From 24 to 26 February 2025, Professor Paula Wojcikiewicz Almeida, director of the Centre for Global Law and the Jean Monnet Centre of Excelence (co-funded by the European Union), participated in the 3rd Annual Conference of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Joint PhD Network GEM-DIAMOND, held at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, organized by Professor Antoine Vauchez and and coordinated by Professor Ramona Coman and Dr. Frederik Ponjaert, from the Institute for European Studies, ULB (IEE-ULB).

Similar to previous annual conferences held in Brussels (2023) and Rome (2024), the meeting in Paris was dedicated to all the pillars of the GEM-DIAMOND project – from management and evaluation to more substantive discussions of the preliminary research findings of the 16 PhD researchers. On the occasion, Professor Almeida had the opportunity to engage with PhD researchers on their innovative projects, particularly with her PhD student, Benedetta Arrighini.

The event included Supervisory Board Meetings involving all GEM-DIAMOND institutional representatives, followed by a hybrid meeting of the International Advisory Board and keynote talks by Professor Ségolène Barbou des Places (Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne) on the topic of “The EU, Migration, and the Rule of Law: An Ambitious Relationship” and by Professor Vincent Gayon (Dauphine Unievrsité de Paris) on “Post-Democracy and/or Epistemocracy: Reflections based on a socio-historical study of the OECD and the EU”. The conference’s last day was devoted to “the role of (online) intellectual platforms in today’s academic landscape as well as public debate”, with the participation of Grégory Rayko (The Conversation France) and Catherine André (VoxEurope).