Shaping Europe’s Future: CIVICA Students Propose Bold Policy Solutions
The fourth edition of the Multicampus course ‘The Future of Europe’ sparked a dynamic exchange of ideas among students and faculty from across the CIVICA alliance, tackling some of Europe’s most pressing challenges. This vibrant debate culminated in three winning student projects that put forward concrete policy proposals.
A flagship initiative of CIVICA, the course, coordinated by professor Carlo Altomonte of Bocconi University, is co-designed and co-taught by professors from alliance member institutions. Delivered simultaneously across CIVICA campuses in the Fall 2024 semester, it combined live online lectures with local activities. Around 150 master’s students from 6 member universities explored EU policymaking in four critical areas: globalisation, democracy, environment, and digital transformation.
As part of their final evaluation for the course, as a capstone experience, students worked in 33 teams - each group spanning at least three campuses - to develop policy proposals addressing real-world challenges facing the EU. Guided by faculty supervisors, teams crafted detailed solutions, applying their knowledge to pressing policy issues.
“It is reassuring to see, even in such complicated times for the EU, that our students across the Continent express such high interest in European issues, with a record number of participants in this edition of the Multicampus course, and with such high-quality work in their projects,” says prof Altomonte.
On March 4, the three best policy brief projects were awarded a monetary prize funded by the Fondazione Achille and Giulia Boroli, which funds a Chair in European Studies at Bocconi University. The ceremony was held during the annual Bocconi-Boroli Lecture in Milan with guest speaker Arancha Gonzalez, Dean of the Paris School of International Affairs (PSIA) at Sciences Po and former Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“It was great to work with other students from across Europe – getting new perspectives and ideas. And also from the diversity of professors during the course. It is exactly this diversity that enriches the EU,” says Florian Bochert of Hertie, of the team with the “Beyond the EPC: Gradual Integration and Consistent Oversight for an Enlarged Union” winning project. “Our project looked at how to improve the EU enlargement process – at how not just new members have to be ready but also the EU itself.”
“The collaboration between different universities and different disciplines ensured there were very different inputs - it was an enriching experience,” says Celeste Del Vecchio, from Sciences Po, of the ‘Strategies for a Water-Resilient Clean Industrial Deal: A Policy Blueprint’ team, another of the winning projects. “The issue of water is crucial to industrial policy and competitiveness and we looked at how the Deal could be improved, to also sustain environmental resilience.”
“There is so much disinformation and polarization in the political debate at the moment so we proposed a policy to tackle this, with a specific instrument to certify reliable fonts,” explains Davide Bello, Bocconi student, part of the winning team with the ‘Building Trust, Curbing Lies: A Digital Badge to Political Misinformation’ project. “This experience made me feel a true European citizen, which is not to be taken for granted. It made me feel part of a community and see how we can be involved in finding solutions to Europe’s problems – it has given me hope.”