European Union Centers of Excellence in the US

A consortium of 10 centers of excellence at universities in the U.S. leading in teaching and research on the European Union:

In 1998, the European Commission launched an ambitious initiative to establish a network of EU Centres in American universities providing information and education about the European Union. This is in line with the New Transatlantic Agenda (NTA) and its ‘people to people’ objective: building bridges across the Atlantic. The objectives of the EU Centres are to increase awareness in the USA about the political, economic and cultural importance of the transatlantic relationship, to promote greater understanding in the United States of the European Union and its policies, and to disseminate information and publicise EU views on issues of transatlantic interest within regional communities.

The European Commission now supports 10 such European Union Centres of Excellence in universities across the USA in recognition of the high quality, variety and depth of their EU studies activities, which promote the study of the EU and EU-US relations through teaching programmes, scholarly research and outreach activities in their local and regional communities. The activities and main programmes of some of these Centres are listed in the EU Centres brochure. The US Network coordinator is the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill EUCE.

The first networking meeting of the 20 EU Centres existing then around the world took place in Brussels in April 2008. The second one took place in April 2010 in Madrid with 26 Centres.

To view the 2011-12 annual newsletter of the European Union Centers in the United States, click here.