EuroFaculty

EuroFaculty was an educational institution in the Baltic states in reforming higher education in Economics, Law, Public Administration and Business Administration.

At the founding meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in 1992, the German Minister of Foreign Affairs Hans-Dietrich Genscher suggested the establishment of a “Euro-faculty” to reform the Baltic universities in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to Western standards with respect to Economics, Political Science, and Law.

The idea was immediately supported by the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Uffe Ellemann-Jensen and EU Commissioner Henning Christophersen, and a draft paper on the creation of a Euro-faculty was accepted at the founding CBSS meeting with the implicit expectation that the Western member states as well as the EU would become donors to the faculty.

The faculty, under the name EuroFaculty, was (like the CBSS) established by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) in the enthusiastic atmosphere surrounding the regained independence of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

However, the CBSS as well as the EuroFaculty were decided upon without subsequent parliamentary approval, and without an official legal status, thus being, broadly speaking, based on the personal friendships which developed among MFAs during the fight for freedom of the Baltic states. Unfortunately, the core group of MFAs behind the CBSS (and the EuroFaculty) left office within a year after the creation of the CBSS.

The idea about creating a “Euro-faculty” was saved by the personal engagement of Franz Peter Küpper from the European Commission, who guided the EuroFaculty to obtaining EU support in the first years. It was also helpful that the German contribution came through Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, (DAAD), which was efficient as donor due to its position as (relatively) independent of political changes.

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