The event brought together 42 students of the Master in Transnational Governance, 18 Policy Leader Fellows, senior and visiting fellows, Faculty and staff, marking the start of a new year of learning, exchange and collaboration. At the end of the month, 27 participants of the Global Executive Master (GEM) will also join the School.
Welcoming the new members of the STG community, the School’s Director Johanna Mair highlighted the diversity of people and perspectives that come together at the School:
“Let me welcome you not as one audience, but as several — because that is our strength:
To our new Master students in Transnational Governance: you are the reason this School exists.
To our new Policy Leader Fellows: you arrive with mandates, portfolios and unfinished problems — please bring them into this building.
To our EU Fellow, Sabine Weyand, who joins us this year from the European Commission: thank you for choosing to think here, with us.
To our senior and visiting fellows, to our faculty, and to the staff who make all of this run: welcome back.”
Weyand is Hors Classe Adviser in the European Commission’s Secretariat-General and former Director-General for Trade and Economic Security. Drawing on her extensive experience in European policymaking, she joined the opening programme as the main speaker in a panel discussion on economic statecraft for the European Union, alongside Policy Leader Fellow Lilla Bánkuty-Balogh and master’s student Antoine Cerqueira. Moderated by George Papaconstantinou, Academic Director of the Global Executive Master, the discussion brought together perspectives from across the STG community on the opportunities and challenges of economic statecraft for the European Union.
The programme also offered new members an insight to the people and place behind the School. A Pecha Kucha session introduced STG Faculty members, while Laura Bechi of the EUI’s Real Estate and Facilities Service took participants on an engaging journey through the history of Palazzo Buontalenti.
In her remarks, Mair highlighted the School’s broader focus on connecting knowledge, education and engagement with policymaking: “The STG has one enduring focus: ideas, people and action. We generate knowledge, we educate and we engage with policymaking — and we insist on doing the three together, in the interest of reimagining Europe in a connected world.”
For Executive Director Fabrizio Tassinari, this sense of community is at the heart of the STG: “This place is nothing without its people.”
Looking ahead, the new academic year also marks the beginning of a year leading towards an important milestone: in 2027, the STG will celebrate its 10th anniversary, providing an opportunity to reflect on the School’s development, its growing community and its contribution to the study and practice of transnational governance.