Within the framework of COST Action VISTA, a new Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM) has been published to support the activities of Working Group 3 and is open to researchers at all career stages who are interested in EU values, European law, and social change. WG3 focuses on analysing the evolution and support of core EU values across Europe, including how these values are defined, interpreted, and contested in response to ongoing political, economic, and social transformations.
The STSM, hosted by the Department of Political Sciences at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, will focus on the analysis of EU documents and CJEU case law related to the core values of the European Union. This includes:
- Conducting a systematic review of the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) relevant to the interpretation of EU core values (e.g. rule of law, fundamental rights, democracy, equality)
- Identifying and analysing how EU core values are defined, operationalised, and justified across key rulings, including tensions, evolutions, and interpretative trends over time
- Performing a critical literature review of the existing academic debate on EU values, with particular attention to legal scholarship and interdisciplinary contributions
- Developing a structured analytical framework to synthesise jurisprudence and literature in a way that is accessible also to non-legal scholars
- Liaising with WG3 members to ensure consistency with ongoing work on EU documents and value framing
The successful applicant will work with the host institution – the Department of Political Sciences, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan, under the supervision of Prof. Andrea Santini.
STSM duration: from 3 weeks to 2 months
Planned period: by agreement – to end no later than September 15, 2026
Deadline: 7 June 2026
For more information, see the call documentation: download