LEAP Kick-Off Conference was organised by METU in September 2019 in Ankara, Türkiye at the METU Campus. The Conference consisted of two parts: The first day, which was close to public, was a good opportunity for the KEY Staff members meet in person, to familiarise themselves with the work plan, priorities and the organisation of the Network and to discuss and update the work plan for the forthcoming years. The second day of the Conference was a launch event open to public. Through this event, LEAP was disseminated to the representatives of the EU Delegation to Turkey, Ambassadors of the Network countries, bureaucrats from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate of EU Affairs Turkish Ministry, civil society representatives, academics and EU experts. The event also consisted of two Roundtables where the relationship between the periphery and the European Integration was explored broadly by scholars.

In line with the first research pillar of the LEAP which explores educational aspect of the EU integration and aims to unfold complexities and challenges of teaching and learning the EU at ‘the periphery’, a two-day workshop in March 2020 was organised by the IFNUL. Due to the emergence of the global pandemic, the event has been postponed to a future date twice. However, as it had become clear that it would be hard for the foreseeable future to bring large numbers of students and academics together, we organised the first LEAP workshop online. It brought together during two days more than 40 people from 25 universities and other organizations of 12 states (Azerbaijan, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Israel, Italy, Kosovo*, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine), academics and experts in various fields, involved in European Union Studies and willing to discuss the state of the field in their respective countries and share their personal experience. The workshop also served to assess presented papers for the forthcoming special issue. The event included two Keynote speakers representing two Jean Monnet Networks were invited to offer their perspectives on the development of EU Studies in Eastern Europe and South Caucasus: Gabriela Pascariu from Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi (Romania) and Andrey Makarychev, from the University of Tartu (Estonia). Gabriela Pascariu highlighted main accomplishments and challenges of Jean Monnet Network: European Union and its neighbourhood. Network for enhancing EU’s actorness in the eastern borderlands (2017-2020). Andrey Makarychev reported on the European Studies and EU's Post-liberal Governmentality, reflecting on the outcomes of Jean Monnet Network for Developing European Studies in the Caucasus (2015-2018). For the Keynote Speech, please go to LEAP Project YouTube Channel.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation the second LEAP Workshop was organized by Ilia State University team online (via Zoom) on 29-30 March 2021. The Workshop “Experiencing Europe” fully corresponded to the second research pillar of the LEAP project, that aims to unravel different dynamics underpinning the practical implications of the EU integration in daily life, i.e. performative aspect of the EU integration. The two-day workshop brought together more than 50 people from 16 universities and other organizations of 12 states (Georgia, Germany, Turkey, Israel, the United States, Romania, Ukraine, Slovenia, Poland, Spain, Belgium, Kosovo), academics and experts in various fields, involved in European integration process and willing to contribute to the topic of how Europe in general and the EU in particular are perceived and experienced in the everyday life of countries and societies at the periphery. Attendance at the workshop was free; accordingly, it hosted students from various universities, who were interested in the Workshop topic. The workshop also served to assess presented papers for the forthcoming special issue. The Keynote Speech of the workshop titled “Ambiguities of Europe: Re-imaginations of Identity, Borders and Societal Orders” was delivered by Prof. Thomas Diez (University of Tubingen, Germany). For the Keynote Speech, please go to LEAP Project YouTube Channel.

In line with the third research pillar of the LEAP project, which focuses on the political aspect of the European integration, the third LEAP workshop was organised by Eskisehir Osmangazi University between 15-16 October 2022 at the OGU campus in Eskisehir. The Workshop was titled, “Contesting Europe at the Periphery”, and it brought scholars and students working on Euroscepticism, which also served to assess presented papers for the forthcoming special issue. The Keynote Speech of the workshop titled, “How Emergent National Eurosceptic Movements Benchmark Against Other Countries” was delivered by Prof. Simon Usherwood (Open University, United Kingdom).

