Open Progressive University

We are proud to share that on 23^rd May 2023, FEPS inaugurated its long-awaited project: the Open Progressive University (OPU). It is the first-ever e-learning platform for Social Democrats and one of the cornerstone projects of the first pillar (Providing Knowledge) of FEPS Training Strategy.

The inaugural ceremony consisted of an online lecture by Paul Magnette, president of the Socialist Party in Belgium, who highlighted how the climate crisis could rescue the EU. “I don’t think that the EU is in danger, but I believe it is in need of a second wind. The climate could be the EU’s new soft power.”

László Andor, FEPS Secretary General, and Maria Joao Rodrigues, FEPS President, introduced this FEPS training initiative. As Andor said: “Everything is in the name. ‘Open’ because we could not multiply all the activities, but we could multiply the access and the attendance. And ‘progressive’ because in this OPU you will learn the history and values of the progressive movement. We won’t forget about current affairs. But we need to deepen the understanding and provide good foundations, to better comprehend the most recent political developments with new perspective.”

The first programme of the Open Progressive University is structured in three modules: Next Left, Security and Resilience and Gender Equality. Each of the modules provides a learning path offering compulsory and extra material ranging from live lectures, readings to podcasts as well as exercises to be completed by the participants, which range from writing tasks to assessments on political simulation, where the participants will be asked to act as a certain governing body of the European Union.

We, as FEPS, are more than happy to welcome all the participants in the first edition of the Open Progressive University. We are welcoming more than 40 applicants from almost 20 countries. Amongst them, we can find political advisors, journalists, activists, employees of NGOs, youth organisations members and academics. We are bringing this educative platform with the aim of uniting and training Progressives and Social Democrats from all over Europe.