OREANDA-NEWS. August 07, 2009. During this week and the next the University of Tartu hosts the international summer school of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). The summer school of 2009 focuses on EU-Russia relations, looking at the actors that influence these, the ways that they exert their influence and the reasons for deciding to exert it, reported the press-centre of University of Tartu.

According to Professor Eiki Berg, Dean of the UT Faculty of Social Sciences and Director of the ECPR Summer School, the fact that the University of Tartu was selected to host the summer school speaks very highly of the university. "This event demonstrates that the University of Tartu has established itself firmly on the world map of international relations, and that we have an ample supply of experts on hand in Finland, in Russia and in Estonia," Professor Berg said.

The aim of the international summer school is to raise the competence level of participating doctoral students in the field of EU-Russia relations. For that, doctoral students from 11 different countries will take part in various debates and seminars, attend lectures about recent studies conducted in the field, and study the principal cooperation agreements and political positions that define the relationship between the EU and Russia. The students will have an opportunity to meet with people who have a direct impact on the development of EU-Russian relations. Each participant will also be invited to speak about his or her research projects.

Participants of the summer school will be supervised by researchers from four different countries: Professor Eiki Berg (University of Tartu) and Dr Maria Malksoo (International Centre for Defence Studies) from Estonia, Professor Pami Aalto (University of Tampere) and Dr Hiski Haukkala (Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs) from Finland, Senior Lecturer Alexander Astrov (Central European University, Budapest) from Hungary and Senior Lecturer Vyacheslav Morozov (State University of St. Petersburg) from Russia. The researchers listed above will be assisted by Dr Kristi Raik from the secretariat of the Council of Ministers of the European Union.

The summer school is organised by the UT Institute of Government Studies. It started on 2 August and will end on 16 August.

Additional information: Eiki Berg, Professor of International Relations Theory, telephone +372 737 5311, eiki.berg@ut.ee