From Russia with love for European studies

It’s Friday afternoon in Bruges and the students visiting from the European Studies Institute (ESI) in Moscow have already scattered. After a week of lectures at the College of Europe, some have gone to Paris for the weekend, others to Amsterdam.

The students are highly practised at making the most of their time. As well as studying at the ESI for the equivalent of masters degrees, they all hold down full-time jobs in Russia’s government ministries. Almost all of these ministries now have departments devoted to European affairs, staffed by young civil servants trained in law or economics. The role of the ESI is to give them an understanding of how Europe works.

The ESI was set up in 2006 at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, a university-level institution attached to the ministry of foreign affairs. It is a joint initiative of the Russian Federation government and the EU, intended to increase knowledge and understanding of the EU in Russia and enhance the EU-Russia dialogue.

This is less about the political relationship between the two powers than the dialogue between officials dealing with cross-border issues and areas where EU and Russian laws are addressing similar problems. However fractious the political situation may be, this administrative conversation continues and is likely to grow.

"We need to have professionals on both sides who understand how this goes on," explains Mark Entin, director of the ESI. "Do we have such people in the EU and Russian Federation? Yes, of course, but very few. And the number does not correspond to our requirements and especially not to future developments."

European studies as an academic discipline is well-established in Russia, with a wide range of economic, political and cultural approaches usually pursued in the context of masters courses. The ESI’s approach is more practical. "We have a comparative approach to what is going on in Russia and the European Union, to provide our pupils with a clear vision of the functioning of both sides and their inter-relationship," Entin says.

Teaching at the ESI is carried out by lecturers from Russia and the EU, with lectures and seminars on European law, economics and politics. The 15-month course is completed with a thesis and it is here that the ESI approach is most distinctive.

Students are asked to look at a problem, usually one that is relevant to the ministry in which they work, where there is a difference in approach between Russia and the EU. The situation must be analysed, the emergence of different approaches explained and a choice made between them. The student must then propose a practical course to be followed: if the EU approach is judged better, how could Russia adopt it? If the reverse, how could the EU change?

"We judge their work not only from the point of view of academic performance, but also on its utility, analysis and feasibility," Entin says. This work on real problems, in collaboration with the civil servants responsible for addressing them, is equally enriching for the academics involved.

While training Russian civil servants is likely to remain ESI’s focus in the short term, it expects to expand. Teaching will be extended to business people and other Russians who need to work with the EU. More broadly, ESI wants to build a collaborative network of European studies institutes within Russia and beyond.

Entin insists that an important step will be bringing European students to study in Moscow alongside the Russians. To enrol they would be expected to have a solid academic background and some knowledge of the language; for them the programme would be expanded to develop their knowledge of Russia and Russian further.

The problem, of course, is money. "If each EU government established two grants for students it would be enough," says Entin. "It’s not a one-way street."

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

It’s Friday afternoon in Bruges and the students visiting from the European Studies Institute (ESI) in Moscow have already scattered. After a week of lectures at the College of Europe, some have gone to Paris for the weekend, others to Amsterdam.