The Institute of European Studies has been named after Alcide De Gasperi, one of the founding fathers of Europe - along with Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Konrad Adenauer and Paul-Henri Spaak - and a key figure of Italy's post-World War II reconstruction. Unlike similar institutions in Italy and abroad, the Institute never confined its teaching and research interests to the western half of the European continent and to what was usually called "la petite Europe". During the cold-war era and well before the fall of the Berlin Wall, a fruitful relationship had developed between our Institute and universities and research centers in central and eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Besides its traditional European links, the Institute has become increasingly involved, since the early 1980s, in building up various forms of partnership with universities and research institutions in other continents and, especially, in the Asia-Pacific region. This relationship has materialized in the organization of several joint initiatives and exchanges of visits of both professors and postgraduate students.

Origin and Purposes of the Institute

The Institute was founded in 1953 in Rome by Alcide De Gasperi, who served as its first Director, as a highly specialized research and teaching center in the field of European studies, operating at the postgraduate level and originally attached to a private university of social sciences. This was at the time a pioneer initiative intended to stimulate the interest of both scholars and students in issues concerning the emerging European cooperation and integration process.

The Institute subsequently became fully independent in the conduct of its scientific programs and activities. Placed under the administrative supervision of and financially supported by the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, the Institute, basically operating on its own, has from time to time established links with universities and other institutions on an ad hoc basis for specific programs.

According to its founding Charter, the Institute:

1. promotes studies on legal, economic, political and social issues in the field of European cooperation and integration as well as within the broader pan-European context;
2. organizes conferences, seminars and other meetings designed to encourage the exchange of research and scientific experience;
3. undertakes the publication of papers and research findings on subjects falling within its sphere of interest;
4. develops cooperation programs with Italian and foreign universities, research bodies and public and private institutions;
5. operates the Postgraduate School of European Studies.
   
   

Library

The Institute's Library specializes in books and periodicals in the field of European political and economic integration as well as in the current problems of major regional integration organizations in the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa.

Publications are mostly in European languages but there is a small section in the library devoted to works in Chinese.