On 11-20 February 2025, within the framework of the European Studies for Technical Specialities at Lviv Polytechnic National University (EUSTS) project, with the support of the Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Programme, an online Winter Euroschool ‘European best practices: energy, digital and environmental dimensions’ was held to promote knowledge about the EU and Ukraine's European integration process.
The topic of the Winter Euroschool was related to topical issues of the EU and Ukraine's European integration. During the four-day event, the participants discussed the fundamentals of the European Union's functioning and legal system, its institutions and values, key principles of energy and environmental policies, digital transformation trends, cooperation and partnership between Ukraine and the EU.
The online event brought together a large number of participants 68, including pupils, students, postgraduates, teachers, researchers, and managers of various levels. We were particularly impressed with the wide geographical representation of the participants: not only Lviv and Lviv region, but also Kyiv, Dnipro, Vinnytsia, Kharkiv, Poltava, Glukhiv (Sumy region), Nizhyn (Chernihiv region) and other cities of Ukraine. A total of 82 participants registered.
The event began with a welcome speech by Professor Yaryna Turchyn, EUSTS Project Manager, and featured keynote speakers Petro Baikovskyi, Bohdan Veselovskyi, Yevhen Tkachenko, Ivan Kulchytskyi, Nataliia Pipchenko, Olha Melen-Zabramna, and Anna Osmolovska, Anastasia Doroshenko, Oksana Mylyanyk, Maria Lopushanska, Oksana Horpyniuk, Petro Sukhorolskyi, Anastasia Shkil, who raised topical issues of both the functioning of the EU and the specifics of Ukraine's cooperation with this organisation. It is valuable and extremely pleasant that this year's Euroschool was joined by colleagues from the Republic of Poland, namely from the University of Warsaw, Vadym Zheltowski, Doctor of Political Science, Head of the Warsaw Branch of the Polish Society for European Studies, expert of the Group of Advisers to the Chairman of the European Union Committee of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, who shared information about Polish youth, forms and participation in EU initiatives.
A number of lectures and discussions were held within the framework of the Euroschool, namely:
- ‘The EU as an actor in international relations’;
- ‘Youth in the European Union: forms of engagement and participation in EU initiatives’;
- ‘Prospects for the development of the packaging sector in the European integration process of Ukraine’
- ‘Waste management at the EU level: challenges and best practices for Ukraine’;
- ‘EU legal and institutional systems: just the basics’;
- Best practices in energy efficient design and modernisation: EU and Ukrainian experience;
- ‘Protection of human rights in the context of Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine: the example of the ECHR’;
- Digital Diplomacy of the EU: Features and Prospects for Implementation;
- ‘Legal basis of information security of Ukraine in the context of European integration’;
- European practices as ideas for the development of Ukrainian STEM education;
- ‘Protection of personal data in the EU’;
- What do you need to know and be able to do to succeed in EU programmes?
- The role of youth in shaping Ukraine's modern European policy;
- ‘The agenda of EU-Ukraine relations’;
- ‘Why is EU enlargement difficult? (Peculiarities of the upcoming negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU)’;
- ‘EU public diplomacy: best practices for Ukraine’;
- ‘Key priorities of the EU youth policy and challenges for Ukraine in the context of Russia's full-scale armed invasion’.
The Winter Euroschool was accompanied by daily interactive sessions led by the moderator of the event, Oleg Tsebenko. International students, graduates of Erasmus+ projects, practitioners, and European youth ambassadors Anastasia Odnovolyk, Daria Buriy, Daria Panova, and Bohdan Mirinchyk also shared their experience and knowledge about EU opportunities for young people, international exchanges, the EU's Ambassadors of European Youth initiative, the role of young people in shaping Ukraine's European policy, and EU youth policy.
It is important that the Winter Euroschool ‘European best practices: energy, digital and environmental dimensions’ has become a platform for communication and exchange of experience among pupils, students, postgraduates, teachers, researchers, and managers of various levels. All participants of the winter school will receive certificates of participation for 16 hours.
The EUSTS project team is sincerely grateful to everyone for their active participation and invites you to join the next, equally useful events.
More information about EUSTS can be found on the project website within the Lviv Polytechnic Portal.
