Opening of the 2025/2026 academic year at the Europa-Institut

On November 3, 2025, the Europa-Institut officially opened the 2025/2026 academic year of the LL.M. program in European and International Law in a ceremony held in the auditorium of Saarland University.

After a welcome address by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Dominik Brodowski, Vice President for Internationalization and Europe, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Annette Guckelberger, Dean of the Faculty of Law, and Dr. Deniz Alkan from the State Chancellery of Saarland addressed the audience and emphasized the importance of European networks and educational spaces.

During the event, the Hans Werner Osthoff Prize was awarded to Genie Celini Nuevo and the Arno Krause Prize of the ASKO Europa Foundation was awarded to the teams of Eurosim 2025, Vis Moot 2025, and FDI Moot 2024. The prize for excellent team performance was presented by Marco Wölflinger, Chairman and Spokesperson of the ASKO Europa Foundation.

Prof. Dr. Luigi Malferrari (Legal Service of the European Commission) set the thematic tone with his keynote speech “Opportunities and risks in the EU digital internal market,” in which he highlighted key developments and regulatory issues in the EU's digital single market.

Afterwards, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Marc Bungenberg, Director of the Europa-Institut, gave an overview of the institute's current projects and prospects. Together with Univ.-Prof. Dr. Thomas Giegerich, he also presented the diplomas to this year's LL.M. graduates.

The evening concluded with a convivial dinner at the AC Bistro.

We would like to thank all participants, guests, our new students, and our graduates for an inspiring start to the new academic year. 💚🇪🇺

©Iris Maurer