNY Office of Global Affairs and academic administration at partner SUNY campuses. See IEUSS Directory.
The IEUSS's mission is guided by the State University of New York's mission.
Mission Statement. The IEUSS is a network of SUNY faculty and IEUSS fellows with its mission to promote knowledge of the European Union throughout the State of New York. The IEUSS is affiliated with the SUNY Office of Global Affairs. The IEUSS sponsors research, teaching, and service through collaborations with institutions of higher education, K-12, nonprofits, and businesses. To achieve this collaborative element of it mission, the IEUSS co-sponsors K-12 teacher trainings, high school Model European Union simulations, global institutes, conferences, and lectures. It co-sponsors the SUNY Model European Union (SUNYMEU) with a SUNY campus and publishes the SUNYMEU training manual. As a SUNY academic institution, IEUSS is guided by SUNY's mission of providing the highest quality affordable programs with the broadest possible access to the people of New York State.
The IEUSS Review of Books (IRB) is dedicated to reviewing books that promote understanding of the European integration project. In this vein, The IRB solicits reviews of textbooks written for courses in the government, politics, and policies of the European Union, both generally and with respect to institutions, policies, theory, and crises. The IRB also seeks book reviews that revisit some of the classic nonfiction books and novels informing and interrogating European integration - from World War I (such as Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front, Tuchman's The Guns of August, Hemingway's Farewell to Arms) to sweeping histories of modern Europe (such as Tony Judt's Postwar: A History of Europe). Reviewers are invited to consider these classics in the context of the European integration project in the 21st century. The IRB is also seeking histories of the major EU countries today, so as to bring out how profound the post war changes have been. These not need be academic histories but, rather, for example, influential works such as Alexander Werth's writings on France in the 1930s and Phillip Williams great work, Crisis and Compromise, which focused on immobilisme in the French Fourth Republic. Book reviewers from all disciplines are invited to contribute to The IRB.
Resources about the European Union
Provides resources to university and college faculty, undergraduae and graduate students, and K-12 teachers who are teaching or are preparing to teach either courses in the politics, governance, or policies of the European Union; modules in European politics & government courses; or would like to learn more about the EU to incorporate into social studies curricula. Teachers of 7-12 have conducting European Council simulations in their classes and may find this information useful as well. Sample of an in-teacher training provided by the IEUSS.
Undeniably, the IEUSS's major activity has been its dedication to an annual Model European Union as an extremely effective pedagogy for teaching both undergraduate and graduate students how the EU works. Accordingly, SUNYMEU is a program of the IEUSS. In keeping with its mission as a SUNY-wide EU institute, the IEUSS co-sponsors SUNYMEU with the SUNY Office of Global Affairs and SUNY campuses. IEUSS publishes and disseminates the SUNY Model European Union training manual, co-sponsors research talks and workshops during SUNYMEU, and serves as a partner in grant applications and projects that fund SUNYMEU.
IEUSS has held many conferences, usually during SUNYMEU, but not always. IEUSS encourages graduate students to organize conferences as well and will support them in this endeavor. Program from 2005 graduate student conference co-sponsored by the Institute for European Union Studies at SUNY, SUNY Buffalo State, and the University at Buffalo - SUNY.
Summer Institutes & Study Missions
The IEUSS has co-sponsored several 10-14 day study missions in the EU and EU candidate states as well as summer institutes. Brochure from a summer institute. A study mission to EU institutions is planned for May/June 2023, which is co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the EU.
Why Study the European Union?
The EU has its roots in the 1950s, when six Western European states established what they called the European Economic Community for the purpose of enabling them to promote economic growth through various forms of mutual economic cooperation. From these relatively modest beginnings, the importance of the EU has grown enormously over the years. It has done so in three particular respects.
First, its membership now includes 27 European states after the UK's exit in 2020. Until May 1, 2004 these were all Western European states: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. On May 1 the EU-15 were joined by the two Mediterranean islands of Cyprus and Malta, and eight former communist countries in central and Eastern Europe: the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The 2004 enlargement marked a major advance in the gradual unification of the European continent, bringing together as it did most of what formerly were thought of as the two halves of Europe. Bulgaria and Romania joined in 2007and Croatia in 2013. Other European states are applying for membership as well. It is an importance that is seen in a number of ways: the EU has the world’s largest economy as measured by gross domestic product; it is the world’s largest external trader (just ahead of the U.S.); it has a market size of some 448 million post the 2004 enlargement; and it has a currency – the euro – that has established itself as the world’s second most important currency.
Second, the range of activities and responsibilities of the EU has grown enormously. Far from it being confined to economic coordination tasks, it is now deeply involved in the making of policies and laws across a wide range of policy sectors. There is now a Single European Market, with European-wide regulatory rules on matters as varied as health and safety standards in the workplace, product specifications and standards, and trading practices. As part of the process of completing the Single European Market, 19 of the EU’s member states have even given up their national currencies in favor of having a shared currency – the euro. The new member states will, in time, adopt the euro. Beyond market-related policies, other policy areas in which the EU is deeply involved include environmental policy, internal security policies, and foreign policy. The regulatory nature of the EU has important implications for US public administrators, and there are many bodies and fora in which American public administrators meet with their counterparts from Brussels (the EU's de facto capital).
Third, paralleling the growth in importance of the EU have been developments in its organizational capacities, many of which have been brought about through treaties negotiated between the member states. Such has been the extent of these developments that many observers have described the EU as having many of the characteristics of a federal state.
