Workshop on Traditional and New Security Issues, University of Leuven, 3-5 February 2010

The second workshop of the EU-GRASP project jointly organized by University of Gothenburg and KULeuven (respectively leaders of WP4 and WP5) will be held in Leuven from 3 to 5 February 2010. This workshop will focus on the six security issues that are covered by EU-GRASP project and the case studies that will be undertaken under this framework.

After having held its first workshop on conceptual issues and levels of cooperation in Bruges on 1-3 July 2009, EU-GRASP organised its second workshop in Leuven on 3-5 February 2010 on Traditional and New security issues. This event corresponds to the association of two deliverables, namely Deliverable 4.1 and 5.1 and marked the launch of the second year of the project and the beginning of the case study research. The workshop also served to discuss several elements on how to tackle the case studies by having the theoretical framework of EU Security Governance in mind. The workshop itself was followed by a Management Committee Meeting and an Advisory Board meeting to review the progress of the first year and plan for the year ahead.

The workshop in Leuven was preceded by a public panel debate on “Energy and Security: the Securitisation of a Vital Resource”. The panellists were Jamie Shea, Director of Policy Planning at NATO, and Danila Bochkarev, Associate for Energy Security at the East West Institute. The debate was chaired by Prof. Jan Wouters of KULeuven and partner of the EU-GRASP Project. The audience was a mix of students, academic researchers and practitioners.