ELIAMEP at the EUIA 2025 Conference in Brussels

The Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP) participated in the “European Union in International Affairs (EUIA) 2025 Conference” (21-23/5) with the panel “Cultural governance and EU external relations: The case of European film”, chaired by Laia Comerma, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and organised by Evangelia Psychogiopoulou, Asst. Professor at the University of the Peloponnese and Senior Research Fellow at ELIAMEP.

• Apostolos Samaras, Research Fellow at ELIAMEP, presented the joint paper by Apostolos Samaras, Evangelia Psychogiopoulou, and Anna Kandyla, titled: “Governing Culture through Enlargement: Audiovisual Cooperation in the EU Enlargement Agenda”. He examined how the EU mobilizes audiovisual cooperation as a regulatory, funding, and cultural governance tool in its external relations with enlargement countries, particularly in the Western Balkans and the “Association Trio”.
• Mafalda Dâmaso, Researcher at Erasmus University, presented the joint paper by Antonios Vlassis, Mafalda Dâmaso, Kaisa Hiltunen, Pauline Bissot and Solenn Houard, titled: “International Promotion of the European Film Industry: National Institutional Practices in Denmark, Finland and France in an Evolving Technological Architecture”. She demonstrated that, despite the recent turn of the EU towards international cultural relations, EU Member States remain the main actors for the promotion of their respective film industries internationally through the establishment of funds and various support schemes.
• Tuuli Lähdesmäki, Professor at the University of Jyväskylä, presented the joint paper by Tuuli Lähdesmäki, Mafalda Dâmaso, Kaisa Hiltunen, Melis Behlil, Elif Akçalı, and Ruken Doğu Erdede, titled: “European Film Festivals – Balancing and Harnessing the Ambiguity of Competitiveness and Public Diplomacy”. She examined how the goals of increasing the competitiveness of European film and developing international relations between the EU and third countries are understood and addressed by European Film Festivals organisers.
• Evangelia Psychogiopoulou presented the joint paper by Evangelia Psychogiopoulou, Anna Kandyla, and Laia Comerma, titled: “The EU’s external audiovisual policy with developed countries: Trade and audiovisual cooperation strategies”. She examined the ways in which the EU addresses the audiovisual sector in economic and other types of agreements concluded with developed countries, pointing to the lack of follow-through and limited implementation and impact of the Union’s audiovisual cooperation provisions included in such agreements.

Caterina Carta, PhD Director of the Brussels School of Governance and Research Professor at the Centre for Security, Diplomacy and Strategy of the BSoG, served as discussant and offered insightful comments. This was followed by questions from the audience and an interesting discussion between the speakers and the attendees.

The presentations were based on research conducted under the EU-funded REBOOT Horizon Europe project.

For more on REBOOT: https://thereboot-project.eu/