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‘Study Morning’ for the Cercle Diplomatique Luxembourg

  • Europe Direct University of Luxembourg
    14 June 2023

This ‘Study Morning’ for the Cercle Diplomatique Luxembourg organized by the Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg aims to give the foreign diplomats working in Luxembourg the opportunity to meet key figures of the University of Luxembourg, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Trans European Policy Studies Association and the Luxembourg’s international and European policy, and to familiarise themselves, though these debates and exchanges,  with the research and teaching priorities of the University of Luxembourg within a dynamic and long-term strategic perspective, as well as with main issues relating  to Luxembourg’s diplomacy policy in a challenging international environment.

Programme

  • 8h45 – 9h00   –   Welcome of the participants
  • 9h00 – 10h00  –  Opening session
    • The University of Luxembourg: present state and perspectives, Prof.Dr Simone Niclou, Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Luxembourg
    • Challenges facing Luxembourg’s diplomatic corps and its worldwide network of representations, Mr André Biever, Deputy General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg
  • 10h00 – 10h15 – Coffee break
  • 10h15 – 11h45 – Discussions and debates
    • Has the European Union the will and the capacity to tackle the mounting challenges it faces in the modern world?, Dr Jim Cloos, former General Director of the Council of the EU, General Secretary of the Trans European Policy Studies Association (TEPSA)
    • Schengen area under pressure: challenges and issues, M. Robert Goebbels, former member of the Chamber of Deputies and of the European Parliament, former Minister, initiator and signatory of the Schengen Agreements
  • 11h45-12h00 – Closing session
    • Dr Elena Danescu, Research Scientist Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), Coordinator of the Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg
  • 12h00 – 12h30 – Visit of the Luxembourg Learning Centre (LLC) and the Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg (ED-UNILU)

Note: The meeting will not be accessible to the public, but the addresses and debates will be recorded thanks to the MediaCentre and subsequently published on the website of the Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg (https://wwwen.uni.lu/edic/our_projects/europe_direct_university_of_luxembourg_may_2021_december_2025)

  • André Biever holds a Master’s degree in international relations from Sciences Po Paris and a Master’s degree in history from the University of Paris IV-Sorbonne. He has also worked at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the United Nations in Geneva, at the Permanent Representation of Luxembourg to the European Union, as well as at the Luxembourg Embassies in India and Nicaragua. From September 2019 to June 2022, he has been Deputy Director in the Directorate for European Affairs and International Economic Relations at the Luxembourg Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. Since June 2022 he is Deputy General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg.
  • Jim Cloos is originally a Luxembourg diplomat. He has spent most of his career in Brussels. During the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council in the first half of 1991, he was directly involved in the drafting of the Maastricht Treaty. In 1993, he became Head of Cabinet of the Commissioner for Agriculture, then, in 1995, Head of Cabinet of President Jacques Santer and Sherpa for the G7/8 meetings. In 2001, Jim Cloos joined the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, first as Director and close collaborator of Javier Solana for transatlantic relations and the UN. In 2006, he became head of the Directorate for General Political Affairs, and then head of the Directorate General for General and Institutional Policy from 2010, a position from which he has retired since February 1, 2021.
  • Elena Danescu, PhD, is a Research Scientist in the Contemporary History of Europe Department at the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH), University of Luxembourg a PhD supervisor at the Doctoral School in Humanities and Social Sciences (DSHSS). Her areas of expertise include history of economic thought, contemporary history of Europe, oral history and the EU’s eastward enlargement. She has authored various academic publications in her specialist areas. At the University of Luxembourg, she is in charge of the Master’s courses “Histoire de la contruction européenne depuis 1919” and “Histoire économique et sociale de l’Europe après 1945” and the Bachelor’s course “Transitions démocratiques en Europe centrale et orientale”. Since April 2019 she has been the coordinator of the Europe Direct Centre at the University of Luxembourg.
  • Robert Goebbels is a journalist, a former politician in Luxembourg and a former Member of the European Parliament for the Luxembourg Socialist Workers’ Party (LSAP). Over the course of his career he has held senior positions including General Secretary of the LSAP (1971–1985), President of the Luxembourg Association of Journalists (1972–1974), Councillor for Luxembourg City (1976–2005), State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Cooperation and State Secretary for Small Businesses (1984–1989), Minister for the Economy, Minister for Public Works and Minister for Transport (1989–1994), and Minister for the Economy, Minister for Public Works and Minister for Energy (1994–1999). In 1999 he was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (1999–2014), Vice-President of the Parliamentary Group of the Party of European Socialists (1999–2004) and Vice-President of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament (2004–2009). In March 2016 the Luxembourg Government appointed him as the Luxembourg representative on the Board of Governors of the Asia–Europe Foundation (ASEF). Robert Goebbels is the negotiator and signatory of the Schengen Agreement for Luxembourg.
  • Simone Niclou Prof. Dr, is the Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Luxembourg. She trained in biology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and earned a PhD in cellular biology at the Friedrich-Miescher Institute and University of Basel, Switzerland. She trained as postdoctoral fellow in the Neuroscience Department of the Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (US) and at the Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience in Amsterdam (Netherlands), before she joined in 2005 the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), where she set up and led a research team in neuro-oncology. Her research interests focus on the biology of malignant brain tumours, specifically addressing the molecular heterogeneity, the plasticity and the metabolism of malignant gliomas. Her lab has made major contributions to the establishment and characterization of advanced preclinical models of glioma, which are sought-after by numerous academic and private partners worldwide. In 2014, she was nominated adjunct professor at the University of Bergen in Norway, where she maintained a highly productive research cooperation. From 2019-2023, she was Director of the Department of Cancer Research at LIH, with a strong involvement in people management, institutional strategies and policies. Prof. Niclou has been the recipient of multiple research grants and was granted two large multi-institutional doctoral training units in cancer biology in close partnership with the University of Luxembourg. In 2007 Prof. Niclou received the FNR ‘Best Publication Award’ and in 2021, the FNR Award for ‘Outstanding Scientific Achievements’. She served on the Executive Board of EANO (European Association for Neuro-Oncology) and of the EANO Educational Committee. She is also part of the EORTC Brain Tumor Group and of the ESMO Faculty on CNS tumors. She serves on the editorial board of Neuro-Oncology and is associate editor of the sister journal Neuro-Oncology Advances. She is regularly invited to present at international conferences, and sollicited for international evaluation committees and grant review panels. At the national level, she has been the President of the Laboratoire national de santé (2015-2019) and is supervising the research agenda of the National Cancer Plan under the auspices of the Luxembourg Ministry of Health.

  • Study Morning in Belval with the Cercle Diplomatique

  • Prof. Dr Simone Niclou, Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Luxembourg

  • Mr André Biever, Deputy General Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Luxembourg

  • Dr Jim Cloos, former General Director of the EU Council, General Secretary of the TEPSA

  • M. Robert Goebbels, former member of the Luxembourg and European Parliament, former Minister

  • Questions and answers during the second session

  • Closing remarks by Dr. Elena Danescu, Research Scientist at the C²DH, Coordinator of the Europe Direct at the University of Luxembourg

  • Speakers and participants at “Study Morning” for the Cercle Diplomatique Luxembourg

  • Speakers and participants at “Study Morning” for the Cercle Diplomatique Luxembourg

  • Visit of the Belval campus and Luxembourg Learning Centre

Photo: ©University of Luxembourg

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