College of Europe
The College of Europe
Pól Ó Duibhir
From PLANET 8, November/December 1971, pps26-28.
The College of Europe is one of those European institutions which grew out of the post-war period of national reconciliation and the "Federal Europe" stream of thought. At its foundation in 1949 it was seen as a first step towards the setting up of a European university, but its main function in those early years seems to have been on a more personal level: an ex-RAF pilot studying side by side with a German ex-ack-ack gunner who had tried to shoot him down in a war-time raid over Germany. The significance of this at the national or European level was incalculable but obviously positive.The main aim of the College in this period was to offer a European perspective to its students who, particularly due to the war, would have been immersed in an extreme nationalist environment. The thesis was the problems faced Europe as a continent rather than its constituent states individually and that response would have to be at a European level. The College offered the student the necessary European perspective. There were, however, some flies in the ointment even at this early stage. Europe was divided into East and West, and the College was effectively a Western European institution, and moreover, the British, fresh from "winning" the war, were not enamoured of the idea of sinking any part of their sovereignty in the federalist stream. Nonetheless both British and some East European students attended the College.
When the first step of functional integration was made with the setting up of the European Coal and Steel Community, many of those who had passed through the College were recruited to its staff. This introduced a new factor: the College as a training ground for the institutions of the Six, and this trend continues up to the present strengthened by the staffing requirements of the rapidly expanding EEC civil service.
During the last decade the College has drifted increasingly towards specialisation, and up to recently offered a choice of three faculties - law, economics and political science, along with a general introductory course on European institutions, European history and the history of the European vision. Of these faculties the legal was the most specialised and in many ways the most challenging as it dealt with the newly emerging specialised field of Community law, and students in this faculty had all previously studied their respective national legal systems. Both the economics and the political science faculties accepted students who had not previously studied these subjects and the resulting disparity in knowledge among students sometimes cramped the presentation of lectures. A fourth faculty, social studies, has now been set up and this may lead to increased specialisation in the economics and political science faculties.
Strictly speaking the College is a postgraduate institution but it does not award a postgraduate degree as such, and the value of its diploma depends to a large extent on how well the College is known and its courses held in high regard. However there is more to a year in the College than getting the diploma. The College's proximity to Brussels offers a unique opportunity to put in the groundwork for a postgraduate degree on any Community topic, while one is preparing one's minor thesis for the diploma. Students have easily access to Common Market officials in Brussels who may be dealing with the particular subject they are studying. Many EEC administrators lecture and hold tutorials in the College. There is a tightly knit and efficiently organised old-boy network which assures students and past pupils of contacts in most European organisations and national administrations. This can be useful both for study purposes and employment on leaving the College. A further advantage of the year's stay is the company, the opportunity to live among an international body of students with differing political views and attitudes to life.
Despite its situation in the heart of Flemish-speaking Flanders the College operates through French and English. Students are required to be fluent in one of these two languages and to have a working knowledge of the other. A year in the College certainly puts the skids under one's French but guarantees neither idiom nor accent.
Students are selected for Bruges by national committees (or in the UK by a UK committee) and successful candidates' applications are forwarded to the College which has the final say in selection. Selection criteria used by different national committees have not always been uniform in the past but the College is a present trying to overcome this defect. Student finance varies also. Some governments offer scholarships which cover all costs, others make part contribution and some students finance themselves. A number of students from Eastern Europe are enabled to attend the College each year through scholarships put up by the College itself. These students would not be in a position to finance themselves in the West given the kind of exchange rates they would be likely to get for East European currency.
The principal (rector) of the College, Henri Brugmans, is a noted figure in his own right. He was in the post-war Dutch cabinet before he took over the College and his influence on the students and on the ethos of the College is enormous. He is a committed federalist and despite many setbacks he holds out high hopes for a European federation. As a Dutchman he is very sympathetic to the Flemish cause in Belgium and one suspects he would react favourably to much of the present protest movement in Wales though he would envisage a solution on a Europe-wide scale. While his enthusiasm gets across to many of the students, the student body as such is not necessarily committed to his solutions. Debates between students on the future of Europe or the nation-state can be acrimonious and though the atmosphere in the College often resembles that of a seminary, it also produces its own brand of heretic. While its situation in Bruges is useful for study purposes the town itself is rather dead, the skeleton of a more fleshy past. Its buildings are imbued with the spirit of the middle ages, a rather precious religion gently frowning on warring merchants. There is enough in Bruges to keep the photographer occupied for an entire year, but no more; when you've seen it once you've seen it all.
A year spent in the College is well worth it. It is an education, a broadening of the mind to take in another viewpoint, a new perspective. It is a time for reflection about the future and an opportunity to break into Europe. For some it is a time for seeing national aspirations in the context of a wider movement, while others may see national aspirations enhanced by comparison with the more complex web of motives behind the Common Market.