As a part of the LEAP project, a Model European Union simulation that will enable participating students to understand the decision-making processes of the European Union was organized. The simulation took place in Eskişehir, Turkey, between the 20th and 22nd of May, 2022. While Eskişehir Osmangazi University hosted the simulation, other partner universities attended the simulation with a selected group of students that will participate in the simulation. For three days, participating students acted as the Head of State and Foreign Ministers of their allocated countries and discussed the redistribution of Ukrainian Refugees within the EU, supporting measures for third-country national refugees, integration of refugees into the host countries, improving the humanitarian corridor, reducing EU energy dependency from Russia, the Cohesion’s Action for Refugees in Europe (CARE) proposal and adopted a document referred to as “Conclusions” that contains the summary of the discussions as well as the decisions that the Council has taken. For the Simulation Film, please go to LEAP Project YouTube Channel.

The second Model European Union (MEU) simulation of the LEAP project took place in Pristina, Kosovo, on the 29th and 30th of April, 2023. The conference simulated the European Council with its 27 members, and the participants discussed The Impact of the European Union in the Western Balkans in light of the War in Ukraine. Similar to the first MEU simulation, participants from five of the six partner schools (METU, ESOGU, SNSPA, UP, ISU) were chosen before the conference and allocated with the countries they would represent in the conference. Since the University of Pristina was the conference host, they provided more participants, including an organization team, to assist other participants and professors during their time in the city. Meanwhile, the other four schools each brought four participants that would represent different countries in the simulation. For the Simulation Film, please go to LEAP Project YouTube Channel .

The Network Summit 1, which was organized by the SNSPA in September 2022, involved a one-day Roundtable among the LEAP Key Staff for the preparation and evaluation of the project work program and the deliverables for the forthcoming year, followed by the Bucharest Security Summit 2022. The opening speech was given by Nicolae Ciuca, the Prime Minister of Romania.

The first Postgraduate Conference as a part of the Network Summit was organised online, where postgraduate students who applied for the Conference and was selected by the Consortium members presented their papers. The title of the Conference is “Assessing the Europe 2020 Agenda and Beyond”. The year 2020 should have been the milestone for a critical overview of the main achievements of the Europe 2020 Strategy. Unfortunately, this year coincided with the COVID pandemic, that reshaped all the dynamics in economic, social and political terms at the global level. In spite of the fight against the pandemic taking the front stage, looking back and reflecting at both the achievements and the pitfalls of the Europe 2020 Strategy, as well as charting the challenges ahead for 2030 remain crucial. Moreover, the preliminary impact of the pandemic on the 2030 Agenda is a subject that requires more food for thought.

The Network Summit 2, which was organized by METU in September 2023, involved a one-day Roundtable among the LEAP Key Staff for the evaluation of the project work program and the deliverables of the project. The second Postgraduate Conference as a part of the Network Summit was also organised by METU, where postgraduate students who applied for the Conference and was selected by the Consortium members presented their papers on the pluri-crisis of the European integration. You can reach the program by clicking here.

The Network Summit 3, which was organized by University of Prishtina in February 2023, involved a one-day Roundtable among the LEAP Key Staff for the evaluation of the project work program and the deliverables of the project. The third Postgraduate Conference as a part of the Network Summit was also organised by UP, where postgraduate students who applied for the Conference and was selected by the Consortium members presented their papers on the main challenges in the context of the integration of the Western Balkans in the EU You can reach the program by clicking here.

The LEAP closing conference titled, “European Integration in times of War and Crises: Putting Centre-Periphery in its Context” took place between 1-2 September 2023 and it was organised by the Middle East Technical University. The Conference provided a platform to reflect on the busy research agenda of the LEAP Project as well as giving the opportunity to share the results of the four-year research results. The Conference was opened by the Deputy Foreign minister of Türkiye, H.E. Mehmet Kemal Bozay and the METU President, Prof. Verşan Kök and was well-attended by distinguished scholars, ambassadors and policy-makers as well as students. You can reach the program by clicking here.