EPRC hosts conference on 'The 2014 European elections: Italian politics and the European challenge'

Dr Laura Polverari of EPRC was the local organiser of a conference on the 2014 European elections, which took place at the University of Strathclyde on 14-15 January 2015. The conference, which Laura co-organised together with Dr. Arianna Giovannini (Huddersfield) and Dr. Antonella Seddone (Torino) on behalf of the PSA's Italian Politics Specialist Group (IPSG), was attended by 39 delegates from many Italian and UK universities, as well as from universities further afield (in Finland and Estonia). Sixteen papers distributed in four panels discussed: the impact of the European election results on the Italian political landscape; euro-skepticism, nationalism and populism; the difficult path of European integration; and the institutional reforms underway ('going Forward: Italy between domestic challenges & European demands'). Undisputed highlights of the conference were the superb keynote address by Professor Michael Keating on the 're-scaling of the European State' (University of Aberdeen) and the closing round table expertly moderated by Professor Philip Cooke (University of Strathclyde), which included contributions by Professor Martin J. Bull (University of Salford), Professor Roberto di Quirico (University of Cagliari), Dr Myrto Tsakatika (Glasgow University) and Dr Mark Shephard (University of Strathclyde). A common thread throughout the conference, from the keynote lecture to the closing round table, was the comparative approach that informed papers and debates: In today's Europe, Italy is not the special case than it sometimes is to be.