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Centre of Expertise Global Governance

Research Group Changing Role of Europe

Europe needs change. Working with Europe implies change. But how to get a grip on European developments? For example: which consequences does ‘Brexit’ have for your organisation? How to organise a European lobby, and influence European Union decision making? And which historical and political developments can explain how Europe works today? These questions fall within the realm of the research group Changing role of Europe at The Hague University of Applied Sciences.

About the research group

The research group Changing role of Europe (est. January 2018) focuses on current and topical questions related to European cooperation at the global, regional, national and organisational level. It functions in a wide (inter-)national professional network with governments, think tanks and profit and not for profit organisations.
Lecturers, students and staff of the The Hague University are invited to develop and to share European knowledge. The lectorate involves individual and common research development, a reading circle and regular events.

Team

Remmelt de Weerd

Research Coordinator

dr. Mária Éva Földes

Lecturer-Researcher

Chris Aalberts

Senior Lecturer-Researcher

Tolgan Raben

Lecturer-Researcher

Rosa Groen

Lecturer-Researcher

Tibor Hargitai

Researcher

Rik-Jan Brinkman

Lecturer-Researcher

dr. Vasilis Karakasis

Lecturer-Researcher

dr. Paul Shotton

Senior Lecturer-Researcher

Research Coordinator

Remmelt de Weerd

Remmelt de Weerd joined the Centre in 2019 as Manager. His professional background is on the intersection of management, journalism and research. Remmelt has a MSc degree in Human Geography, specializing in Political Geography. Before joining THUAS, he has worked in several roles for The Broker, a The Hague based organisation for knowledge brokering in international development. He also worked as a fact checker and research journalist for several platforms.
r.j.deweerd@hhs.nl

Lecturer-Researcher

dr. Mária Éva Földes

Dr. Mária Éva (Eva Maria) Földes is a lecturer for the International and European Law Programme of The Hague University of Applied Sciences and researcher for the research group Changing Role of Europe. She earned her PhD at the Central European University, Budapest and previously worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Tilburg University, and the Tilburg Law and Economics Center. She also worked as assistant professor at the University of Vienna, Institute for European Integration Research.
e.m.foldes@hhs.nl

Senior Lecturer-Researcher

Chris Aalberts

Dr. Chris Aalberts is a researcher for the research group Changing Role of Europe, lectures on media and journalism at Erasmus University Rotterdam and writes about current politics for several Dutch media outlets. He has published books on right wing populist parties, the European Union, social media, media relations and young people’s political engagement.
c.aalberts@hhs.nl

Lecturer-Researcher

Tolgan Raben

Tolgan Raben is conducting research at the Changing Role of Europe research group. Additionally, he teaches German as well as export related courses within the European Studies Programme. Previously, he optained an MA in German Studies and worked as trade officer at the Dutch Consulate-General in Hamburg, as well as a Market Advisor on Germany and Austria within the Netherlands Enterprise Agency.
t.e.raben@hhs.nl

Lecturer-Researcher

Rosa Groen

Rosa’s student-led qualitative study interviews youths in disadvantaged areas (predominantly refugee status holders) and status actors in The Hague and how they perceive the brand of The Hague as ‘City of Justice and Peace’ and, more specifically, Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16): Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions. This research project intends to unveil new actors within the global governance network by analyzing the reflections given by disadvantageous groups of youth and refugee status holders with respect to their personal relationship with SDG 16.
r.s.groen@hhs.nl

Researcher

Tibor Hargitai

Tibor Hargitai is a lecturer at the Dutch Bestuurskunde/Overheidsmanagement (BO) programme and International Public Management (IPM), of the faculty of Public Management, Law and Safety at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. At BO he supervises a group of students, and at IPM he is co-developing the minor ‘Challenges to European Governance’. Tibor has a PhD in International Relations and is currently finalising a research project commissioned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the EU information provision from the Dutch government to the national parliament.
t.a.j.hargitai@hhs.nl

Lecturer-Researcher

Rik-Jan Brinkman

Rik-Jan Brinkman is working as a lecturer and academic coordinator for the International Public Management Programme at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. He is a thesis supervisor and teaches a minor on the European Union and Global economic development.
f.j.brinkman@hhs.nl

Lecturer-Researcher

dr. Vasilis Karakasis

Vasileios (Vasilis) P. Karakasis works as a Lecturer in European Studies at The Hague University of Applied Sciences and co-director of Sen Foundation of Research and Education on International Cooperation. He has worked for seven years as a lecturer of International and European Governance at the Institute of Public Administration at Leiden University. He obtained his PhD from the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs of Leiden University as a Dual PhD candidate. In his dissertation he assessed the impact of natural resources on the escalation of conflicts, with special reference to recent developments the Eastern Mediterranean. He holds a MSc in Public Administration (Track: Crisis and Security Management) from Leiden University, a MA in International Relations (Track: Turkish-Greek relations) from Bilgi University and BA in Political Science and Public Administration from National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Both academic and non-scholarly publications touch upon questions of foreign policy, energy security and crisis management.
v.karakasis@hhs.nl

Senior Lecturer-Researcher

dr. Paul Shotton

Dr. Paul Shotton is Principal Lecturer in European Public Policy within the European Studies Programme at The Hague University of Applied Sciences. Previously, Paul worked in Brussels as a Public Affairs Practitioner (lobbyist) for a number of blue-chip companies. Paul lectures in European Public Policy with notable courses simulating advocacy and lobbying campaign design.
p.shotton@hhs.nl

