The “ZEI Academy in Comparative Regional Integration” is a platform for the discussion and mutual learning on issues of regional integration worldwide. It is the objective of this distinctive initiative to strengthen the knowledge of participants in comparative regional integration, to assess the European Union’s capacity and limits to serve as a model for other regions, to discuss the impact of bi-regional agreements and to support participants in the development of problem-oriented approaches for deeper integration in their own region.

The “ZEI Academy in Comparative Regional Integration” offers the opportunity to investigate the genuine contribution of the EU to region-building and to analyze the efforts of regional integration outside Europe. Participants meet a faculty of international experts from academia and political practice. The program includes excursions to the European Central Bank in Frankfurt and to the European Commission and the European Parliament in Brussels.

In 2009, the “ZEI Academy in Comparative Regional Integration” was attended by high-ranking civil servants from the “Economic Community of West African States” (ECOWAS). This unique contribution to human capacity development in the West African integration process was conceptualized jointly with German Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The 2009 “ECOWAS-ZEI Academy in Comparative Regional Integration” was held under the auspices of the ECOWAS Commission. The academy was attended by the leading representatives of the ECOWAS National Units, in charge of ECOWAS affairs on the national level of its 15 member states, and the ECOWAS Commission, the ECOWAS Court of Justice and the ECOWAS Parliament, all based in Abuja, Nigeria.

ECOWAS was founded in 1975. In the meantime ECOWAS has developed from a purely economic grouping to a multidimensional regional grouping with political aspiration, including its commitment to peace and security in West Africa. To advance the process of West African integration, the Center for European Integration Studies, the ECOWAS-Commission and GTZ have developed the innovative 2009 “ECOWAS-ZEI Academy in Comparative Regional Integration” as a first step of a longer term cooperation between the Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI) and ECOWAS.

The Center for European Integration Studies accompanies its “ZEI Academy in Comparative Regional Integration” with genuine research and regularly covers current region-building trends through its

“ZEI Regional Integration Observer”

Prof. Dr. Ludger Kühnhardt
Director, Center for European Integration Studies (ZEI)
University of Bonn, Germany