European University Institute

• 1. Introduction

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  The European University Institute opened in Fiesole, Italy, in 1976. Its first seventy researchers arrived at a cluster of Renaissance villas on a Tuscan hillside overlooking Florence. The EUI was given a precise founding mission. It exists to 'foster the advancement of learning in fields which are of particular interest for the development of Europe.' Today the institute operates four departments, covering history, economics, law, and political and social science. The idea for such an institution had been discussed for nearly three decades before those first researchers arrived. In that time, the concept transformed completely. The founders built something entirely unlike what the earliest advocates had imagined.

• 2. From Science to Scholarship

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  Advocates called for a European academic institution as early as 1948 at the Hague Conference. A year later, the European Conference on Culture in Lausanne pushed the idea forward. For several years it went nowhere.

  Walter Hallstein, the German secretary of state, revived the proposal at the 1955 Messina Conference. The members of the European Coal and Steel Community had gathered to assess their organisation's progress. Hallstein's vision was specific: a dedicated centre for training in nuclear sciences.

  The idea remained largely dormant until 1969, when European leaders met at The Hague. They agreed to fund a European University Institute in Florence, and by that point the purpose had changed completely. A centre for nuclear training had become an institute for the human sciences, oriented toward cultural exchange between member states.

  Conferences in Florence and Rome in 1970 and 1971 shaped the practical details. Planners decided the institute would serve postgraduate researchers only and would not function as a direct Community institution. Six founding states - Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands - signed a convention in 1972. That convention entered into force in 1975. Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom joined the European Community in 1973 and subsequently acceded to the same convention.

  A revised convention signed by the then twelve Community member states in 1992 updated the founding agreement. That revision entered into force in 2007, when the last contracting state ratified it.

• 3. The Archives

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  A 1983 decision of the European Coal and Steel Community set in motion the creation of the Historical Archives of the European Union. A parallel 1983 regulation by the Council of the European Communities committed the institutions to opening their records to the public. A 1984 agreement between the Commission of the European Communities and the EUI located those archives in Florence, at the Institute itself.

  The Historical Archives of the European Union opened to researchers in 1986. They serve as the single official archival repository for the institutions, bodies, and agencies of the European Union. The HAEU also holds more than 160 private archives of politicians, movements, and associations that shaped European integration. Materials may be consulted in the reading room under the thirty-year rule, or online where digital copies are available. Since 2012, the archives have been housed in Villa Salviati. Researchers can consult the HAEU's online database for descriptions of documents, audiovisual materials, and artefacts across its deposits.

• 4. Schools, Forums, and Policy

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  The Florence School of Transnational Governance launched in 2017 as a hub for exchange and collaboration. Its purpose is to bring together academics, civil society representatives, policymakers, businesses, NGOs, and the media around questions of governance. Since 2021 the school has operated from Palazzo Buontalenti, in the historic centre of Florence at the Casino Mediceo di San Marco.

  Alexander Stubb served as the school's director from May 2020 to February 2024. He left to serve as President of Finland.

  The EUI also includes the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. The centre focuses on public policy research and is named in honour of Robert Schuman, a central figure in the origins of European integration.

  Since 2011, the EUI has organised the State of the Union. The annual conference brings together heads of state, EU representatives, academics, and business leaders to debate the challenges facing Europe. Presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and presidents of both the European Commission and European Parliament have taken part over the years. Opinion leaders and civil society representatives join the gathering each year alongside those officials.

• 5. Rankings and Alumni

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  Around 1,000 researchers work across the EUI at any given time, at various stages of their careers. The institution also maintains roughly 90 international partners in research, exchange, and educational programmes.

  In 2024, the Shanghai Ranking placed the EUI sixth in the world for political science. The same ranking placed it among the top 100 globally in sociology, public administration, and economics. The QS World University Rankings the same year put the EUI 31st in the world for Politics and International Studies. It ranked 51st for History and 89th for Law.

  A ranking published in 2004, covering the period 1998-2002, placed the Political and Social Sciences department first in Europe and fifth worldwide. In November 2009 the same department appeared in the Die Zeit CHE Excellence Ranking for political science.

  Marta Cartabia, a former president of the Italian Constitutional Court, is among the EUI's alumni. Dame Cindy Kiro, the Governor-General of New Zealand, also studied at the institute. Mishal Husain, known to audiences of BBC World, passed through the EUI's doctoral programmes. Tiago C. Peixoto, a Brazilian political scientist, went on to work at the World Bank.

  Czech Republic, Hungary, and Lithuania remain the only EU member states currently outside the founding convention.