About the professor

LinkedIn LinkedIn profile

dr. Mendeltje van Keulen

Dr. Mendeltje van Keulen is professor Changing Role of Europe since 1 January 2018. She describes herself as a “Energetic professional driven by the ambition to improve substantial societal and political discussions by connecting the silos of academia, the professional field and higher education.” Mendeltje holds a PhD and MA European Public Administration (College of Europe, Bruges; EUI Florence, University of Twente). Her dissertation focused on the effects of EU policy shaping by the Dutch government in the field of natural gas and biotechnology. She worked as a (senior) research fellow for the Netherlands Institute for International Relations ‘Clingendael’, the WRR (Scientific Council for Government Policy) and various ministries. As team leader of the parliamentary EU staff in the Dutch parliament, she gained abundant practical experience in processes of Europeanisation and change management. Mendeltje van Keulen regularly publishes and teaches on European policy making for students and professionals.
m.vankeulen@hhs.nl
Opening the black box of Europe.
Projects
Projects

Projects

EU Impact-scan

EU Impact-scan

The research group Changing role of Europe and its lektor, Mendeltje van Keulen has been cooperating with Berenschot and ERAC, both leading EU affairs consultancies, in the design of the EU Impact-scan. The EU impact scan is an essential toolbox for organizations that work with EU policy-making either linking to the processes representing interest, applying for project funding or through implementing and applying adopted EU regulations. The EU impact scan identifies the opportunities for the specific organization to connect to EU policy-making in any of the above way and suggests organizational, procedural, technical strategies to capitalize on European opportunities. The EU Impact scan was presented to participants of the CREUvent: Europe in working practise workshop on 27 January 2020, that took place at THUAS.
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Cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Cooperation with the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Since April 2020, dr Mendeltje van Keulen, lector at the Changing role of Europe research group has been part-time guest researcher at the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate Research and International policy-evaluation.

In this capacity she carries out research and advises on modalities of effective governmental coordination of the country’s position feeding into EU policy-making as well as the implications of EU legislation for domestic actors and policies. Her work enhances CREU’s cooperation with the professional field and contributes to capacity-building in a policy area that is evidently crucial for interacting with the EU.

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About the research group
Publications
Publications

Publications

Article

SARS-COV-2 Vaccination and Employment: the Legal Framework in the EU and Hungary

The paper explores whether and under what conditions, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may become a mandatory requirement for employees. It includes a discussion on EU action on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and its relevance for national level policy with emphasis on the legal basis and instruments used by the Union to persuade national authorities into action to increase vaccination uptake.

Peer-reviewed journal article; dec. 2020

The Role of Constitutional Courts in Promoting Healthcare Equity: Lessons from Hungary

This paper explores whether constitutional litigation contributes to sustaining the equity element of the right to health.

Article

Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic: Are the EU’s current competences used to their full potential?

The COVID-19 pandemic has sparked the debate on strengthening European-level cooperation and solidarity in tackling the disease. Is it desirable and feasible to confer more competences upon the EU?

Book

What do they actually do there? Interviews with Dutch members of the European Parliament

Every five years, elections for the European Parliament are held in the Netherlands. However, it is difficult for citizens to cast a substantiated vote. Newspapers and television pay relatively little attention to European politics. As a result, citizens have little insight into what Dutch politicians do on their behalf in Brussels, Strasbourg and in their work in the Netherlands.

Article

SARS-COV-2 Vaccination and Employment: the Legal Framework in the EU and Hungary

The paper explores whether and under what conditions, vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 may become a mandatory requirement for employees. It includes a discussion on EU action on SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and its relevance for national level policy with emphasis on the legal basis and instruments used by the Union to persuade national authorities into action to increase vaccination uptake. The analysis then moves to the national level by focusing on the case of Hungary. Following an overview of the legal and regulatory framework for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines deployment, the analysis zooms into the sphere of employment and explores whether and how the SARS-CoV-2 vaccination may be turned into a mandatory workplace safety requirement. The paper highlights the decision of the Hungarian government to introduce compulsory vaccination for employees in the healthcare sector, and concludes with a discussion of the relevant rules and their potential, broader implications.

See full text in pdf: https://journals.um.si/index.php/medicine/article/view/1369

Peer-reviewed journal article; dec. 2020

The Role of Constitutional Courts in Promoting Healthcare Equity: Lessons from Hungary

This paper explores whether constitutional litigation contributes to sustaining the equity element of the right to health. Equity entails a fair distribution of the burden of healthcare financing across the different socio-economic groups of the population. A shift towards uncontrolled private healthcare provision and financing raises equity challenges by disproportionately benefitting those who are able to afford such services.

See full PDF text on: https://doi.org/10.31078/consrev624

Constitutional Review, Volume 6, Number 2, December 2020, , P-ISSN: 2460-0016 (print), E-ISSN: 2548-3870 (online)

Book

What do they actually do there? Interviews with Dutch members of the European Parliament

Every five years, elections for the European Parliament are held in the Netherlands. However, it is difficult for citizens to cast a substantiated vote. Newspapers and television pay relatively little attention to European politics. As a result, citizens have little insight into what Dutch politicians do on their behalf in Brussels, Strasbourg and in their work in the Netherlands. 

This book describes the work of Dutch members of the European Parliament since 2014. They discuss their activities, the results they are proud of and how they stay in touch with their supporters. This makes it a must-read for every European voter.

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List of publications professor Mendeltje van Keulen (pdf)
Projects
Current
Current

In de media


Publications