BRIE was established as a project under
the South East Europe Stability Pact and following the initiative of the German
Rectors’ Conference in 2000. The
first international students were admitted in 2002. In 2006 an Agreement on cooperation and mutual
assistance in the implementation of BRIE’s activities between the governments
of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania was enforced. The host cities of BRIE, Ruse and
Giurgiu are located on both banks of the Danube River, facing each other. Connected by a
bridge, they have the potential to make use of the diverse forms of cooperation
in the context of integration, which has set in Europe since the second half of
the 20th c. The two cities are directly connected by the river
with ten European countries. Gradually, they are becoming a busy European centre
where East and West, as well as North and South meet. This point is the crossroads of the Pan
European transport corridors VII and IX, whose destinations are the Black Sea region, Turkey
and the Aegean Sea. The fading
importance of the internal European borders for Bulgaria and Romania after
2007 is also favourable for the
transnational practices.
These factors form the identity and the
mission of BRIE: to overcome borders and to add value to the political and
socio-economic stability of Europe as a whole. BRIE is a form of cooperation between the
University of Ruse, the Bucharest Academy of Economics and German universities,
offering to international students two four-semester bi-lingual (English and
German) Master degree programmes in European Studies and Regional
Cooperation and European Studies and Public Administration. The first semester
is Bulgarian, the second is Romanian and during the third semester the students
go to study at the European University of Viadrina, the Technological
University in Chemnitz (both universities are located in border territories), or at the University
of Regensburg (Danube Region). The accreditation has been granted by German,
Bulgarian and Romanian Agencies. The European Studies degree programme is multi- and
interdisciplinary field, whose significance has been growing constantly after
the Fall of the Berlin Wall. It aids the adaptation to relationships without
precedent in the European history. New perspectives are opening for regional development
in the context of the Danube region and Black Sea region strategies. Public administration faces the need of
continuous change, ensuing from the multilevel governance in the EU, as well as
from globalisation. In response to
these challenges, BRIE is developing student competences by applying the
standards of the Bologna Declaration. BRIE students and alumni are now more than 200 from 13
countries. The
transnational academic community BRIE conducts research, financed by EU
programmes for cross-border cooperation.
Website: www.brie.uni-ruse.bg
